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 #6 (20-24 January): Lapwings Flock in Lifting Mist
Lapwings frequent the river valley in their hundreds each winter. Morning and evening, or just when startled, they stand up from their positions on the grassy islands of the lagoon and lift as one into the air. Lapwings make distinctive shapes in the sky; the black of their scalloped wings and the white of their underbellies, the distinctive black torc around the neck, together with their movements, make them unmistakable.
Mist is common through this season; it seems as though one is looking through the landscape through a grey veil. The lapwing flocks soar in and out of the veil, now solid shapes against it and now indistinct, as faded and far away as the distant trees.
The Page
The Process
Like the reeds, the challenge in this page was to recreate the softened, indistinct background landscape behind the lapwing flock. I began once again, with an Inktense painting, deliberately stronger and more vibrant, knowing that it must show through some further paper layers.
This time, rather than the orange-brown of the onion skin paper, I sought a cooler tone to represent an altogether murkier weather. I chose tissue paper, basic stock used for packing orders at the studio. I tested this with a few practice pages, laying tissue over a painting or silhouette.
The birds were drawn from a mixture of reference photo and imagination, choosing interesting shapes and positioning them in a pleasing constellation. Each bird was drawn directly onto the tissue paper with fineliner before the paper was glued to the underlying painting. There are three secrets to a good result: (1) choosing a transparent-drying glue, (2) slow and careful laying of the tissue over the painting, and (3) carefully gluing from the spine outward, ensure that the tissue is well tucked into the spine, to avoid it bubbling up when the book is opened.
A water-reversible glue, such as EVA, is your friend. If it all goes wrong, as it did for me first time round, saturate the page of water and scrape away the tissue. Then begin again. Note that this only works with Derwent Inktense or another ink product that dries permanent on the page – don’t try this with watercolour!
The Video
You can watch the process of creating this tissue paper collage page and the practice pages, in this vlog.
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.
