What to Expect from my workshops

When I am teaching my Nature Journalling Workshops I often here the phrase: ‘I can’t draw’, or ‘I don’t know where to start’, or ‘I am not an artist’. Well these workshops are all about breaking down barriers to both observing nature and recording nature.

Let us break this down then. First the format is typically as follows:

Introduction

I usually start each session with an introduction to my own nature journal journey, showing my early journals and then demonstrating what I learnt and how I have evolved my art through observing nature. Included in this introduction is a bit of a story telling session. My slug stories have become a bit of a signature - come on who doesn’t like a slug eh? My journals really did start off simply walking my dog Jess and then wanting to record all the nature I saw on my walks. I aim to put people at their ease by really showing how simple some of may drawings are - often they are simple little doodles - and who doesn’t doodle? My journals are Moleskine Japanese Accordion Sketchbooks and the unfolding nature of these allow me to create a linear journey of my observations and they open out recreating my walks with Jess.

Observations

We will then move outdoors and look for some nature to draw - we are not looking for the exotic but the doorstep wildlife that we can all find. Dandelions, beetles, ladybirds, and or course slugs. In looking for the doorstep wildlife we will often find some unusual and often unseen creatures, such as scorpionflies, sexton beetles, longhorn beetles, etc. We capture these observations using smart phone and with a little help from Mr Google.

Back inside

Once we have some observations to draw from I will follow this process to get people started:

1. Using fineliners I ask everyone in the group to make a line on paper - and show how by drawing slowly - and I mean really slowly. Why slowly? For me this takes all the stress out of drawing and I am showing how the process of drawing is more important than the completion. The sound of a fast scratchy line being drawn on paper does not sound as good as a slow, measured happy line.

2. Next I am looking at how people are drawing - I should say describing really. I will see very early what everyone’s style is like, what is the character of the drawing. Everyone has their own technique and even from someone new to drawing they will have a way of drawing which is unique to them. This is what I am looking for and I will encourage them to continue with this style and eventually their style and technique will just get better and better.

3. Once everyone is happily drawing - and everyone is by this time - I will move around checking on progress and making sure that that everyone is comfortable with their artwork.

4. I use a blank concertina journal which I provide. These concertina journals are something I have developed and I call them Chapbooks. I will be writing a little bit more about chapbooks in a separate post. I also am developing a series of chapbooks for sale on a variety of subjects both quirky and historic. The nature of the unfolding nature of these journals allow for the creation of doodles that seem to magically compose themselves into beautiful little art books.

5. Once there are some drawings on the journals we break out the watercolour sets and I show we can colour the drawings in really simply using watercolour. Even for those who haven’t used watercolour before this stage is loads of fun and everyone enjoys seeing their doodles come alive in colour.

Barriers

Let’s talk about barriers now. For a lot of people there are a number of reasons why they have felt unable or uncertain as to how to start a nature journal.

1. Blank page syndrome - you know the feeling of getting a new sketchbook and being scared to make a start? I show how to overcome this.

2. How to draw wildlife that is too fast or too little - a swift flying high - or too small - a tiny flower or beetle. I show how using the tools most of us have in our possession - smart phones. Even if we can’t take a picture of the sighting we make we can get this information from Google. This is not cheating!

3. I don’t know what I am looking at - this is where I use a combination of the smartphone in my pocket and a selection of some of my books - mainly older ones. This allows me to identify what I see. But importantly if I don’t know what I have seen I will describe it accurately both visually and in writing so that one day I will be able to identify it.

4. I don’t know how to describe it - Typically I will describe what I see, adding in the date and location as well as a bit of context as to where I saw it. I also like to add a bit of how I felt when I saw it. This adds a bit of richness, personality and social commentary to my journals.