Laura Watson

🌿 Day 7 Drawing Challenge – Oregon Grape 🌿

For Day 7, I’m drawing Oregon grape (Berberis aquifolium), and I have to say—I really enjoyed this one. I decided to give it a full page. I thought this subject might be a harder one to draw but surprised myself and drew it rather quickly without too much erasing. The bold, spiny leaves, strong venation, and overall structure made it such a satisfying subject to draw.

This felt like a lovely way to wrap up the challenge. Giving Oregon grape an entire page allowed me to feature all parts of the plant plus add text. It reminded me how rewarding it can be to stay with one subject a little longer.

I’ve really loved this challenge overall. In just 7 days, I honestly feel that my confidence and drawing skills have improved—not because every drawing is perfect, but because of the consistency. Showing up each day, observing more carefully, and trusting simple shapes and lines first really does add up.

That’s the heart of nature journaling: small, regular practice that builds skill, confidence, and joy over time 🌿 I hope you enjoyed it too.

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9 hours ago | [YT] | 26

Laura Watson

Have you been following the botanical drawing challenge? Tomorrow is day 7 the final day! Many of you have been enjoying the drawing challenge, I'd love more feedback. What do you want to see on my channel for 2026?

20 hours ago | [YT] | 9

Laura Watson

🌿 Day 6 Drawing Challenge – Red Huckleberry 🌿

For Day 6, we’re drawing red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium), a light, airy shrub that has lovely red berries in the summer. Found in the forest understory it is quite a contrast in comparison to the evergreen huckleberry.

I approached this one by starting with a simple stick drawing, starting with the thin, branching stems before placing the leaves and berries. Red huckleberry has a delicate structure, and letting some of that negative space show really helps capture its character. The bright red berries are simple but fun to draw and make a strong focal point on the page.

A few quick facts about red huckleberry:
• It’s a deciduous shrub, losing its leaves in winter
• The thin green stems stay photosynthetic even when leafless
• Small greenish-pink flowers bloom in spring
• The bright red berries ripen in early to mid-summer
• It’s commonly found in moist, shaded forests across the Pacific Northwest, including Vancouver Island

This plant is a great reminder that not all understory plants are dense and dark—some are light, delicate, and full of movement. As always, start simple, observe the structure, and let the details come last 🌱

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1 day ago | [YT] | 25

Laura Watson

🌿 Day 5 Drawing Challenge – Evergreen Huckleberry 🌿

For Day 5, we’re drawing evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum), a beautiful and very familiar understory shrub here on the coast. I approached this one by first blocking in the overall shape of the branch, then placing the leaves as simple ovals to work out spacing and direction before refining the glossy edges and veins.

Evergreen huckleberry is especially interesting to draw because of the thick, shiny leaves and how they overlap along the stems. Paying attention to how the leaves angle and twist—rather than lining them up evenly—adds a lot of movement and realism to the page.

A few quick facts about evergreen huckleberry:
• It’s an evergreen shrub commonly found in coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest
• The small, leathery leaves are glossy and finely toothed
• It produces pink, bell-shaped flowers in spring
• The dark purple to black berries ripen in late summer and fall and are important food for wildlife
• It often grows in partial shade along forest edges and understory openings

This is a great plant for practicing leaf repetition, overlap, and variation, and it makes a strong, graphic addition to a nature journal page. As always, start simple, observe closely, and let the details come last 🌿

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2 days ago | [YT] | 31

Laura Watson

🌿 Day 4 Drawing Challenge – Bunchberry 🌿

For Day 4, we’re drawing bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), a small but incredibly distinctive plant of the forest floor. One thing I really want to point out with this plant is the leaf venation—it’s very easy to mistake the veins for being parallel at first glance. In reality, they are arcuate, gently curving outward from the midrib and sweeping toward the tip. Noticing and drawing that curve makes a huge difference in accuracy.

The berries are especially fun to draw—bright, round, and bold against the leaves—and they add such a strong focal point to a page. Another important detail is the flowers: what look like white petals are actually bracts. The true flowers are the tiny clustered forms in the center, which are easy to overlook unless you slow down and really observe.

