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  Sensory Nature Journaling

The
Sense-ational
Nature Journal

Capturing sound, smell, touch
& taste in your nature journal

We experience the world through sight, sound, smell, touch and taste...yet most of our nature journaling practices focus on what we observe with our eyes. What happens when we use all our senses to capture a deeper understanding of the natural world?

In this workshop, we explored ways to visually communicate observations from all our senses, using techniques like line quality, words and charts to experiment capturing these hidden observations. Despite technical and timing challenges (grr!!!) folks persevered and generated elements for personal sensory vocabularies to add deeper insights to nature notes, and to invigorate  curiosity and appreciation of the natural world.

This session was designed for all levels of nature journalers and is a best fit for folks who are excited to experiment.

Thanks to all the participants who contributed, and huge thanks and shout-out to the events team: Roseann, Bea, Eva and Kathy who handled the tech issues and my timing issues with grace and care for the community. #thebestteam
~ as presented at Wild Wonder 2021 Online Conference
    June 2021
For decks & templates, visit the Presentation Deck section.

For resources and attribution, visit the Resources section.

Session Materials

For the session:
  • Your favorite mark-making tools:
    • Pen or pencil
    • Recommended: a pen with a flexible tip, like a marker or a firm brush pen. My favorite pen is the Fudenosuke Brush Pen from Tombow. But any flexible-tip pen can work.
  • Sketchbook / nature journal
  • Blank paper (about 5 sheets, plain printer paper is fine)
    • or printed templates (optional, see below)
  • 1-2 natural objects to draw <-IMPORTANT
    • Have something that has interesting textures, and that you can safely touch.
  • Optional:
    • Colored pencils
    • Watercolors + brush
    • Any other materials you like to use when journaling

Session Presentation Decks & Downloads

Presentation decks and downloadable template packets are listed in the Presentation Decks section.
Materials are available both for the live session version and the re-recorded version.

Additional downloads

Attributes Reference Sheet

A list of attributes for each sense. This cheat sheet helps you unpack a sense into more specific observations.
• Cheat Sheet for attributes of senses [download, pdf]

Word Lists for Sensory Vocabulary
Word lists of vivid and potent words to expand your sensory vocabulary. Organized by sense.
• Word Lists for senses [download, pdf]

Online Gallery

View work on the online gallery

Picture
About the facilitator:
Hi, I'm Kate. I'm a visual journaler, sketchnoter, and recovering tech entrepreneur with a rambunctious and sketchnivorous visual practice; I believe that looking closely and drawing the natural word makes for a life of curiosity and wonder.

I teach at the California College of the Arts, host the East Bay Sketchers Meetup group, and have illustrated a couple of books. I have a BA in studio art from Wellesley College, and once daily journaled the first 100 days of the growth of an avocado pit. You can find me on twitter and instagram at @katerutter.
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