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Wolf Journey Chapter Four - Naturalist Drawing & Journaling

Jumping Mouse indigenous story as told by Chrism to be uploaded ASAP. Lily of the Valley Song written and performed by Chrism to be uploaded ASAP. The Land Belonged to God music written by Jack Gladstone to be uploaded ASAP. To listen to these audio files, you may need the free RealOne Player if it's not already installed in your system. Inspirational Artwork by Nikki.

Introduction & Contents:
• Field Exercise 4A - Identifying Plant Shapes
• Field Exercise 4B - Sketching Plants
• Field Exercise 4C - Plant Parts
• Field Exercise 4D - Journaling Plant Attributes
• Chapter 4 Celebration

Field Exercise 4A – Identifying Plant Shapes

"In order to develop skills in drawing from the book of nature, it is necessary to develop the science of observation in such a way that our observing stays "warm" and does not degenerate into a cold "onlooker consciousness," and to develop simultaneously the capacity for inner picturing in such a way that it does not expand out of bounds into personal fantasy and illusions....

"Separating the image-forming process of observation from the concept-forming process of rendering detail and proper proportion allows the mind to have time to transmute image into concept.... When held in balance, image forming and concept forming mutually interpenetrate, resulting in creative thinking.... Those adults who have experienced the death of the imagination will also benefit from this gentle approach."

– Dennis Klocek, Drawing from the Book of Nature, pages 1-5

Whether you think you are the least artistic person in the world, or if you have a well-developed artistic capacity, I want you to follow the directions of this field exercise closely. The point of it is not to create a nice drawing. No, the point is to experience what Dennis Klocek talks about in the quote above.

First, take a look at the circle below. Do you tend toward fear of expressing yourself through visual art, or do you feel rather smug about your artistic abilities? Make a dot on the horizontal line between those two poles which represents your level of comfort with drawing.

Next, make a dot on the vertical line that runs between the two poles which represent your skill development. Did you receive quite a lot of artistic training as a child, or no direction at all? Have you made an effort to receive training as an adult, or have you let your talent atrophy?

Finally, write today's date at the mid-point between the two dots you drew. I have contrived the exercise to ensure that you will likely start off-center, no matter your training. Wherever your initials lay, I want you to strive toward the center of the cross throughout your time with this chapter. See how far you are from the center – the place of balance – at the end of chapter 4. Remember, progress, not perfection, is the goal.

At Your Study Site

Be sure you've eaten a good meal today, and stay well hydrated. Use the bathroom, get a drink of water, review your outings checklist, and gather up your drawing materials. For today's field exercise, you will need a few sheets of drawing paper on a clip board or other hard surface, colored pencils and your knife to keep them sharp. If you wear contact lenses, take them out and use your eyeglasses instead today.

When you reach your study site boundaries, again assess the hazards that may be there – people, weather, falling limbs – just like you should every time you visit. Flow gently into the area of your study site where the most number of visually pleasing plants are located. When you get there, breathe in the smells, and exhale fully your stresses and worries. Close your eyes for a moment, and don't open them up until your breathing and heart rate have settled into a restful pace.

Fully engage your "eagle eyes," and don't focus on anything. Keep your vision slightly burred. If you wear glasses, take them off, and you will actually have an advantage over those with 20/20 vision. Look at a plant that completely fits within your range of vision. Try not to focus on it. Just see if you can capture its general shape with your eagle eyes.

If the plant you have in sight is the one you want to draw, position your drawing paper so that you can see the plant out the corner of your eyes while drawing. Again, try never to focus on the plant itself, just get a sense for its shape. Does it grow straight, stand tall, and point to the sky with every part. Does it droop? Does it grow chaotically, or in a simple pattern?

Before you choose a dark colored pencil to begin drawing, close your eyes again, and spend some time picturing the origins of the plant. Imagine the seed or beginnings of the specimen. In your "mind's eye," watch its mother, the earth, birth it into the world.

Watch it unfold its first leaf, then develop its first stem out from the center. Imagine roots reaching into the earth, drawing the nutrients up through the stem and into the leaf as it grows. Watch it in its second season, growing strong enough to reach out toward the sky with free reign if there were no other competitors, or by elbowing itself around nearby plants also competing for sunlight.

