I’m a member of the Northern Neck Chapter of the Audubon Society and get to go out with a great group of folks from time to time (not as often as I could, because I often fail to make the time) looking for birds. There was an article down somewhere in the archives on the national website which I can no longer find about keeping a nature journal and making sketches of things we find in our bird outings. Well, one thing led to another as the rabbit hole of the internet will do, and I came across an artist and naturalist called John Muir Laws.

The publishing arm of the Audubon Society has published several of his books including The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds and The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling. From those, I found there are Facebook Groups that do sketch book outings based on these books and or bring together far flung sketchers and nature journal keepers on Facebook.

In any case, I can highly recommend both books for beginners and more experienced journal keepers and sketchbook keepers.

Here are a couple of sketches in my own sketchbook that I completed using John Laws suggestions (other than the blue pen which I don’t own).