On Saturday I joined in the Melbourne Nature Journal Club zoom meeting. Fifteen of us met for instruction, guidance, and motivation from Amy. After warm-up sketching and thinking exercises to get us in the right mind space we each went out for 30 mins to observe and write and sketch. We then returned to zoom to share experiences and results.

I sketched this Bunya pine trunk in nearby Fitzroy Gardens quickly. Today I looked loser and observed more and wrote observations and questions on the page. I don’t usually do this. After about 10 minutes I went back home and added all those thoughts to the page. All of the sketches are watercolour pencil. The main colour for on location was Dark Sepia – a newish favourite.

Some people in the group were writers, some drew diagrams, everyone approached the concept differently. There was so much to learn from the others in the group. This is the third zoom session I have joined. One day we will sketch together in person!

The next day I add a branch/leaf I picked up. I had planned this yesterday when I collected it. It balances the page and works with the way I like to draw – a combination of sketching and drawing.

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Watercolour pencil – the spiky branch was using lots of brown colours. I can remember stepping on these when I was little. We had to wait at a bus stop under a bunya tree to go to school. We were wearing sandals – ouch . I can still feel it now.