Picture every leaf, then flower and fruit, growing out from one another, and see its stem thicken to hold the increasing weight. Picture it standing tall, fully grown, producing perhaps more flowers, then fruits. Picture one of its seeds form inside the fruit, cone, or independently, and after savoring the inner scene for a while, open your eyes.

Put your pencil on the paper where the seed started growing, and see if you can keep the plant within your peripheral vision as you draw. Turn the pencil so that you are not using the point, but the side of the lead in order to create wide strokes.

Watch your hand follow its birth into the world, extending its roots and sprouts. Watch your hand draw the plant's insides, then its surface or bark. Remember that it didn't grow from the outside in. Instead, draw out from the center, and whatever you do, don't outline it. Watch your hand "grow" the plant's stem or trunk, then appendages, from the inside out along the veins.

Keep drawing with long, wide strokes. Try not to scribble short strokes yet. Keep checking the edges of your field of vision to compare the plant's shape with your drawing. Try blurring your vision again. When you do so, does your drawing seem to be a reflection of the general shape of the plant?

Even if your drawing does not at all seem to reflect the shape of the plant, don't erase it. Remember that this is an exercise in the development of your observation and imagination. I don't care how your drawing looks. If you keep doing this exercise over and over, your drawings will improve, but more importantly, you will learn the shape of the plants you draw.

Gaining a comfortable appreciation for plant shapes is a critical skill for any naturalist to embody, and this is the point of today's field exercise. But you are only half way done. Blur your vision again, and focus on the air space around the plant. Sometimes you can squint enough to see a light "sheen" or "glow" around the object you are looking at. Try to see that sheen, or at least try to imagine it.

Next, imagine the air around the plant actually "shaping" the plant, instead of visa-versa. Imagine "jets" of air extending from the corners of the plant, and "pillows" of air holding the surface of the plant together. What you are about to do is sketch the "energy" around the outside of the plant.

If you are a person that can imagine molecular energy flowing all around, forming this physical reality in which we live, then think about the interaction between the air and the surface of the plant. There is a balance of pressure there, otherwise the plant would not hold its integrity. Instead, the plant would explode.

Take some time to fully imagine the "pillow" of energy around the plant. Then, when you are ready, put your pencil on your paper, and using long, gentle strokes with the side of your pencil lead, shade the area around the plant. You will be creating an inverted sketch of the plant by shading the area around it. The area left untouched will reveal the plant as white space.

A very important tip is that you do not scribble in the area around the plant. Instead, allow your pencil to follow the direction of the energy you imagine is flowing around the plant. It is not flowing randomly, but directing itself with pressure toward and away from the plant in order to hold the plant together.

Start your pencil strokes at the corners or tips of the plant, and "shoot" a pencil stroke away from the plant in the direction that the corner or tip is pointing. Make these "shots" at all the places that the edges of the plant change direction, even slightly. Later, come back and make these the darkest areas around the plant.

Shade the areas around the rest of the edges of the plant, still using long strokes if possible. These more gentle edges may be straight or curving, and the area you shade on the outside of the edges will be shaded more lightly than at the corners and tips of the plant. Take some time to finish shading around the plant, and allow it to take shape within the white space you leave alone.

Last, you can add some detail to the inside of the plant, creating a three dimensional look. Again, you will be leaving the raised surfaces alone, such as the inner edges of the plant, the veins, thorns, hairs, intense colors, and bark peels. Use straight or gently curving strokes to lightly shade the space around the veins and these other protruding aspects of the plant.

Don't bother getting all the details of the plant. You are only working to gain an appreciation for the its shape. Again, erase as few of your marks as possible as you finish the sketch, and put it aside as soon as you see the general shape of the plant appear. In your next field exercise, you will be repeating this sketching sequence, so leave it alone for now and go give yourself a reward for even attempting to draw in this "inverted" way.

