Welcome to 7 Days Art Journal: Taking Interesting Reference Photos of Nature. This is a SELF-PACED course meant to get students out walking and exploring in nature and making some art. To make it extra fun, students can bring family and friends!

This course is really about getting away from the screens and getting outside! It’s about exploring and looking at nature which has been scientifically proven to relax our minds and bodies and lift our spirits. It’s meant to encourage students to walk and spend time with nature. To slow down and reconnect with nature and their creativity. 

At the beginning of each lesson, I go over the topic and give examples. Then at the end of each lesson there is a Quest where I ask students to go for a walk and look for things to photograph, like a scavenger hunt. 

Then I give them an optional Call to Art, where I encourage students to choose their favorite photos to draw and paint. That can be in an art journal or on separate sheets of paper. Students could also choose to use the photos to create digital art. Students could also choose to not do the Calls to Art and just use this course to learn how to take interesting reference photos of nature. That works too! 

The focus in this course is taking reference photos. I give examples on how to use the reference photos to make art, but I do not give step-by-step instructions on how to make their art because that would depend on the photos they take. And I hope students will end up with lots of photos to work from! If they submit their art to me, I will give them feedback. 

Students can submit their reference photos to me as well as their artwork and I will give them feedback and suggestions. I also encourage students to write a few sentences about what they discovered, how they feel they were successful, and what challenges they faced. 

I give a list of supplies, which are basically pencils and watercolors and a watercolor or mixed media journal. But students are welcome to use whatever supplies they’d like. They can also just draw and not paint if they prefer. Or they can not to the Calls to Art and just take photos. This course also works for taking interesting photos of nature. 

The recommended pace for this course really depends on how often a student can go for a walk in nature. Each lesson is meant to be one walk in nature. So they could do one a day or one a week, especially if they can only go for walks in nature on the weekends with family and friends. Some walks can be short, like looking at plants and trees in their yard.