Nature Journaling Prompt: Zoom In, Zoom Out

Zoom in, zoom out (December 12th prompt): Choose one natural object and sketch it at three different scales: life-size, magnified, and zoomed-out in the environment. This is a great chance to play with perspective: how does the object look from straight on vs. from above? (Check out Bending Perspective with Jenny Jing Zhang for ideas on warping a traditional perspective to both capture more of a scene and draw attention to specific elements in the foreground or background!)

I am not a photographer. I struggle to capture the way moments feel when taking pictures. One of the myriad of things I love about painting, however, is that I can take the instances memorialized on my phone and tweak them in any way I please. With watercolors and paper, a little wiggling, and a healthy dose of whimsy, those moments can become what I actually experienced, but crafted on my own time, painted wherever it pleases me to paint. 

It rained almost all day in the part of Portland where my sibling resides. As the daylight began to fade, the rain abated and I dashed outside to try to find images to fill the day’s prompt. I found inspiration in the luxurious nasturtiums beneath my sibling’s ornamental plum tree. There’s a story in those nasturtiums and their December tenacity, but since I don’t speak plant, I don’t know it. Instead, when I heard “Look closer,” those words were my curiosity taking over and it was Maria’s prompt that piqued my interest.

What a wonderful prompt: to “Zoom in, zoom out.” I loved the invitation to leave behind my normal frame of reference to focus so close on a droplet of water. Then, life-size—I didn’t quite capture the sensation of the leaf that I wanted to evoke, but I still enjoyed the process, especially when I rubbed the cool skin of the nasturtium between my fingers, and felt the wrinkles and the veins before I ever started putting paint to page. 

In my macro view, painting fast, I didn’t paint in the sky, or show my delight in the way the patch of blue between the clouds tangles with the plum twigs. That’s one of my favorite aspects of deciduous trees in winter though— how they cling to the sky.

Art Toolkit’s December sketchbook collaboration thoroughly charmed me. I loved seeing the amazing skills of my coworkers and their interpretations of the prompts. I loved getting to use my Duotone Desert Pocket Art Toolkit as it’s meant to be used—out and about and all around. For the paintings I did in the collective sketchbook, I used my Explore Palette, Medium Aquash Water Brush, and 0.25 Copic Multiliner. I went basic and I had so much fun! 

To read more about the month of nature journaling prompts, and to see the full list of prompts, click here. Be sure to tag your art with #NatureJournaling2026 and #ArtToolkitFridayPrompt for a chance to be featured on our blog and Instagram!