Welcome!!! Are you ready to jump in?

I thought so!! Watch the intro video below first, and then head into the activities.

Week 1 Prompt:
What familiar shapes do you see in everyday natural objects?

Consider this idea as you progress through each of this week's explorations and activities. Remember, the whole is just the sum of its parts.

This week, we'll be exploring:
* Featured artists Beatrix Potter and the Nature-Study movement advocates

* Breaking whole objects down into simple shapes to make drawing them less intimidating

* The joys of tracing and transfer and how they improve drawing and seeing skills

* The wet on wet watercolor technique

* Sensory observation meditation to get you tuning in all your senses and connecting fully and deeply with your nearby nature

* The Nature-Study Movement and Beatrix Potter

* Making time to really see nature everyday

* Developing a live nature journal practice

Week 1 Intro Video

Password: w1jumpin

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Wonder Boosts

Wonder Boosts are bonuses for you if you want to go a little further into the topics being explored each week. They offer accents to the week's information features, activities, exploration topics, and prompt themes.

* Interested in the world of Beatrix Potter beyond the familiar Peter Rabbit? Check out the 2006 movie Miss Potter and learn more about her incredibly interesting and inspiring life immersed in nature connection! Not so much into movies? Read the biography Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear.

* Take a photo of a nature object yourself. Print it out, and do the tracing transfer technique again, keeping the idea of nature's compilation of familiar shapes in mind while drawing.

* Try drawing your same object photo from the tutorial without tracing. Use your freshly practiced skills of breaking objects into shapes to replicate it. Be compassionate with yourself and have fun with it. Remember: process over product and no self judgements. If we wanted photo realism we could just take a photograph. I believe your drawing should look like YOUR drawing!

* Reminder: Nature journaling is about seeing and connecting with nature more deeply and creatively. It's about becoming an awesome observer of the world around us, and about better understanding our roles within the natural world of which we are inherently a part, not about creating museum pieces. These drawings are for you, not that grumpy 6th grade art teacher who may have said less than kind things about your art project, thereby planting negative inner critic seeds in your mind. (We've all had one of these teachers. Just kick her out of your head. Her time is up!)

* If you'd like a boost of external validation, show your work to someone 4-7 years old. Seriously, they are amazing artists and super supportive! Then, if you feel inspired, post a pic on Instagram #drawyourselfbacktonature and/or in the Facebook community so we can all dote on you and your awesome nature connection creation!