Above and Below Water: Challenge day 21

Have you ever nature journaled something that lives below the water? What about something amphibious?

Today’s Prompt: Above and below water

I usually nature journal terrestrial nature. How about you? If we only nature journal land animals and plants however, we are missing out on a lot. In fact, 50%-80% of all life lives underwater according to some estimates. For today’s prompt we don’t have to don wetsuits and scuba tanks but we do need to put our curious eyes in. Where can we look for nature above and below water? Of course you can always interpret the prompt loosely. Perhaps you want to do a page about a pencil stuck in a glass of water with part of the pencil in and part out. The refraction of light and ensuing optical illusion could be an interesting study. Have you ever looked at that closeup or tried to draw it?

Some nature journal techniques for today’s prompt

Here are some approaches that will work well today and you should have in your nature journaling toolbox regardless.

1.  Species profile. Perhaps the most boring but also most straight forward. See more here.
2. Next up from species profile would be a collection. Can you find multiple organisms for example along the edge of a pond? How to do a collection.
3. Similarly, you could do a comparison. Taking two animals or plants for example and comparing them side by side. See more about this strategy from John Muir Laws in this video.
4. Nature journal something abiotic. There is a lot to nature besides living things. What about rocks, minerals, water, geology, weather etc? Here is an interesting example where John Muir Laws nature journals some mysterious abiotic formations that are sometimes above ans sometimes below water. Check it out here. This approach would also include the pencil half in and half out of water that I described above. Light rays and water are part of nature right? Why don’t we nature journal them more often? Leonardo Da Vinci did.

But what if I’m completely new to nature journaling?

Regardless of your experience, we got you right here. Below are links to some super resources for beginner nature journalers.

Are you just getting started with Nature Journaling?

Here are tips and motivation for beginners.

Need help choosing supplies?

Where is the 30 day challenge?

If you missed the beginning you can still jump in now. Here is the complete guide.

If you want a PDF for printing: 30 Day Challenge Wild Wonder Nature Journaling