Supplies
- Watercolor 140 lb 9×12″ Journal
- Watercolor Paint — What you purchase kind of depends how comfortable you are with color mixing:
- Winsor & Newton Paint Boxes (Either the 24 set or the 14 set)
- Kuretake 36 color set
- Pencils and Eraser
- Watercolor Brushes (I have this assortment set and this mini liner set)
- Water Brushes
- Micron Pens (I most often use the 05 and 005)
- White Gel Pens or White Watersoluble Pencil (two different approaches to highlighting)
For Young Children
I use these notebooks for my 5 and 3 year old, and they illustrate with either colored pencils or crayons.
If you have older children than mine, investing in a watercolor journal for them would make some sense!
Phenology Wheel Resources
- Raising Little Shoots Phenology Wheel Guide (for a wheel representing 12 months)
- Compass (I bought a plastic one instead of a drafting one so that I could put the pencil of my choice in it)
- Sunrise & Sunset Times
- Moon Phases
- Weather (search by city to find past highs and lows and the weather)
- Instagram Accounts to Follow:
My Phenology Wheel How-To
I first use a compass with a HB pencil to construct my phenology wheel circles. I find the center point of my page with a ruler to set my compass to. The outermost circle is 3.75″ diameter and the innermost circle is 0.75″ diameter. I have a circle for each of the following:
- Sunrise
- Sunset
- Low Temp (actual, not predicted)
- High Temp (actual, not predicted)
- Weather
- Moon Phase
- Date
Once the circles are drawn in pencil, I use a ruler & pencil to divide the circle into 32 wedges. No month has 32 days so you will always have at least one wedge that is grayed out. Some people use that wedge to write the month in it.
Once I have everything created in pencil, I go back over it freehand (no ruler, no compass) with a Micron 005 Pen (be very gentle if you use this pen). Then, I erase my pencil lines. Why do the pencil first with a rule if I’m just going to freehand the pen? Because I want the wedges proportional! I like the style of a freehand ink line but I don’t want the overall wheel to be sloppily shaped & proportioned.
After that, I do some initial watercolors for most of the circles, write in my dates, and illustrate the moon phases for the whole month. The sunrise/sunset, temperature & weather data I wait to do until *after* that day has occurred.
The illustrated journal items on the outside of the wheel I do whenever I feel like it! I may write down some notes from a few days of nature exploration, and then sit down to illustrate a few things at a time.
Books to Inspire Nature Journaling
- Nature Anatomy Notebook by Julia Rothman
- Nature Journaling by Clare Walker Leslie
- Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie
- Drawn to Nature: Through the Journals of Clare Walker Leslie
- The Laws Guide to Nature Journaling by John Muir Laws
- A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
- Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden
- The Curious Nature Guide by Clare Walker Leslie
- Nature All Year Long by Clare Walker Leslie
- The Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie
THE SILVAN REVERIE 
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