Bunchberry always reminds me of living in Northern BC, even though it’s also found throughout other parts of the Pacific Northwest, including areas of Vancouver Island. It’s one of those plants that instantly brings back a sense of place.

This is a great example of how nature journaling sharpens observation—once you start drawing, you notice details you’d never fully see otherwise 🌱

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3 days ago | [YT] | 44

Laura Watson

🌿 Day 3 Botanical Drawing Challenge – Salal 🌿

For Day 3, we’re drawing salal (Gaultheria shallon), a classic evergreen plant of the Pacific Northwest forest understory. I approached this one by first blocking in simple leaf shape, then refining the vein placment before adding detail. Salal is a great reminder that even familiar plants deserve slow looking—those leaves with fine not so straight viens and subtle curves really matter.

A few quick facts about salal:
• Salal is an evergreen shrub commonly found in coastal forests
• The thick, leathery leaves are glossy and oval-shaped, with gently serrated edges
• It produces pinkish-white urn-shaped flowers in spring, followed by blue-black berries
• The berries were traditionally used as food by Indigenous peoples and wildlife
• Salal spreads through underground rhizomes and often forms dense ground cover

When drawing salal, pay attention to how the veins curve and the placement of buds at stem juctures. As always, start simple, observe carefully, and add detail only once the structure feels right 🌱

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4 days ago | [YT] | 33

Laura Watson

Happy new year to everyone! Thanks to everyone following along with the new years botanical drawing challenge and all support from everyone throughout 2025. Wishing everyone the best nature journaling year ever in 2026

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5 days ago | [YT] | 38

Laura Watson

🌿 Day 2 - Botanical Drawing Challenge – Prince’s Pine 🌿

For Day 2 of the drawing challenge, I’m drawing Prince’s pine (Chimaphila umbellata). The flowers on this plant can look quite complicated at first, so I chose to simplify the composition as much as possible, starting with very basic shapes before slowly adding detail.

I focused first on placement and structure, then refined the leaves and flowers. What really makes this plant interesting to draw is the variation in leaf angles and flower angles. Including these subtle changes adds much more life to a nature journal page, rather than drawing everything straight on. Those small shifts in perspective make the drawing feel more observational and natural.

A few quick facts about Prince’s pine:
• It’s a low-growing evergreen understory plant found in dry to moderately moist coniferous forests
• The glossy, toothed leaves grow in whorls and stay green year-round
• The nodding white to pale pink flowers bloom in late spring to early summer
• It spreads slowly by underground rhizomes and is often associated with relatively undisturbed forest habitats

This plant is a great reminder that even complex-looking subjects become manageable when you start simple, observe carefully, and build up detail gradually - I have attached my drawings and the reference photos in this post🌱

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5 days ago | [YT] | 33

Laura Watson

🌿 Day 1 (Revisit) – Sword Fern 🌿

I decided to give sword fern another try and redrew it for my 2026 nature journal title page. This time, I slowed down and took a much closer look at the frond positioning, the individual leaflet shapes, and—most importantly—the overall blade shape.

On my first attempt, the drawing clearly read as a fern, but not quite as a sword fern. Coming back to it helped everything click. Noticing how the leaflets attach along the central stem and how the blade gradually tapers toward the tip made a big difference in botanical accuracy.

A few quick facts about sword fern (Polystichum munitum):
• It is the most common fern in coastal Pacific Northwest forests
• Sword fern is evergreen, providing year-round structure in the forest understory
• The long, arching fronds can grow up to 1.5 metres in ideal conditions
• New fronds emerge in spring as tightly coiled fiddleheads
• It thrives in shaded, moist environments and often forms dense ground cover

Revisiting a plant like this is exactly why nature journaling is so powerful. Each redraw improves observation and understanding, and it’s really satisfying to see that learning show up on the page. I love that this more accurate sword fern now anchors my title page for the year 🌿

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5 days ago | [YT] | 35

Laura Watson

Here is a video with a little more info on the New Year's Botanical Drawing Challenge and my thoughts on my first drawing :)

6 days ago | [YT] | 9