Nature Study Monday {NSM} September LINKup!

The {Nature Study Monday} link up is for ANY nature study-ish blog post written at any time during the current month. Which means, when you submit your link, it will show up in every. single. {NSM} post. during the whole month! Oh, and be not confused, feel free to link up on any day, be it Monday or not! (scroll down for linky).

We've been making time during our weekly nature study hour for dry brush practice this school year. We've had several sessions, and the kids are gaining confidence in using only their 'pinceles' (paint brushes, in spanish) as opposed to pencils. We have a lot to learn yet, but I'm really excited by everyone's willingness. :)

Oh and you may notice that I have gained another pupil! She's my eldest daughter for the next couple of months! Christine's a college student who has come to hang out with us. She's an enormous help and so fun to have around. And look, even she was brave enough to attempt watercolor!! ;)

**Please share your nature study posts from September!! I'm sorry I'm so out of it with getting stuff posted on time this month. I'll leave this post up until I get the October NSM Link-UP up. Which technically should be in less than three days. Until then, please look over your posts and if you have anything nature study related from September, link up to share! Oh, and tell your friends, the more the merrier! :)


Grab this image to share in your post...


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Nature Study on Monday: Watercolor for the faint of heart

Today is Monday.





How convenient then that this guy scurried into our lives today... on Nature Study Monday. Woohoo!
See below for a helpful tip on how to incorporate watercolor in the nature journals a non-intimidating way.











Helpful Tips:

Has the following ever happened to you?
After spending time carefully looking at some amazing piece of Creation and after what seemed hours of painstaking concentration and sketching then erasing then sketching again, you've got a product that you're really quite satisfied with. No, you have a sketch that you love... and then you try to paint it... uh, well, let's just say, unfortunately you quickly fall out of love with your now warped, run-on colored, very wet sketch that is in your BOOK (the non-ripped out pages are slowly dwindling).

Has this ever happened to you? Well, it has happened in our house. More than once.
So, here's what I did today...

• Scan a copy of the pencil sketch from the nature journal. 
• Use a photo editing program to darken the lines by adjusting the contrast (picasa is free!). 
• Print a copy or two to practice using watercolors on, so as not to "wreck" the sketch! :) 
• Paste the printed off colored version into the nature journal, or use simply use it as a practice, getting your feet brush wet, before watercoloring in the original. :)

Though everyone does their own sketches in their own journals, afterwards, I let my littles choose if they'd like a practice in watercoloring one of my scanned sketches (they normally use a mix of pencils, colored pencils and dry brush in their own journals depending on the subject). I offered to scan/print copies of the older boys' sketches if they were a little nervous about altering theirs as well.

Attention to detail, trying to replicate the color/size EXACTLY is a super great exercise that comes from nature journaling. The littles may not have patience to dry brush their own sketches (and subsequently destroy them). After they've finished coloring their own sketches in their nature journals with colored pencil, or if they'd rather use water color and not mess up their books, I feel it's a valid exercise for them to occasionally "watercolor" a copy. I imagine that one could potentially use the Dover coloring books in this same way. :)





Would you like to join me? I'd love it if you did! Just grab the image above, post it in your post and then link up here in the comments. :)

Also linking up here: