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 #4 The Treecreeper Climbs
There is a moment past midwinter, sometime in the depths before spring, that the birds together seem to agree to fill the days with song once more. This moment varies by location, and a spell of poor weather will silence them again for a time, before the more pressing demands of spring override all.
I went for a walk on a gloomy, mizzling day into a local woodland. Descending the muddy path through an alley of small trees tangled with the winter skeletons of wild clematis, honeysuckle, dog rose, and bramble, was like walking through a corridor into a concert hall. The orchestra were the birds, mixed voices all together, rising in varied but harmonious song.
Most of these birds were too far away to see, their small forms hidden in the taller trees outside of the alley tangle and blocked from view. Then, as the alley opened out, a little bird came into view close by, sat on a tree trunk, its beak pointed up toward the branches. It was a little treecreeper. Startled by my sudden presence, it flew to a neighbouring tree a little further from my position.
Treecreepers are more easily seen in the winter, busy in their forages among the cracks, mosses, and lichens of the tree trunks. They love a good oak, the deep crevices of its trunk are full of food to keep the treecreeper occupied and slow its journey up the tree. Once it reaches the fork of the lower branches, it seeks here for a time then ducks down to fly to the next tree and begin over. With my big camera to hand, I was able to watch the treecreeper feed for quite some time.
The Page
The Process
The ambition with this page was to create a soft-effect background, like looking through the mist down the tangled alleyway into the woods. I would then paint the treecreeper more boldly in the foreground, on a moss-and-lichen-laden branch to represent its favourite feeding environment.
To make the soft background, I used the Derwent Inktense Studio Pan Set and made sure the paint was well washed down in the plastic palette lid. In this case, I did not wet the paper first but instead used very wet paint, moving quickly to allow the colours to slightly blur together. Using a large brush with a fine tip, I painted the shapes of the trees directly onto the wet background. This allowed the forms of the branches to blur, creating the misty effect.
When the background had almost dried, I used some extra paint to emphasize some of the important parts, like the shape of the ground disappearing down into the woods, with the curved trees looping round it, making a circular, holloway-like effect.
The bird and branch were then painted over the top, using much less watered-down paint, allowing its form to stand out strongly from the background, giving the illusion that it is much closer to the viewer.
The Video
You can watch the process of creating this painting, including a look at the practice pages, at the end of this vlog (from 17:09).
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.
