You have made it to the final stretch of inktobernaturejournal! This month-long challenge is almost over! Right now, I will go over the last week of prompts for #inktobernaturejournal.
Day 23: Animal Eyes
Eyes are the window into the soul. Are you afraid to draw them? If so, then this is a perfect opportunity to practice. There is a lot that we can learn from looking at different animal eyes.
Day 24: Abiotic Nature
If you scan the Nature Journal Club Facebook Page you will see that most of the subject matter on people’s pages is plant or animals. However, many aspects of nature are not living creatures. In fact most of nature is “abiotic” meaning it is not life-based. Atoms, physics, most rocks, water, erosion, weather, the movement of the sun, the formation of crystals etc are all examples of abiotic nature. We need to practice including these more often. The way steam swirls off your coffee is abiotic nature you could be nature journaling!
Day 25: Metamorphosis
This prompt gives you room for some creative exploration. How do you want to interpret this prompt?
Day 26: Birds in Flight
Did you learn how to draw a flying bird when you were a kid? Usually birds
don’t make it that easy. However, it is still worth practicing trying to draw them. Especially when they are in unusual angles causing foreshortening. It is often fun to have a side column of these quick bird sketches on your page while you are working on something more stationary like a landscapito or plant.
Day 27: Nature Journal a Pet
Have you ever nature journaled a pet? Similar to abiotic nature, “domesticated” nature rarely gets nature journaled. I wonder why? There are many benefits to nature journaling your pets. So many that I have made several videos about it with top tips.
Here is another video that could inspire you to nature journal your pet (reptile) or you could just nature journal one of the ones in the video!
Day 28: Flock, School, Herd
Drawing groups of animals is
hard. Our brain tends to separate out the individuals and we often “over-pattern” the distribution of the animals skipping the overlapping parts. Have you ever noticed yourself doing this? My schools of fish and herds of wildebeest often end up spaced out evenly! Good time to practice your metacognition and intentionally try to capture what you actually see. The more you practice the better you will get.
Day 29: Creative Lettering
Lettering is an important part of nature journaling. Every once in a while it is good to experiment with some lettering techniques that could add some interest and visual hierarchy to your pages. Ink is great for lettering. However, it is often worth spacing out your letters and planning the fit before going to the ink tool! Otherwise you might end up with squished letters.
Day 30: Something you are Scared to Draw!
What is something you are scared to draw? Not necessarily something you are fearful of in itself but something you are hesitant about drawing or nature journaling. Maybe you are comfortable with plants and landscapes but still afraid of animals. Perhaps you are fine with birds but mammals are hard. Maybe it is moving animals of any kind. Perhaps you are scared to draw people into your pages. Today, you will try to incorporate those onto a page. I did a whole video about fearless nature journaling you can check out here.
Last Day: Nature Journal in Your Kitchen
Have you ever nature journaled in your kitchen before? Why not? There is a lot of nature in your kitchen and even more importantly it is nature that is accessible and very connected to you. Nature journaling a recipe or a process or a shopping list can be a great way to build your skills too! The holidays are coming and incorporating a little nature journaling into your kitchen is a great way to introduce some of the muggles in your family to the magic of nature journaling and maybe even convert them. Check out this video where I do a nature journal safari in my fridge!
If you nature journaled every day in October you deserve an ice cream! Use the hashtag # inktobernaturejournal to share your posts on social media.
Just getting started with nature journaling?
Need more tips? If so, check out this post. It will walk you through how to nature journal in 10 steps.
Need help choosing nature journaling supplies? Check out Nature Journaling Supplies: What You Need and What You Do Not
