Keeping a Nature Journal, 3rd Edition - by Clare Walker Leslie (Paperback)

About the Book

This revised edition of the classic guide Keeping a Nature Journal has a fresh look, with full-color art and expanded sections on journaling styles, drawing techniques, and how nature journaling can be a valuable means of self-expression and a tool for fostering mindfulness and connection with the natural world.

Book Synopsis

Hone your observation and drawing skills with this mindful nature journal, filled with prompts to get you engaged in the world around you.

Clare Walker Leslie's approach has long been acclaimed for its accessible style of teaching people to see, witness, and appreciate the wonders of nature. With an emphasis on learning to see and observe, Leslie shows how drawing nature doesn't require special skills, artistic ability, or even nature knowledge in order to reap the benefits of her book.

Originally published in 2000 with endorsements from E.O. Wilson and Jane Goodall, Keeping a Nature Journal was at the forefront of the nature observation and journaling movement. The third edition features more of Leslie's step-by-step drawing techniques, a new selection of pages from her own journals (which she's kept for 40 years), and an expanded range of prompts for observing particular aspects of the natural world in any location.

From the Back Cover

For more than 20 years, this award-winning book by acclaimed naturalist and artist Clare Walker Leslie has introduced people to a different way of seeing the world. This fully revised third edition features Leslie's inspirational techniques for becoming a skilled observer of the natural world and using drawing as a tool for deeper exploration, even if you don't consider yourself an artist. Richly illustrated with Leslie's own journal pages, sketches, and watercolors, as well as examples from journals of generations of her students, this book is an instructive guide and encouraging companion you'll turn to
again and again.

Discover

• How to set up and use your journal
• How to hone your observation skills
• Essential journaling equipment
• Drawing techniques and exercises
• Lessons in drawing plants, trees, birds, animals, landscapes, and more
• Suggestions for maintaining a regular journaling practice

Review Quotes

"A keystone book for anyone developing their nature journaling skills. The insights of one of the best and wisest teachers fill every page."--John Muir Laws, artist, naturalist, author, and educator

"Deepen your connection to the natural world with Leslie's easy journaling techniques. Be inspired, healed, and filled with joy as you start your own nature journal!"--Jessica Bussmann, Director of Education at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts

"Having known Clare Walker Leslie for over 45 years, I have been privileged to observe her development of this very personal, detailed and practical approach to nature journaling. It is just delightful to see this talented artist and teacher present us with her most comprehensive "how to" publication to date. Clare is not just entertaining us with her unique, keenly observed illustrations and text; she is instructing us (and imploring us) to develop our own techniques for recording the amazing natural world around us."--Trevor L. Lloyd-Evans, Director, Landbird Conservation, Manomet

"Leslie's captivating journal pages ease you into the practice of keeping a nature journal. Now, more than ever, this practice is needed for solace, learning, connecting, and caring."--Sandy McDermott, artist and teacher

"This new edition of Clare Walker Leslie's classic book provides pleasure for hand and eye, while offering an alluring pathway toward greater attentiveness to the beauty and mystery of the world. She explores both the "why?" and "how?" of nature journaling, in an engaging, encouraging, and accessible approach. Naturalists of all skill levels and backgrounds can benefit from this offering."--Thomas Lowe Fleischner, Ph.D. Executive Director, Natural History Institute; Editor: Nature, Love, Medicine: Essays on Wildness and Wellness and The Way of Natural History

"Using Leslie's easy-to-apply techniques, my students were joyful, engaged, thinking on higher levels, and motivated to learn." --Stephen L. Houser, Jr., elementary school teacher, Recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching, and American Geological Institute's US Earth Science Teacher of the Year

About the Author

Clare Walker Leslie is a nationally known wildlife artist, author, and educator. For more than 30 years, she has been connecting people of all ages to nature using drawing, writing, and observation of the outdoors. Her books include the bestsellers Keeping a Nature Journal and The Nature Connection, as well as The Curious Nature Guide, Nature Journal, and Drawn to Nature. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Granville, Vermont.