Starting our nature journal drawings

I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but not really sure how to 'start'.  Also, I guess a lot of it was unnecessary nerves on my behalf as art and drawing has never been my strong point, so we're all diving in together for art sessions once a week.

Late last year I began reading a delightful book called Pocketful of Pinecones.  Karen tells of a very relaxed way of introducing her children to starting a nature journal, so I've taken her lead and started the same way.  We each have a clipboard, paper and pencils at the ready, then headed out to the garden to choose something to draw.  I gave no specifications at all, but did suggest that something with a simple pattern would be best.

Maestro chose a leaf from the rose geranium bush. 

Mariposa chose a single belladonna flower (as they grow in clusters).

Back at the table, we pulled out our pencils and began to draw the outlines.

Maestro started with a long straight line, with two other lines coming out from the sides.

Mariposa had some guidance from me with looking for a triangle, overlaid with another triangle.  Then drawing in the petals from each triangle point into the centre.

She got very discouraged (a bit of perfectionism) and I didn't want her to give up, so we then put that aside and she went out to choose something else.  She arrived back with a leaf from an umbrella tree.

Both of the children worked happily then, looking for the veins within the leaves and looking for more patterns.  I actually thought the geranium leaf was quite beautiful up close, and an amazingly organised pattern (as well as delicious scent).

Here are the children's results:

I finished off my belladonna too:

A surprising thing happened through this process.  Maestro, who doesn't usually draw, found this a lot of fun and didn't give up as I thought perhaps he may.  Mariposa, however, did get frustrated and in order to put the tears at bay, she had to change for something simpler.

I think we'll continue doing this sort of drawing for a while, using pencil, before venturing into other media.  I'll continue to post what we've done here on the blog.