Label your sketches at the top, and breathe in the smells wafting in the air. Exhale fully your stresses and worries. That wasn't so hard an exercise, since it didn't matter how the drawing turned out! Breathe deeply again, then head home when you like. When you get home and journal the experience using a Journaling Cover Page - Word Version or cover page of your own design, and supplement/replace it with the Wildlife Recording Form if you wish, remember to label the field exercise, write the date and time, and journal the weather, plants and animal sign you witnessed.

Field Exercise 4B – Sketching Plants

Required Resource: Botany in a Day by Thomas J. Elpel or a field guide that groups plants into families and includes identification of poisonous plants.

Before you go out to find a poisonous or otherwise hazardous plant to sketch, take a couple of hours to read Botany in a Day or the introductory essays in your field guide to plants. This will help you learn how to identify plants more easily, and it will give you an advantage when out looking for a plant to study.

When you are ready to do this field exercise, get a drink of water, go to the bathroom, review your outings checklist, gather up your materials, colored pencils, drawing paper and a hard surface to sketch on. Take along your field guide to plants as well.

When you reach your study site boundaries, again assess the hazards. As always, breathe the smells, drink some water, and exhale fully your stresses and worries. On your way in, look for a plant that you think may be poisonous or otherwise hazardous in some way. Take as much time as you have to use your field guide to identify and read about the plants you encounter.

If you can't find a particular plant in your field guide in the first minutes of looking, choose another one that attracts you and look it up instead. Repeat the process until you've found a poisonous or otherwise hazardous plant you want to study, and get ready to sketch it.

Do this sketch there at your study site if you can. If it's raining or too windy, memorize the plant as well as possible in your mind's eye and try to sketch it at home. For now, just take a look at your specimen while you are there. Relax, and remember the priorities for your sketches in order of importance:

• Just doing a sketch, is more important than ...
• Drawing organically following how the specimen grew, is more important than ...
• Labeling every part of the specimen, is more important than ...
• Sketching specimen parts in the correct proportions, is more important than ...
• Making it lovely.

Take a look at your chosen plant, using your owl eyes. Concentrate on its shape, just as you did in the field exercise prior to this one. Take quite some time memorizing its shape, and how it seemed to have grown. Then close your eyes and see if you can picture the plant's full shape in your mind's eye. If you feel like you forget the image in detail when your eyes are closed, repeat the process of viewing it with your eagle eyes.

Next, take a focused look at the plant and notice all its parts, colors, and patterns. Again, take plenty of time to memorize these aspects, then close your eyes and see if you can remember the plant in detail. Repeat the process of looking at it, then closing your eyes, until you feel it is well memorized.

Once you feel you know the plant's image fairly well with your eyes shut, picture it in your mind's eye, and watch the earth birth it into the world. Watch it unfold that first leaf, then develop its first stem from the center. Imagine the roots reaching into the earth, drawing the nutrients up through the stem and into the leaf as it grows strong enough to reach toward the sunlight.

Picture every leaf, then flower and fruit grow out from one another, and see its stem thicken to hold the weight. Picture it as it appears now, then imagine one of its seeds form inside the fruit, cone, or independently, giving birth to another of its kind.

Open your eyes and prepare your drawing paper on a flat surface with nothing to encumber you from sketching. Take out the colored pencils you will need, and put your pencil on the paper where you envision that the seed started growing. If the plant is the same as the one you sketched in the last field exercise, sketch it again the same as before.

First, shade the area around the exterior of the plant, making long, gentle strokes along imaginary lines that extend beyond the plant. Again, do not scribble a shaded area around the plant, but instead, take time to shade the air space with full strokes which flow toward and away from the plant. Finish your sketch by gently shading the areas around the parts of the plant that stick out, such as its veins or raised bark surfaces.

After you have completed the "inverted" version of your plant sketch, start another sketch, drawing the plant as it actually appears to us. Watch your hand follow its birth into the world, extending its roots and sprouts. Draw the plant's insides, then its surface or bark. Remember that it didn't grow from the outside in, so draw out from the center, and don't outline it yet.

Watch your hand grow the stem or trunk, then appendages, from the inside out along its veins. Make your finishing touches before comparing your specimen to the photo or sketch in your field guide. Add some shading instead of outlines for a more natural look. Try not to erase what you've done at any point. If you don't erase your work, but instead repeat this procedure over and over, you will improve considerably as an artist.

