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In my nature journaling project for 2025, I am following the Japanese calendar of 72 microseasons (little ‘seasons’ of about 5 days each). I am painting a journal spread for each microseason I identify and writing a little description to accompany it. This year, I am using only art in this journal to convey the changes through the year, no dates and no words on the pages themselves. This is forcing a creative and responsive artistic method, new to my nature journaling practice so far.
Season #1 We Emerge from the Darkness
The shortest day has passed and today dawns later and brighter than we have known for the past week. A few moments longer before morning twilight but a few seconds more of dusk. The change feels perceptible somehow as the first red glow emerges behind the hill, casting the shape of every tree into relief. Each silhouette of winter nakedness, each branch black-on-red, a cold and dark west-facing slope clings on to the last moments of stealth. Then the red slides slowly up the sky, making way for a slither of orange, which moves to paint the clouds. Slowly, before your very eyes, the black veil lifts from the fields and the pale blue-grey of frost sweeps forth, glittering. The shapes of the hedges on the slope can be seen now, the beloved and intimately known shapes of fields. The old starling tree is no longer black-on-black but black-on-grey. It has its familiar form once more. Open the window and feel the bite of the morning, the crispest of air. Hear the distant susurration of the waves against the pebbles for just one moment more before the first car passes and the sun’s arrival at the top of the hill banishes the red morning to blue.
The Page
The Process
A straightforward painting for this first journal page, using a Derwent Inktense studio pan set and Skrim Jewels of the Sky watercolour to add frost to the fields (Use code ALEXBOON at Skrim for a 15% discount). Notice that a minimum of black was used to recreate the silhouette of the hills. It was largely mixed from Natural Brown (the closest to Burnt Umber in the pan set) and Payne’s Grey to make a very dark shade that has a greater richness than black. Black Inktense was used on the hills in particular to create a greater contrast with the sky.
The sky was built in layers, beginning with the pale cyans, oranges, yellows, and pinks that underlay a sunrise then layering on top with more vibrant versions and finally the stormy Payne’s Grey of the clouds. The most dramatic sunrise in this part of the world is made by its clouds. Not the intensity of an African sunrise in a wide clear sky but the dappled chaos of each individual cloud catching and reflecting the light from the sun below. It is a matter of patiently dotting each cloud with the bright colours it reflects, then laying the Payne’s Grey on top for the cloud itself.
The Video
You can watch the process of this painting in the first part of the below video. Make sure you’re subscribed to my YouTube to follow the progress of this project throughout the year!
Want to have a go yourself? The Nature Journaling Circle membership is a welcoming space for you to learn field sketching and other nature journaling skills with me. There’s a monthly live tutorial and a social session, plus access to all my pre-recorded video courses and a community of lovely nature journalers from around the world. If that’s something you might be interested in, consider joining us here.
