A natural way to fall in love

I must confess that we haven't done any structured nature study this summer.  However, we did have a lot of fun spending time and just being in nature.

Sometime at the beginning to summer, I fell totally in love with poppies.

I just couldn't get enough of them, so I went crazy in my nature journal playing with different images of them:

Tiger saw how I went crazy with painting loosely the poppies so he decided to have a go at doing it himself:

The above are more artistic interpretations of poppies than accurate botanical illustrations.  However, we are finding that painting loosely removes the pressure of having to be absolutely accurate and precise, thus freeing us to observe and record our experiences with the objects and/or with the environment.  At this point, we tend more towards an artistic interpretation of our interaction with nature, rather than a precise, scentific record of flora and fauna.

Having said that, I do admire very much the accuracy and precision of botanical illustrations.  It's just not realistic to expect Tiger to be able to draw in that way, especially when he has not shown any inclination towards realism.  Right now I am more concerned with establishing a habit of nature journaling than with having Tiger draw realistically.  What else is in our nature journals this summer?

A glimpse into Tiger's nature journal for the summer:

 

My nature journal saw a gradual evolution into more tightly drawn images:

After a while I decided to try turning the record into journaling, rather than mere paintings:

The process has been gradual, but I'm definitely falling in love with nature journaling.  It feels as though we've approached it from a roundabout way, in terms of starting off with very loose recording with no concern for accuracy.  However, if we had started off with a focus on precision, we might have given up after a few attempts.  Enjoying the process is a big part of keeping our motivation going.


This post is linked up to:
1) All Year Round Blog Carnival: Summer
2) Enchanted Thursdays Blog Hop #29
3) Science Sunday: Canine and their relatives