How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook [Paperback]

Susan Leigh Tomlinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2010

*A one-of-a-kind, art-filled how-to guide geared to wildlife students and naturalists, based on the author s college course

*Pages from actual field notebooks clearly illustrate what works and why

*Hints and advice for outdoorspeople with even limited artistic skills

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Susan Leigh Tomlinson is a paleontologist, artist, and professor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, where she teaches a field craft class in the nature studies program. She lives in Texas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Stackpole Books (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811735680
• ISBN-13: 978-0811735681
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.4 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Susan Leigh Tomlinson is a professor in the Environment and the Humanities program at Texas Tech University.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "How To Keep A Naturalist's Notebook" February 9, 2010

By S. Stanicki

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The book contains very straightforward help on getting started keeping a nature journal. In the book you will find ideas on what equipment you should have for nature observing and journaling (using common sense), types of notebooks, how to set up a notebook, and making your pages attractive and informative with simple ideas.

It also contains very useful info on field sketching, and has simple practices to help you prepare to get outdoors and sketch animals that may move or disappear quickly. The author give you tips on what information you might like to record, how to use field guides, and what details about a subject you may need in your notes to later identify it.

This is an excellent book aimed at college aged people and above. Although I enjoyed Clare Walker Leslie's "Keeping A Nature Journal", I found Susan Leigh Tomlinson's "How To Keep A Naturalist's Notebook" more concise, to the point, but much more helpful to me. The difference may be that Leslie takes more of educators viewpoint, while Tomlinson is a paleontologist, and has a different perspective on journaling.

I would choose this over the Clare Leslie Walker's book, which seems more artsy than practical.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Looking With Your Arms Open March 31, 2010

By Story Circle Book Reviews

Format:Paperback

Are you a backyard birdwatcher curious about the lives and habits of your feathered friends? A hiker who wonders about the world you ramble through? An artist or writer seeking to learn more about nature?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, Susan Leigh Tomlinson's book is for you. This thoughtful and elegantly written guide shows you to how to dip beneath the surface of the natural world through keeping an illustrated field journal. We journal about our lives, why not journal about the other species around us as well? Observing and noting nature is a way of getting to know that wider, wilder community, and through it, deepening our understanding of our own species. It's a way of honoring the living world, as Mary Oliver writes in these lines from Where Does the Temple End; Where Does It Begin, which Tomlinson uses as an epigraph in the book:

I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.
Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around
as though with your arms open.

That kind of looking is exactly what Tomlinson teaches in this guide to exploring nature. She begins with the basics: what kind of notebook or journal to pick, plus pens, pencils, field bag, compass, hand lens, binoculars. Then comes the illustrated part: learning how to sketch or draw. You say you can't draw? Not to worry, Tomlinson can teach you. And along the way, she shows you how to use a field guide, understand scientific names (each of which is a story in just two words), refine your observation skills, ask questions and research what you observe, and polish your writing.

How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook is illustrated with Tomlinson's lovely sketches, as well as field journal pages from her students, none of whom, she notes for the faint-hearted among us, were actually majoring in either art or science. (So if they can learn to sketch and observe...) My only quibble--and it's a small one--is the book's design, which is oddly formal, like that of a textbook. Tomlinson did write the book for her students, but the design could still have embraced the informality of her wry sense of humor and the medium she's writing about. The design could have been fun and full of wonder, and thus honored the spirit Tomlinson brings to her relationship with nature--and life.

by Susan J. Tweit
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Practical and Achievable Guide March 13, 2011

By Wiltshire Bookworm

Format:Paperback

NB This review was first published by me on Amazon.co.uk...

I wish I'd had a copy of this book a few years back when I started my Designing with Plants course with KLC. The course requires quite a bit of drawing, particularly for the 50 plant profiles element, showing how each chosen plant plus 3 selected companions fit together. I bought a couple of botanical illustration books at the time as I haven't done much in the way of artwork since I was 14, but found them to be way above the level I needed and gave up the course soon after.

Whilst Susan's book is aimed at nature journaling, the guidance within is equally suited to someone like me who wants to keep a visual diary of their garden, garden visits, wildflowers or whatever takes a gardener's fancy. We may take many photos to keep a visual diary, but there's something about sitting down with a notebook, a pencil and either paint or crayons (or even those wonderful watercolour crayons) which really helps you to see.

Susan has plenty of sound advice on the kind of kit to put together and I've found it useful to have added a hand lens to my bag, so I can really look at plant details. There then follows a chapter on basic drawing skills, which looks at the shapes found in nature, putting these together, then adding shade, tone and colour to the drawing.

I was familiar with these principles from my previous purchases, but what elevates this book above those is that Susan then shows how these basic skills are actually applied in the field notebook context. This is much better for quickly gaining an impression of a place or a plant than a polished botanical drawing achieves. For anyone who still aspires to botanical artistry, this is also a useful step to master and is missing from the books I have in my collection. It's also much more achievable!

I also like the many step-by-step practical exercises Susan has devised for the reader to gain confidence and the many real examples shown from her students' field notebooks. Some of these also show Susan's comments to her students, so it feels like she's there guiding you through the whole process.

All in all this book has a much more practical and achievable feel to it, than the others I've tried. I've even used the skills I've acquired during some of the garden talks I've attended to quickly sketch a slide or photograph being shown.

How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook has 'translated' very well to this side of the pond :)