Nature Journal

While this is a nice idea as an accompaniment to Clare Walker Leslie's book, the paper is just awful. It is thin, smooth & shiny, unabsorbant and completely without "tooth". It will not take any sort of water media, and is very poor for coloured pencils. It will just about take a pencil sketch. I recommend that you save your money and buy a book of proper watercolour or thick cartridge paper from your local art store.Fabriano do a nice one called "Venezia" which is available from Heaton Cooper.

I was very disappointed that this book was not designed to use watercolor. They talk about watercolor in the description so I assumed that the book was made to be painted in. It’s not extremely thin paper. Even many pens would bleed through.

I'm new to nature journaling, but not new to nature. I am, in fact, a geezer who has spent much of his life outdoors. A friend told me that I should get 'Keeping a Nature Journal' by Leslie and Roth, which I did. Knowing nothing I also bought 'Nature Journal'.'Keeping' it's a great book. It will inspire you to journal, if you don't already. There's also plenty for semi-experienced or experienced journalists. If you, like most of us, don't think you can draw, buy this book.However, I'm reviewing 'Nature Journal'.'Nature Journal' is a bunch of blank pages for journaling. There are tips, etc, but it is mainly a pallet for self expression - journaling. What is so great about this book is the quality of the paper. You can erase any pencil drawings and hardly know they existed - particularly useful for newbies. I would think that the paper quality would also be great for pen and ink drawings (not there yet).I recommend the exercises in 'Keeping' but I use a standard Composition notebook for this. I try to draw daily from photographs (mine, but there are plenty available on the net.

If you want motivation for drawing nature, here it is. It begs you to go out in your yard, pick something that strikes your eye, and then draw it .It is delightful!

Taking time to be curious about nature is very relaxing! I am enjoying my journaling almost daily. This particular journal is a helpful start to a new way of life.