Everybody is doing it, but we could do a better job if we deliberately practiced how to nature journal plants. Today, we are going to look at several approaches. In addition to tips we will go over common mistakes. Do you think you can’t draw? Don’t worry. We will talk about techniques for people who think they can’t draw. Below is a live show I did about nature journaling plants.
Top Tips for Nature Journaling Plants
- Choose a location where you have access to lots of plants to get inspired.
- Another option is to work from home and use nature journaling to help you see the wonder in even “boring” house plants 🙂
- Equally important is to focus on diagrams more than pretty portraits. This will take the pressure off of your drawing skills.
- Show the context. Visiting birds? Habitat?
- Additionally, you could start with a blind contour drawing as a warmup.
- Finally, use established nature journaling techniques such as collection, curiosity wander, zoom in zoom out, or string safari to help you focus in.
Common Mistakes When Nature Journaling Plants
- First of all, try not to just do a portrait of one plant. This approach worked well in Victorian times and is the unquestioned standard in botanical illustration. However, we can do better today.
- Next most common mistake is to use color symbolically. Just because it is a plant does not mean the whole thing is green.
- Another mistake is to not show the scale or size of the plant parts you are drawing.
- Equally problematic is to not show the parts of the plant that matter for identification. While you might not know what characteristics are important you can be sure that flowers, seeds, and fruit are always important. Are the leaves opposite or alternate?
- The last mistake is also the worst. Try not to get precious when you are nature journaling plants. Try instead to focus on learning, improving, and just get something down on the paper.
How to Nature Journal Plants if You “Can’t Draw.”
If you still think you can’t draw here are some creative ideas you can try instead.
- First, try pressing plants and then incorporating them directly onto your nature journal pages. Learn more about pressing plants in this video.
- However, if that still feels like too much work you can try taping leaves straight into your journal without even pressing them first!
- Thirdly, try tracing the plants or drawing from their shadows.
- In addition you could use cyanotype paper to make little prints and glue those to your page! Check out this cyanotype paper called “SunPrint“. It is super fun and easy to use.
- Finally, you can try using a mini printer! It feels like cheating but it is just another creative tool. I will be doing a full video about this soon. This is the one that I got. It fits in your pocket and prints photos straight from your phone onto easy to use sticker paper!
But what if I’m completely new to nature journaling?
One of the great things is that you don’t need to be an expert at nature journaling to get started. In fact, there are many benefits of nature journaling while you are a beginner. Nature journaling is focused on learning not knowing. The main enemy of learning is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. However, it might take some practice because this is not how most people think. The best place to start is “I notice, I wonder, it reminds me of.” Let et curiosity be your guide.
Regardless of your experience, we got you right here. Below are links to some super resources for beginner nature journalers.