Using your field guide, notice as many of the plant's parts as you can identify. Find the seeds, flower pedals and stamen, fruits, roots, bark, leaves, colors, etc., and notice its patterns of growth, like whether the stems come out alternately or opposite from one another. Add to your drawing the parts of the specimen which may not appear on the plant in the season you are drawing it.

Remember that your specimen will normally look different from the one in the book, because there are so many individuals of that species. There are probably also many varieties and sub-species of the plant, and they all may look different at various stages of development.

Label your sketch at the top, and note at the bottom the name and page numbers of the field guide or other resource materials you used. Finally, draw some habitat around the specimen, such as plants that live symbiotically near it. Write in the "scale," or how large it is in real life compared to your drawing.

Take some time to feel appreciation for the plant you drew today, and remember all the life that went on around you as you focused on your drawing. Were your senses open as you drew, keeping you aware of your surroundings? Or did your focused activity allow you to miss seeing the fox peering at you from behind the bush?

After you've given your thanks, then taken some time to relax and enjoy your study site after drawing, head home and place your drawing inside your journal, also completing a Journaling Cover Page - Word Version or cover page of your own design, and supplement/replace it with the Wildlife Recording Form if you wish. Write about your experience today, and as always, make appropriate notes on the cover sheet for the title, date, time, weather, plant and animal sign.

Field Exercise 4C – Plant Parts

Required Resource: A field guide that describes the parts of the poisonous or otherwise dangerous plant you sketched.

The first part of this field exercise keeps you at home before sending you out to enjoy your peaceful place without an agenda. Begin by following the directions below to draw and describe different parts of the plant in different seasons. When this is completed, go to your study site and show your poisonous or dangerous plant the sketches you have completed, then return and complete a Journaling Cover Page - Word Version or cover page of your own design, and supplement/replace it with the Wildlife Recording Form if you wish.

Drawing The Buds, Bark and Root

Recognizing plants in their dormant state is the most important skill to achieve in order to get to know a plant. Remember that plants are very alive during this time, yes even in winter, but they simply have focused themselves very inward, toward the earth.

Read about the season of dormancy for your plant, and draw it in such a state. Learn to recognize the plant by its buds, bark, or deadened stalk. This is extremely important for survival in the winter. In fact, roots are best to harvest after the stalks have died and before new shoots appear in spring.

Make a detailed drawing of one of the plant's buds along with a piece of its bark. Label all your drawings and then describe them well. For instance, describe the color of the bark, whether the buds or stems are shiny, whether the stems have thorns, whether any part produces a unique smell when scraped, and other aspects that make the plant stand out from its surroundings.

Research the plant's roots, and imagine how your specimen's roots are growing. Think about the soil type and whether the roots are growing in and around a variety of other plant roots. Add a drawing of the plant's roots to that of your stem and buds in the dormant state, and add a note about the size of the plant.

Drawing The Flower

If you chose a poisonous or dangerous plant that produces flowers, make a small but detailed sketch showing what the flowers look like in their fullest season, which is usually springtime. Then make a detailed drawing of an individual flower, and see if you can pinpoint and label the pistil, stamen, petals and sepals.

Take a look at the inside front cover of Botany in a Day for a super description of flower parts if you need help identifying them. Label the drawing and then read about your plant's flowers in detail. Write a note about the shape and color shades of the flowers. Describe how many flowers grow together, and how many petals and sepals grow on one flower. Mention where the flowers grow on the plant, using terms such as "alternately" along the stem, "sessile" from the base of a leaf or group of leaves, "opposite" from one another, or "whorled" around the stem, etc.

See if you can discover under what conditions the flower most likes to bloom, what the male and the female parts look like and whether they are found on the same plant, or on separate plants. Add any other information you find about the plant's flowers.

Drawing The Fruits & Seeds

Read about the plant's fruit and/or seed, and then sketch these aspects into your journal. The fruit may be as obvious as an apple, with seeds inside the core, or the seeds may be found inside a cone. Further, the male part of the seed fertilization process may be in the form of catkins or smaller cones, and you will have to discover when these processes occur for your plant.

