Nature

[ysabetwordsmith]

Spring is a perfect time to start a nature journal. I've been talking about it with some friends so I wanted to share some resources here. It doesn't have to be fancy. It can have text, art, photos, pressed leaves, whatever you want to include. There are different approaches; all of them are good. Grab a blank book with plain or lined pages as you prefer, something to write or draw with, and head out to your yard, garden, or a nearby park.


Books and Notebooks

The Best EDC Pocket Notebooks: We Test 9 of the Best Notepads for Your Pocket

My Favorite Sketchbooks as of 2023

Top Nature Journals to Inspire Your Outdoor Reflections


Other Tools and Supplies

7 Best Glues For Paper Crafts & When To Use Them

The Best EDC Pen

Best Nature Journaling Supplies for People with Too Many Hobbies

Bringing Your Charcoal Outside: Drawing Landscapes En Plein Air

Coloured pencils: perfect for quick sketches on location

A Complete Beginner's Guide to the Best Colored Pencils

Let's "Junk" Your Nature Journal
Class description, but features a great list of supplies.

Movable Pallet Altoid Tin Watercolor Set
A good plein air kit should fit in your pocket. You don't want to lug 20 pounds of art crap through the woods.

Plein air sketching palettes and tools

Pocket Sized Sketch Kit

Sketching Equipment for the Field

Supplies for Nature Notebooking

Top 5 Affordable Watercolor Plein Air Setups

The Ultimate Guide To Outdoor Sticker Durability: Materials, Inks, And Processes Explained
If you want to use stickers in your nature journal, make sure they can stand up to the great outdoors.

Waterproof fountain pen ink: An essential guide


How To

100 Nature Journal Prompts for Kids to Inspire Creativity

Animal Tracks Identification Guide: Animal Footprint ID Charts
This gives a pretty good idea how to draw tracks in your nature journal.

Bark and Leaf Rubbings

Bird Watching Journal

Create a Leaf and Bark Journal

Flower Pressing and Nature Journaling

How to Make and Keep a Nature Journal or Notebook

Keeping a Naturalist's Field Journal

My Bird Journal (for Wisconsin, but useful in the Midwest generally)

My Birding Journal (for kids or novices)

The Naturalist’s Journal

Nature Journal Ideas With Examples from a Staff Member’s Actual Journal

Nature Journaling Binder

Nature journaling and observations weekly prompts

Nature Journaling for All Ages: A Guidebook for Group Leaders

On taking field notes

Opening the world through nature journaling: Integrating art, science & Language arts

Smithsonian Introduction to the nature journal

Taking Field Notes Like a Scientist

WILDLIFE JOURNAL: Wild Ohio for Kids


Art Tips

How to Draw Birds

Mastering Landscape Drawing: A Complete Guide to Elevating Your Skills

Paint Outdoors: Embracing Plein Air Painting in Watercolour

Sketching plein air with coloured pencils

Step by Step Animal Drawing Tutorials


Writing Tips

5 Tips For Writing About Nature

Creative Nonfiction: Nature Writing

Nature-Inspired Writing

Nature Writing Prompts

You Can Write a Nature Poem


Discussion

Have you kept a nature journal? What kind? What do you put in it -- art, writing, collage, other things?

Comments

[i_like_the_stars]

Ooooo, all such lovely things, thank you! Where do you get your resources, I wonder? You always seem to have so many of them.

You're welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I have observed and experienced many things, sampled a great many different crafts, done all kinds of nature projects. This background helps me create things.

Quite often, I'll get to talking about something with a friend, write a response, then realize that I've oopsed an article again. So I copy-paste the original response, then clean it up so it makes sense as an independent post.

I'm a wordsmith, so I know how to structure an article or a link cloud. Then I look for useful references online. I have about a brown belt in Google-fu. I'm good at finding things. I was better in the past, before search engines turned off most of the tools that made them work well. :/ But I can still find things for most purposes.

One skill that remains crucial is knowing what terms to search for. In this case my search terms included "nature journal," "birding journal," and "field notes" -- three different but related ways of recording observations outdoors. I thought through what people would need, then sorted out categories for paper books, other supplies, general instructions, art and writing. I searched "plein air" for several categories with other things added. And I already knew some resources I've used before, like the DIY plein air kits in Altoids tins. Seriously look up what some art companies call a plein air kit -- they're talking 50 pounds or more. 0_o So it also helps to know how a thing is done, even if I don't routinely do it myself.

Another useful bit of knowledge is that PDF files can hold entire books, workbooks, manuals, etc. as well as shorter flyers. They don't currently support ads either. So that's always worth trying "(topic) (handbook / manual / etc.) PDF."

Some sites are favorites for a given topic. Instructables is great for craft projects. Wikihow usually has clear instructions. I search for things all the time when researching my writing projects, so that lets me learn what is a good source for which topics.

I've been good at writing all along, but you're looking at several decades worth of research experience. It doesn't take that long to learn the skills, but practice does improve speed and precision.

Re: You're welcome!

[i_like_the_stars]

Wow, that's awesome! Thank you so much, I'll definitely try the PDF hack one of these days.

I totally understand the gripe with modern search engines... never forget what they took from us 😔. I'm pretty average when it comes to using key words and search engines. I know to keep it simple and to try various different combinations of words to find the results I want. I think I just struggle to apply things sometimes. I'm working on it.

I didn't know what plein air meant before this post, so I imagine myself going down a rabbit hole one of these days about that. Who knows, maybe I'll even make my own! ;)

Re: You're welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>Thank you so much, I'll definitely try the PDF hack one of these days.<<

Pick any topic you like, then search that plus something like "free book" or "manual" and PDF. It's a great way to find free books.

>>I totally understand the gripe with modern search engines... never forget what they took from us<<

Yeah, used to be you could exclude things, or require both terms to appear in the same piece, or quotes would lock the search to exact wording. Now none of that is reliable anymore. People are going to learn the hard way that a billion websites are fuckall useless if you can't find the one you need. >_<

>>I didn't know what plein air meant before this post, so I imagine myself going down a rabbit hole one of these days about that.<<

People make it sound fancy, but it's really just doing art or other creative stuff outdoors, typically using the landscape for inspiration. I mentioned it here because some journal fans already like to write or sketch outdoors, and spring is perfect for that.

There's a lake near us with a causeway across it, which is very popular for outdoor art. Morning and evening light highlight different sides of the view. Plus they have pollinator gardens now. I just use a camera myself but it's still fun.

[lunabee34]

Thanks for posting all these resources!

You're welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm happy I could help. I like this community, but I rarely have the typical contributions, so I look for other ways to chip in.