If you’re fortunate enough to have a longtime relationship with a place, as I have with Cooley Lake, record the changes with your sketches. It’s fascinating to see how a biosystem evolves over time.
Cooley was once a bend in the nearby Missouri River. The riverbed moved, as they do from time to time (especially in flood), and now it’s a shallow lake. In times of drought, it’s Cooley Mud Flats, but after some good rains it has enough water to attract a wide variety of waterfowl again.
I sat in my Jeep to sketch this familiar country road in my journal. You can see the road and the receding line of fence posts worked together to suggest distance. I also kept the background forest much simpler than the things closer to the eye.
I paid attention to the shape and diminishing size of the limbs on these bare oak trees, then used a bit of spatter in a warm color to suggest the new budding leaves.
Use aerial perspective in your landscape sketches. Things in the distance often appear smaller, lighter and higher in the picture plane. They may be cooler or bluer, as well.