NATURE JOURNAL The Universe Send Me a Symbol of Strength, Determination, & Persistence

More Possum Patty's Nature Journaling:

NATURE JOURNAL Sparkles Sunshine Snake Shavings & Silly Tree

More Possum Patty's Nature Journaling:

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #48 What was that?

Walking through the woods, movement underfoot! What's that? I think it was a garter snake!

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day # 47 Turtle in the Road!

Found a 2 inch hatchling Painted Turtle, in the road by the mailbox. I picked it up and set it down in the woods facing the pond. 

Chrysemys picta, a pond turtle, is the most widespread turtle in North America. Fossil records indicate that the Painted Turtle has been around for 15 million years!

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

"Love-An-Inch"

"Don't cry because you think that your sketch 

is not as good as everyone else's - 

smile because you made a sketch"  

misquoting Dr. Seuss

This was suppose to be a bit of a landscape (or a "landscapeito" as John Muir Laws calls it). 

But I had pre-wet the paper and then used a waterbrush that was not very soft and the paper was piling terribly...

Frustration led to another John Muir Laws fix: if you don't like your painting, just draw and label and write on it. He sometimes puts a small landscape beside or behind a larger nature drawing for habitat reference. In this case I drew a large species reference over the landscape. 

Always remember these 

"Rules for Sketch Happiness"

1. ANY sketch done is far superior to any sketch not done.

2. Look for your favorite square inch in the sketch. Spend time admiring it and put into words what you love about it.

Here's my favorite inch:

I just love that I freely painted the negative spaces, sketched very loosely, and then left it alone. No fussing. It takes a very long time for a perfectionist to accomplish this!

The Summer Solstice. What's on my mind?

When it's late and you're tired, but you really want to journal because you have these thoughts running around in your head, but you know you are not going to spend much time or effort on the page, do it anyway because tomorrow you will be happy that you did. 

I started with the Facebook question: What's on your mind?

As I was putzing around in the garden today, I almost stepped on a garter snake. As it quickly slithered away, I wondered what he would find to eat in the small garden. I looked it up on the webber-net. Apparently, he'll eat just about anything that will fit into his mouth: slugs, worms, lizards, ants, crickets, minnows, rodents, and amphibians including frog eggs. No lizards or minnows in the garden, but I'm sure he'll find what's on rest of the menu without a problem.

Don't know why I keep thinking about cattails. Maybe it is to help me remember when their "Fluffy Season" starts. Typha latifolia: "typha" from the Latin word meaning "marsh", that is where the word "typhoid" comes from and "latifolia" means wide leaf. And now you know. 

Early the other morning as I took a quick look out the window, I noticed a beautiful train of clouds coming from the west. The ones closest to me were highest in the sky, they were also the largest, tallest, and darkest. As the clouds trailed back (down) towards the horizon, they flattened out, looked smaller, and you couldn't see as much darkness on their undersides. Cumulus humilis or Cumulus fractus (smaller and scattered): "cumulus" comes from the Latin word "heap", "humilis" from the word that means "of small size", and "fractus" from "frangere" for "break".

Check out the "Cloud of the Month" at the "Cloud Appreciation Society" here. 

Just recording images from the day:

Thursday! And it's lunchtime with the dinosaurs again!

 At the Reading Museum to dine with the dinosaur! And boy, did this dude have a big mouth. Why, it stretched all the way to the back of his head!

The sign said he ate baby dinosaurs, but as you can see, he was willing to take a bite out of my pulled pork on gluten-free bread sandwich.

The Museum has two dinosaurs outside. This is a Spinosaurus. It's carnivorous and larger than the T-Rex.

Spinney had quite a few visitors today. It was fun to watch the little ones scream and tremble in fear when he moved and roared! Just kidding. No, really a few kids would not go anywhere near him. Reality is a strange thing at the age of 4.

Many stopped to talk and check out my sketchbook. My Dino sketch today was done quicker and looser than last week's. I used a Sharpie Ultra Fine pen and my watercolor field kit (Winsor and Newton - artist grade). Too much talking? Still fun anyway! I also added a touch of grass. Studies of coprolites (dino dung) show that dinosaurs did consume grass. Where there's grass there's herbivores to munch on! I also added a background with my Liquitex marker.

Last Thursday's dino is here:

Thursday is Lunch with a Dinosaur Day!

Chicken sandwich on gluten free bread and a Hadrosaur.

How often do you get to paint life size dinosaurs en plein air?

Zig Writer over a pencil sketch.

Double spread in a Strathmore Series 500 Mixed Media Soft Cover Journal. Watercolor added to sketch. The name "Hadrosaur" came from the roots "hadros" meaning thick and "sauros" meaning lizard. So the Hadrosaur is a "thick or stout lizard." 

Lots of school kids at the Reading Museum today! Fun to watch them react to the Stout Lizard which every so often would start to move and roar. They were curious when they passed by the Berks Art Alliance group on the way back to their buses. They got a kick out of seeing us paint and complimented our work nicely. I got a kick out of a few high schoolers who stopped by and were interested in my journal!