The person you always wanted to be
I follow the illustrator Fran Meneses (frannerd) on Patreon. Last week in her podcast newsletter she shared about how she always wanted to be the girl who reads a lot, specifically a person who reads over breakfast. She asked us to think about who is that person we’ve always wanted to be? Which habits do you admire in other people (fictional or real)? I always wanted to be the person with a sketchbook in my bag or pocket that I pull out when I find something interesting or a quiet moment of time, and draw. And I want to be the person who makes a bit of time to draw every day, for example in the evening before I go to bed.
When I studied science illustration at CSUMB, one of my first classes was field sketching. This class really resonated with me and changed the way I thought about practicing art. After graduating I practiced field sketching from nature and worked to share it with as many other people as possible through teaching and talking about it and showing my work. There is something so powerful about spending time with your surroundings. As Wendy McNaughton says, “Drawing is looking and looking is loving”. As enthusiastic as I am about field sketching, it isn’t something I do all the time. I’ve thought of it as a way to take art with me to amazing places: on the Chilkoot Trail, the Juneau Icefield, or down the Noatak River. I also do it at home, but sporadically, when I want to draw or feel connected to where I am, or simply admire a flower I found. But I have never been the person who draws every day.
Another thing that happened over time with field sketching and me is that I started working as an artist. As I said, I love sharing my sketches with people; I think there is something special about seeing art that is raw and created in response to the environment in the environment. I was exhibiting and selling my sketches like normal artwork. I also sometimes started making sketch pages to post to Instagram. Over time I lost a bit of my personal connection with my sketchbook practice. I wasn’t really doing it for myself anymore.
Then came 2020 and rethinking my habits
One thing about this pandemic, as a result of living at home and not traveling, is that it has gotten me to dig deeper into my routines and habits. I understand we are all under quite a bit of stress right now and I am not suggesting this is a good idea or even possible for everyone. For me though, if there is something I don’t like about my life right now I realize I’m gonna have to live with it for the next few months (year? years???) so I either need to adapt to it or change it. It seemed like if there was ever a time to draw every day it would be now.
There was some time this summer where all my jobs got canceled, the world seemed so dark and heavy, and I didn’t feel motivated to work on my normal art projects. I started sketching more, and my sketchbook felt like an accessible place to make art. In September I did a lot of landscape sketches because it was the peak of fall colors and just fun to lean into. I shared a lot of those sketches, but I made them for myself. I’m not really a landscape painter, so I didn’t feel as much pressure for them to be good. I know a lot of non-artists and new artists struggle with the comparison game. It is so hard not to look at all the beautiful art out there and make your own anyway. But it is so worth it. I don’t know if it’s helpful or not, but artists struggle with that too.
Nature Journal vs. Field Sketchbook:
In October I started nature journaling. What is the difference between sketching and nature journaling? I think you can define them how you want. My nature journal is something that I’ve been working in every day. It has some characteristics that free me up a bit. I combine drawing and writing. I’ve been keeping morning pages for years so writing garbage or whatever on a page doesn’t scare me so much. If I’m feeling stuck, I just write about what I noticed that day. One of my goals is to be more curious and ask more questions. As nature journal keeper John Muir Laws said, “Questions used to come to me, now I come to questions”. The more I have been making an effort to think of questions while I journal, the more questions I find when I am out walking around. And then there is more stuff to journal about. My nature journal mainly deals with direct observation, but I have also been using it as a tool to study and collect information. For example, I might see a bird or an animal or come up with a question (like what are the differences between juvenile bald and golden eagles?) and then use my nature journal to research those. If I draw something from a field guide, a photo, or life, I am learning about it. The focus of the nature journal for me is to learn, not to make art, even though it also gets me drawing every day.
Nature journal page comparing juvenile bald and golden eagles
Nature Journal page studying dryas leaves
Where to start
Homer artist and nature journal keeper Kim McNett organized a book club on the Alaska Nature Journal Club Facebook group to work through Roseann Hanson’s book, Nature Journaling for a Wild Life. I feel like the book provides an approachable framework for building a nature journal practice. It has weekly prompts and exercises and even includes some tools and watercolor) paper in the back (which I’ve been using). The book starts off by talking about entering metadata and writing.
Nature journal pages studying winter. Debris on old snow, new snow, and a snowshoe hare.
In the morning, before I start work for the day, I open my journal and enter metadata. This feels like a promise to myself that I have to finish the page later. This process also gets me to check in with my world, I write down the date and my location. I write down what the moon is doing. I’ve never kept track of when the moon rises and sets each day, and I have been very interested by that. I also write down when the sun will rise and set. That is good information to have as these days get shorter. I also make note of the current weather and the sky cover using NOAA weather symbols. I’d like to note the types of clouds (there are a lot of cool symbols for them!) but I need to learn more about the clouds first. I’ve been enjoying using the weather symbols because they look cool, they are a nice shorthand, and they are getting me to learn more about the weather (like all the clouds) and just think about the weather in a different way. Sometimes, if it’s going to be clear, I also look up the aurora index and add that. Finally, if I want, I make a little sketch of the weather. That little routine takes about five minutes, it makes me grounded and sets my intention to make a journal entry.
I usually go for a walk every morning and sometimes I’ll make a journal entry based on the walk. I might sketch it out and then watercolor it in later. I’ve been dedicating these short, 5-30 minute, chunks of time in the morning, and the evening to journal. I try not to worry if some entries are not great.
I have been sketching directly with pen to make the entry more quick and immediate. Sometimes I play with pencil. I try to think of this as play not work. There was a week in the book where we are supposed to draw a leaf every day. That took some of the pressure off because all I had to do was go outside and find a leaf. Luckily I did that before we got 6” of snow.
Nature journal pages - A leaf a day! and a wolf track.
There are lots of things I want to try out and play with in my nature journal. I’d love to clean up my writing and maybe play a bit with poetry. I want to keep working on questions. I’ve always wanted to learn the Latin names of plants, and this seems like a good place to work on that. I’d like to get better at drawing birds, animals, and landscapes. I think this will keep me busy and inspired for a while. I’m surprised I haven’t found this practice sooner (given my work), but am glad I found it now. I hope my sharing it with you serves as some inspiration.
Takeaways. This post got a little long and rambling, so are my main points:
Spend some time thinking about, who is the person you’ve always wanted to be?
Start small and make it accessible. Doing something for 10-20 minutes a day is possible. If drawing feels hard, start with metadata or writing.
Do it for yourself and think about it as play not work. I keep writing “work in my sketchbook” and try to change it to “play in my sketchbook” :)
Nature journal pages: Pine Grosbeaks and silverberries
Resources/ Inspiration for Nature Journaling: There is so much more than this, but here are some good places to get ideas and inspiration:
Wild Wonder Conference, it already happened but they recorded all the lessons. I go so much inspiration from this!
Roseann Hanson’s book, Nature Journaling for a Wild Life
John Muir Laws website which has so many blog posts, videos, and tutorials.