The median season in which reproduction usually occurs for plants is summer, but label your drawing of these corresponding plant parts with the correct season. The reproductive parts of the plant come in a variety of forms, and the plant is often grouped into its taxometric order by these aspects. Ferns, mushrooms, and other ancient plants, for instance, reproduce with spores which usually line their undersides.

Do your research, and then describe in detail the traits of these reproductive parts of the plant, its fruit or cones, catkins or seeds, and spores or other means of reproduction. Mention the colors and state when the reproductive parts appear and what process they go through. Describe what the male and the female parts look like, where they are found on the plant, and whether they are found on the same plant or on separate plants.

Drawing The Leaves

Make a small but detailed sketch showing what the leaves look like in the season just before they fall off, which is usually autumn. Label the drawing and then read about its leaves in detail. Write a note about the color or shades that the leaves take on in varying seasons, and how large the leaf is generally.

Describe how many leaves grow together, and where they grow on the plant, using terms such as "alternately," "opposite" from one another, "whorled" around the stem, "clasping" the stem, or with the leaf's base "sessile" against the stem, etc. Describe the leaf's shape with words such as lance-shaped, oval, oblong and "rounded at both ends" or "pointed on the top" or bottom, arrow-like, needle-like, disk-like with the stem in the middle, circular, deltoid, diamond-shaped, or heart-shaped with the point on top of the leaf or facing the stem, etc.

Describe the leaf's texture as furry, smooth, rough, hairy, patterned along the veins, etc. and then describe its edges as "incised" or "serrated" with big or little tooth-like edges, undulating edges, or a perfectly round edge, etc. Finally, put a map of the plant's range, or the regions of the country or world where it is found.

Field Exercise 4D – Journaling Plant Attributes

Required Resource: A field guide that describes the dangerous and beneficial aspects of the plant you sketched.

Be sure you finished journaling the experience of going to your study site with no agenda at the end of the previous field exercise. When you are ready to do this field exercise, use the bathroom, get a drink of water, review your outings checklist, gather up your materials, and head to your study site. Leave your sketches, journal materials and field guides open and ready for you on your desk.

When you reach your study site boundaries, assess the hazards. As always, inhale the smells, and exhale fully your stresses and worries. Breathe deeply, and take a drink if you like. On your way in, look for as many individuals of the poisonous or otherwise dangerous plant you sketched so you can begin to catalogue how many there are in your area.

Intuiting The Plant's Qualities

Sit with the plant that you studied and let everything return to normal after entering your study site. Today, all you need to do is practice your sensory awareness exercises while next to your plant. While your eagle eyes, deer ears, bear nose, snake taste, and 'coon hands are engaged, think about the plant next to you.

See if you can intuit the dangerous aspects of the plant. Is it obvious that the plant possesses such qualities? No doubt there are positive aspects to the dangerousness of the plant. When can that dangerous quality be a benefit to humans and the other creatures of nature? For instance, the very poisonous Foxglove plant is the source of revolutionary heart medicines.

Next, see if you can determine or intuit some other qualities of the plant without ever having been told about these qualities. Keep your senses engaged, and notice where any sensations come into your body. Perhaps the plant's seeds are poisonous, but maybe the plant's root, steeped as a tea, would be good for cleansing the small intestine. Who knows, perhaps your stomach will growl to tell you this.

Do not act upon your intuition here, however. Research your impressions first. There is no sense in risking experimentation that has already been conducted and documented in several field guides. You may have a well-developed intuition, and feel a strong draw or repulsion from various aspects of this plant, or maybe you think that the suggestion of such phenomena is bogus.

Whatever your pre-conceived notions, just go through the exercise of trying to intuit the plant's qualities, and add the experience to your journal entry after returning home. After a time, sneak back home to do your journal entry using a Journaling Cover Page - Word Version or cover page of your own design, and supplement/replace it with the Wildlife Recording Form if you wish. As always, make appropriate notes on the cover sheet with the title of the field exercise, the date, time, weather, plant and animal sign observations.

