The other day a visiting alum asked me about my nature journaling practice. I told him about the Wild Wonder Foundation workshop I participated in last summer.

John Muir Laws is an amazing teacher, and all semester I have been teaching my students what I learned from him, including quick ways of sketching birds.

So I asked my student to show me a picture of any bird and told him I could teach him to sketch it in under a minute. Then I did so.

A little while ago one of the same species made a rare appearance at the feeder outside my kitchen window so I made a quick sketch next to the one I made for my alum.

And then I decided to paint it, which took more like half an hour.

I’m pretty pleased with the whole process, but especially with the teaching and the birding!

A watercolor illustration depicts a red-breasted nuthatch perched on a small branch.Two sketches of birds facing right are drawn on lined paper.