Phenology Wheels (Day 9/31 #sol21)

Have you heard of phenology wheels? I’ve just recently become aware of these wicked cool artistic outlets to track changes in your environment across time.

Imagine a big circle, split into even pie pieces. Each pie piece could be a month in a year, or a day in a month, or any other slice of time that rings true to the artist.

Some people cordon off a month a year and draw what it looks like outside their windows so they can track seasonal changes across a year.

Others prefer to do a moon sketch every day for a month to track the different phases.

I’ve seen gorgeous phenology wheels that capture different birds each month for a year.

Seriously – the opportunities are endless, and people out there are TALENTED. If you search phenology wheels out there on the interwebs, you’ll be blown away. They’re gorgeous.

I’ve tried a teency tiny version of a phenology wheel, and I chose to watercolor a main memory per day for 12 days. Why 12 days? No real reason – it’s just the number of pie slices that my wheel happened to have when I sketched it out on my paper. See?! No big plan necessary!

My watercolor skills are firmly planted in beginner territory, and my general drawing skills might be their shady roommates, but here’s my very first completed phenology wheel:

I’ve just sketched out a fresh new wheel for round number two… stay tuned!