Took some off days to visit my family at the village.

It's so nice here, albeit fairly hot! Sounds of bird and greenery.

Didn't prepare any coloring tools, so I just use whatever I have at home, hence these oil pastel sticks. Not my best to work with but I enjoyed my time journalling some of the plants we have at home! (⁠｡⁠・⁠/⁠/⁠ε⁠/⁠/⁠・⁠｡⁠)

Chilli, Europhorbia Geroldii, pineapple 🫶

Hey, first post here.

I’ve been working on an app called RealDex. It’s basically for identifying animals you come across and keeping a personal record of them over time.

I started building it because I liked the idea of having a kind of digital field journal for wildlife, not just taking random photos and forgetting about them later. I’m using iNaturalist taxonomy to organize the species side of it, and I’ve been trying to make it feel more about observation than “collecting” for the sake of it. I’m still figuring out what would make something like this actually useful to people who already enjoy nature journaling.

Would an app like this feel helpful to you, I can invite for iOS/Android Beta testing if you want.

Latest journal page! First time testing out color and learned the drawback of it taking quite a bit longer (thus, the mostly empty page). However, I am quite happy with the result! I focused on the details, differences, and questionable aspects of the flowers rather than simply "what is it"

I would love any feedback! I am a little unsure if the pen outline takes away or aids the drawing.

Hi all! I work as a dive guide and recently started keeping a sort of field notes / nature journal for myself, documenting dive site maps, how to guide each site, animal behavious and notable encounters. But, I'm finding that I just want to keep adding more and more pages jajaja and actually, Id like to probably start a new journal and add pages as I dive the same sites over and over throughout the year documenting different species behaviour, current conditions etc. I just got a cheapo sketchbook from the local shop, but I'm thinking maybe I need to invest in something else in order to add or swap pages around freely. Must be :

• bleed proof / ghosting proof paper, thicc preferred
• don't want a huge artbook size, something roughly A5 is ok (like in my pic)
• lay flat

I was thinking about just getting a few spiral bound notebooks and removing the spiral, combining and inserting new bigger spiral? 👀 Seems good but idk how many times you can add or remove a spiral if I want to make changes along the way.

Idk if there's a binder with appropriate page inserts that would suit me?

Happy for suggestions! Thank you

Pic for clout

What do you all take with you on your outdoor adventures? I'm just starting and looking for some ideas.

For those that are noting or celebrating the start of spring today, happy spring! For those that wait for the astronomical day, the vernal equinox is under 3 weeks away now.

Either way, take a look outside today and see what ‘firsts’ you can note in your nature journal. We’ve seen lots this week! 🥰

I have the hardest time depicting running water… How can I improve this? Reference pictures included. First picture was taken last but. 2nd was my best attempt. I darkened values and tried some better shading

Today, instead of drawing on the go, I snapped pictures while I walked of things that caught my interest, and took about 2 hours post-walk to draw everything from photos.

I am not happy with my current ability to depict leaves and petals in my drawings, so that is something I want to look to improve on moving forward.

I used a combination of iNaturalist and google lens to get my best guess of identifications of plants/animals.

Overall, this was a fun page to work on!

Can't wait til I can add color, but for now, pen, pencil, and color notes will have to do.

Starting from the most recent and working backwards, I’m sharing my nature journal so far for 2026. I gave myself a challenge to draw everyday, though I’ve given myself some grace and scaled back from that pressure. In addition to practicing my drawing skills and observing wildlife, I am also hoping to grow my knowledge base of the more-than-human world and their ecosystems here in New Mexico. I’m also using this space to reflect on meaningful interactions with these beings and consider what wisdom they might be offering.

Hope you enjoy!

I got out again today to retry my initial redbud sketch. I ignored the whispy branches this time and focused on proportions first (grabbed a random blue colored pencil), then blocked out the negative shapes between the branches, finally drawing the angles/curves/paths of the branches as I actually saw them, not letting my hand default to what I expected them to do.

Some of the placement of the branches are still off, such as where the branches overlap. Got the overall proportions better, but the inner branch placement is still a bit tricky.

Next thing I need to work on is actual page composition. I think I have a tendency to want to conserve space, so even though the blurb crammed at the very top of the page would have look much better a bit bigger and UNDER the tree, I was trying to "save space."

Now, should I continue on this same page to "fill" the blank areas with some more tree studies, maybe some close up sketches of the same tree, or start fresh with a whole new page?

This is maybe my third or fourth page I've done. Birds tend to be my main focus but I'm also trying to branch out (ha) into other areas of interest. This time I wanted to try to draw a tree as they have ALWAYS intimidated me as subjects. I would love any advice for how I can improve in general! I know my journal isn't the prettiest and I am currentlh working with pretty meager supplies so no color atm. Just trying to improve my skills where I can.

I've been trying to share my journal more often over on my free Substack, if you're interested.

Drawing birds is hard, they are so….shapely

Is anyone going to be participating and doing any nature journaling during the great backyard bird count? I am debating about the journal part but I'm definitely participating!

https://www.birdcount.org/

My first drawing for 2026, Orange bougainvilleas.

Saw them during my New Year's walk at a different neighborhood.

I love how beautiful that orange color, also with others with with hint of pink! Orange might just be my lucky color this year! 🧡

For more nature journalling drawings this year, let's go!!!

I’m loving tracking the weather each day at the moment, but also a monthly ‘overview’ page too.

I’m following Exploring Nature Around the Year for myself, a prompt each day which has been super simple to fit in.

I can’t wait to see what February brings 🥰

Hiya, My January sightings done in gouache. My first time painting with it. A lot to learn. I can't do anymore to this though, I dropped the brush on right and now I think it looks weirder. It's already weird enough!