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Thursday, October 12, 2017
How to Combine Drawing and Writing into Deeply Personal Art Journals
mymodernmet.com: You might have heard that keeping a journal is a great way to record your thoughts and understand your emotions. Typical journaling involves only writing—but for those who are more visually inclined, an art journal is a great alternative.
9 comments:
BinhAn Nguyen
said...
Journaling has become a social phenomenon that I have loved observing. There are hundreds of people on youtube who post their monthly processes of setting up their journals and, though I don't have one, the process seems very soothing. I think that flipping through art journals shows how beautiful they are, especially when the person has filled up their journal to the brim. However, I have never been able to start one myself because I feel like it should be a relaxing experience. Even though the article says that it could be whatever you desire and doesn't need to all be masterpieces, I still feel an internal pressure to create a journal that seems "insightful" and "emotional" and "loved." This pressure of an expectation of relaxation has always stopped me from art journaling, though I can see how it could be an emotional release for others. Instead of keeping a journal that is specifically meant to show my current inner emotions, I have found that keeping a much much lower key notebook has helped me document and organize my life. I use this notebook to write down to-do lists and ideas whenever it comes to me and I even use it to write class notes when I have nothing else to write with. I have found that, because there are not predetermined guidelines that I have put on this book - its not exclusively drawings and isn't meant to be cool and pretty - I can use it comfortably.
I’ve always wanted to do something like this. However, I have zero to none artistic talent. All these journals look incredible, they’re so fluid and each page or entry leads into the next seamlessly. I, for whatever reason, can’t make myself write like that. I’m much more into the drawings of straight lines to make a grid, so this more free-formed journaling would look bad and I would hate doing it. Also, I’ve never been a huge journal writer so daily entries about my thoughts have never seemed worth it. I journal more to keep my scheduling and assignments organized than to record my thoughts and feelings. The article quotes: “Above all, art journaling is a way to practice self care. It encourages you to take a little time for yourself—even if it’s just for 15 minutes a day. When you look back at what you’ve written, drawn, or stamped, you can gain valuable insight into the challenges in your life.” Which I don’t agree with at all.
Art journalling seems to be a very healthy way to release stress, anger, sadness, happiness, pretty much any and all emotions. The best part is that you get many beautiful works of art out of it, and a document of your life chronologically. I don’t keep an art journal like the ones in the pictures, but over the last few years I have kept a sketchbook. In those sketchbooks I have drawn, explored concepts, phrases, feelings, I have taken notes on art pieces in museums, I have journaled just a little bit, and through these things, my art has developed and my style has become more defined. It is also beneficial for me to have a place to keep all the things I think in my head but never tell anyone or make full art pieces out of. I love looking through my old sketchbooks, comparing them to my art now, and seeing how the things that I liked and my perspective has changed.
Art journals so are beautiful and interesting and I really wish I had more time to develop one. In high school one of my art classes did something similar and it was really fun and freeing to make a new creative page every week, though we didn’t make it so much into journaling as creating sketches. I really liked taking that hour or two each week to fully develop a page. I feel like if I started again I would get overwhelmed by all the really good pages from completed art journals that I would use as reference. I would just never start even though I know that it is only through practice that you can get better. Also, I think of art journal, wrongly, as making full blown art pieces when really at it’s core it’s journaling about your life, which takes a lot of pressure off making it perfect. In terms of this article, I really liked some of the ideas they gave at the end and that they gave some supplies to help you get started.
Art journals might be one of the only positive distractions that someone can add to their day. As the author of the article says, there is a lot to benefit from by keeping an art journal. It is very interesting to see people that are even in class and I see them drawing right on their notes. See, if that was something that I tried to do it would not end will. I think it is hard to say how drawing effects any given person, for me I would get very distracted and not pay attention to what is actually going on. Another person might be able to draw the entire time and retain the importation better than if they weren’t drawing at all. To me, this is truly fascinating and I hope to find the ability within to do the same. For now, I will just enjoy the imagery in the article and hope that one day I will be able to something that powerful.
Before I headed out to college I really enjoyed bullet journaling but I find that I don't have time to sit down and organize for as long as I used to. However this is something I could get into. This seems to be a way to help visualize and realize emotions and I think thats just what most humans need. The images included in this article are so stunning that I automatically thought "but I can't do that". And I think in a way that's the point. I can't attack the empty page the same way that the artists featured can but I can bring myself to it in a new and interesting way. This could easily be coupled with a poetry exercise that I want to get back into doing everyday called "Morning Pages". It is meant to be done in the morning and it is just a mental dump of all the words in a poet's mind so they can abandon those thoughts and get back to the poeming of it all. I think I will try to combine these and see how my focusing abilities change.
This is actual something that I have done since I was probably about 14 years old. I have boxes full of art journals from over the last decade. I have from time to time moved towards a more traditional journal or tested out new ideas such as bullet journaling or even the one line a day journal but have found that personally the art journal allows me to express myself in a way that other journals cannot quite achieve. The use of an art journal allows me to de-stress especially when I have allowed for it to be a low-pressure experience with in which I can explore and create as well as express myself. One of the major benefits of journaling is that it simultaneously allows reflection and self-awareness while one is writing. In its own way an art journal can do this too and allow insight into your life as the years pass as well as allowing for beautiful work.
