Nature Study

In this 20th century, to STOP rushing around, to sit quietly on the grass, to switch off the world and come back to the earth, to allow the eye to see a willow, a bush, a cloud, a leaf . . . I have learned that what I have not drawn I have never really seen. Frederick Franck

Using Keeping a Nature Journal as our guide, we've been learning how to better keep a nature journal with our co-op group. We take an hour each week to learn sketching and labeling skills and then sneek off when we can, if even to the front yard, to work in our journals thoughout the week. These are some of our first attempts.

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We practiced the range of shading we could get from our pencil and tested the crosshatching technique. This is Makenna's sample page.



Maddie's blind contour (age 7 1/2). After careful study of the acorn, she drew this with her eyes closed, without picking up her pencil.




My acorn study practicing blind contours, modified contours and 5, 10 and 20 second drawings. You may open your eyes for the modified contour but you may not pick up your pencil.


Makenna's acorn study (age 9 1/2). We practiced quick drawings on still objects to get the feel of doing a quick sketch on critters that might be flittering, scampering, or crawling away. Makenna used the crosshatching and shading techniques here.





Maya's acorn (nearly 6). Maya used crosshatching for the detail on the cap of her acorn.