Journaling The Plant

Name your plant, and write any other common names that people may call it. Next, describe its taxometric classification to the best of your ability. Take a look at the information in the appendix to familiarize yourself with the process of taxometric classification.

Most field guides will tell the latin name, and categorize the plant into its family. If you would like to classify it fully, do a search on the internet using the words "classification" and the name of your plant, preferably the latin name (genus and species). List as much of the following information for your plant as you can:

•Latin Name by its Genus & Species, as listed in your field guide.
•Family with sub-family or tribe if applicable, as grouped in your field guide.
•Order and sub-order if you find it.
•Class and sub-class, then Phylum or Division if you can determine these.
•Kingdom: Use Plantae for plants; Fungi for mushrooms, lichens, yeasts, and many molds;
Sub-kingdom Thallobionta for seaweeds, in the Division Rhodophycota and Class Rhodophyceae.

•Note its size and general description (compared to information given in your field guide).

•Describe the habitat where it grows, similar plants, dangerous qualities and known benefits.
Regarding similar plants, describe the best ways to positively identify the plant so that
someone reading your journal would make no mistake upon seeing it. Note how large the
plant gets in varying habitats, and describe whether you find it in forests, fields, wetlands,
native prairies, dry areas, disturbed areas such as roadsides, etc.

•Describe the plant's dangerous qualities and its gifts to the ecosystem, and directly or indirectly, to humans.

Chapter Four Celebration

Prepare to go to your peaceful place as you normally do, and visit it with no agenda besides having an attitude of wandering, whether you remain in one spot or move around. Then complete a Journaling Cover Page - Word Version or cover page of your own design, and supplement/replace it with the Wildlife Recording Form if you wish, and finish with this chapter summary, going back to Field Exercise 4A and again graphing where you are now on the circle between artistic confidence and fear, and between levels of artistic training.

Add new aspects that you have learned about your study site onto your wall map. Have your map reflect your new observations about plants and how they may seem to grow in groups or "communities", and be sure to include in your journal or on the map key a reference to any events or changes that you witnessed within your study site boundaries.

Complete a written Thanksgiving Address journal entry as described in Chapter 1, and set goals for yourself regarding the sketching and journaling of plants as you live as a naturalist. What do you wish to learn, experience, and gain from the plants, and from sketching nature?

Write a bit about the difference between "observing" and "participating" in nature. In the first two parts of the Wolf Journey, you are still mainly observing nature, though if you develop your skills, you may begin to interact with the plants, animals and elements on a deeper level while they maintain baseline behavior. Baseline is the term Tom Brown uses to describe normal activity amongst species, in the absence of disturbances from humans and other predators. Perhaps your skills will rise to the point that you can actually build friendships with the plants and animals.

At that point you will probably be participating in nature, because the plants and animals will lead you into activities of food gathering, shelter building, singing, and more. You will begin to utilize plants and animals for your very survival. Then you will certainly be participating in nature, and you will become an active naturalist rather than a passive one. In the meantime, learn the skills of sensory awareness in this book, and the skills of tracking in the next, so that you may participate in nature with a positive effect, knowing the full impact of your actions, and showing others another way to live.

Good work! It's time to move on to the Introduction to Part Two - Trail of the Tracker.

Wolf Journey is available complimentarily online, though we suggest donating $1.00 per chapter or set of recordings you utilize, with checks payable to Wolf Camp, 1026 14th St. SW, Puyallup WA 98371. Books and other resources which you will need for successful completion of field exercises throughout Wolf Journey can be purchased through Granny's Country Store or by calling them at 406-287-3605 to order. You can work through Wolf Journey independently, but we recommend this book series as part of our Correspondence Course, Academic Year Class Series, In-Depth Apprenticeships and Summer Training Camps, but if you would like an instructor from your own area to guide you while studying these skills, we recommend clicking on PrimitiveSkillsLinks.Com to find an earth skills specialist near you who can personally review your field exercises and journaling work, which you can keep track of on your Student Transcripts. Other schools and outdoor instructors who would like to use this curriculum for their own programs are free to do so. We would appreciate donations, or having your students donate as described above.