Hi, I’m Christiane Weismüller from Germany. I photograph, paint, draw and write to celebrate the beauty of nature.
For me nature journaling is not about your special skills in drawing, writing, naming, measureing or observing but about your creativity. It is about to respond to the special situation outdoors and then to choose, which of these elements would fit best and how.
You will see that each of my pages are different: Some contain biological information, others not, some contain a poem, some not, some are drawn more realistic and others even look more like a cartoon :)
I’d like to share with you some things about the “making of” of some pages and what I have learnt during these processes.
Don’t interfere with nature!
This was a very spontaneous page: I was so delighted about the rain, because it was a very dry spring since then! So I run out in our little garden and tried to draw something, apply some watercolor and then unexpectedly the raindrops painted with me :) At first I cried out: “Oh no, it ruined everything!” But then I thought, well, its raining on the page, too, it has to be like that!
So, don’t interfere with nature, but integrate what she offers you in your page and by the way it is wise to do this in your garden, too :)
Don’t struggle with time!
This post about the carpenter bee I drew during the last International Nature Journaling Week when the prompt was to draw insects.
As you see, I drew this amazing bee and its relatives in different ways even on one page - sometimes realistic, sometimes with biological information and sometimes more like a cartoon with a kind of speech. This was the result of the amazing speed with which this big bee moved over and into my poppies. I was very impressed by its helicopter-like movements and its really loud buzz :)
So, when you have not much time for any reasons, try to capture the essential – anything is always better than nothing! Afterwards you can turn to the internet or a field guide as I did and try to add some more realistic features if you want to.
Don’t bother about reality!
This is a page I create from very different sources: my nature finds, my photography and even my memories. I love the sea but last year I couldn‘t spend time there, so I decided to draw something “marine” at least. I turned to my sea finds, old photographs and the impressions which are stored in my pictorial memory. Then there was space left in the “water part”. Such space is often good for some text element like naturalist notes, quotes or a little poem. I decided to choose a quote by the amazing Sylvia Earle, marine biologist and ocean protector.
Text is a often neglected part in our nature journals. I turn to this topic by explaining my next page to you.
Don’t be afraid of poetry!
One of the specialties of this page is its little poem. A poem is a good way to capture something you can’t draw for any reason or to express your emotional and associative reactions to any of your observations. Oh, I know, you are maybe not a poet, but most of us nature journalers are neither artists nor biologists, aren’t we? So that’s no excuse ;)
For a start it is good to have a little structure to cling to. The Japanese haiku will give you all you need: three short lines with 5-7-5 syllables. Haikus are originally nature poems and arise from noticing special moments in nature. Does this ring a bell? Yes, you can apply John Muir Law’s prompts “I notice, I wonder, it reminds me of” directly to your haiku writing: Three prompts, three lines, it‘s so easy, you see :) So you are half on the way to poem writing!
My haiku was created by writing down an observation quickly, since the swans were barely visible:
“A pair of swans leave only a contour in the snow-coloured sky.”
Then I wrote the first version without paying much attention to the correct number of the syllables, but rather to the overall impression:
“A white contour in the snowy sky -
flapping wings in winter.”
And finally I went to the shortening and the number of syllables:
“Just a contour
in the cloudy sky -
swans in winter.”
Note that this is only a translation of my German haiku which you can see on the picture, there the number of syllables are right.
Never mind, you don‘t have to bother too much about the 5-7-5 structure. Like all other elements of nature journaling poems and haikus are there to serve you and you don‘t have to serve them!
The important thing is the shortness and the haiku moment your poem expresses. Take a look at what I left out: “white”, “snow”, “wings”. Haikus and other short poems live from images and associations, so you don’t have to tell the whole “story”. Have some room left for imagination! That’s a fundamental esthetic principle in most of Japanese art.
To sum up
Have fun and insights through drawing, writing, observing nature in whatever way you like!
I hope my different processes of nature journaling are an inspiration for your own.
Let your nature journal be a place to play with possibilities, associations and memories, let it be a source of creativity for you and your life!
About the author
I am an artist, writer and adult educator. I am a passionate naturalist, so my art is always inspired by nature!
I create photographs, paintings and drawings. Due to my education as Master of Literature and Linguistics at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany I enjoy working with text. Being outside, I like observing closely the changes of nature during the seasons. I look for possibilities to reconnect with nature to increase awareness and motivation to protect her.
I regularly teach nature photography, nature painting and creative writing workshops and I want to organize nature journaling groups in the Rhine Main Area in Germany where I live.
Find more of Christiane’s work on her website weismueller-photography.com, view her nature journaling blog here and join her on Instagram @christianeweismueller.nature or #nature_journaling_germany.