The concept of an art journal is very interesting to me, as I am a person that keeps both a sketchbook and a writing journal but I have never really combined both into on journal together. I have always thought of words as a way to express ideas, while drawings as a way to verbalize emotions, and for some reason I have found it more beneficial for me personally to keep those two separate rather than being self aware of in a journal that combines both. After reading this article, I definitely think that art journaling is one of many ways to have a daily self care regimen. In the crazy schedule of CMU it is hard to remember to take time for yourself, but I think even just taking 15-30 minutes out of the day to write or draw or do something that makes you feel better as a whole and allows you to get in touch with who you are as person is beneficial to staying true to yourself.
Journaling is a fantastic release for us to document the experiences we have in a day, and they can serve as a record for us to reflect on. A massive factor that goes in to being able to maintain something like an art journal is the amount of time you have to do so. Allowing yourself to be free to create work that stems organically from your experiences in that week is something that is so important for us all to pursue, and a level of ownership over where we are emotionally and mentally at each stage of our lives can be established. I like how the article gave the reader ideas as to how to begin and what are some good materials to begin. The photographs of other peoples’ art journals were incredible to look at, and I really do want to try it, possibly in a minimal way where I can stick with it despite a busy schedule.
9 comments:
Journaling has become a social phenomenon that I have loved observing. There are hundreds of people on youtube who post their monthly processes of setting up their journals and, though I don't have one, the process seems very soothing. I think that flipping through art journals shows how beautiful they are, especially when the person has filled up their journal to the brim. However, I have never been able to start one myself because I feel like it should be a relaxing experience. Even though the article says that it could be whatever you desire and doesn't need to all be masterpieces, I still feel an internal pressure to create a journal that seems "insightful" and "emotional" and "loved." This pressure of an expectation of relaxation has always stopped me from art journaling, though I can see how it could be an emotional release for others. Instead of keeping a journal that is specifically meant to show my current inner emotions, I have found that keeping a much much lower key notebook has helped me document and organize my life. I use this notebook to write down to-do lists and ideas whenever it comes to me and I even use it to write class notes when I have nothing else to write with. I have found that, because there are not predetermined guidelines that I have put on this book - its not exclusively drawings and isn't meant to be cool and pretty - I can use it comfortably.
I’ve always wanted to do something like this. However, I have zero to none artistic talent. All these journals look incredible, they’re so fluid and each page or entry leads into the next seamlessly. I, for whatever reason, can’t make myself write like that. I’m much more into the drawings of straight lines to make a grid, so this more free-formed journaling would look bad and I would hate doing it. Also, I’ve never been a huge journal writer so daily entries about my thoughts have never seemed worth it. I journal more to keep my scheduling and assignments organized than to record my thoughts and feelings. The article quotes: “Above all, art journaling is a way to practice self care. It encourages you to take a little time for yourself—even if it’s just for 15 minutes a day. When you look back at what you’ve written, drawn, or stamped, you can gain valuable insight into the challenges in your life.” Which I don’t agree with at all.
Art journalling seems to be a very healthy way to release stress, anger, sadness, happiness, pretty much any and all emotions. The best part is that you get many beautiful works of art out of it, and a document of your life chronologically. I don’t keep an art journal like the ones in the pictures, but over the last few years I have kept a sketchbook. In those sketchbooks I have drawn, explored concepts, phrases, feelings, I have taken notes on art pieces in museums, I have journaled just a little bit, and through these things, my art has developed and my style has become more defined. It is also beneficial for me to have a place to keep all the things I think in my head but never tell anyone or make full art pieces out of. I love looking through my old sketchbooks, comparing them to my art now, and seeing how the things that I liked and my perspective has changed.
Art journals so are beautiful and interesting and I really wish I had more time to develop one. In high school one of my art classes did something similar and it was really fun and freeing to make a new creative page every week, though we didn’t make it so much into journaling as creating sketches. I really liked taking that hour or two each week to fully develop a page. I feel like if I started again I would get overwhelmed by all the really good pages from completed art journals that I would use as reference. I would just never start even though I know that it is only through practice that you can get better. Also, I think of art journal, wrongly, as making full blown art pieces when really at it’s core it’s journaling about your life, which takes a lot of pressure off making it perfect. In terms of this article, I really liked some of the ideas they gave at the end and that they gave some supplies to help you get started.
Art journals might be one of the only positive distractions that someone can add to their day. As the author of the article says, there is a lot to benefit from by keeping an art journal. It is very interesting to see people that are even in class and I see them drawing right on their notes. See, if that was something that I tried to do it would not end will. I think it is hard to say how drawing effects any given person, for me I would get very distracted and not pay attention to what is actually going on. Another person might be able to draw the entire time and retain the importation better than if they weren’t drawing at all. To me, this is truly fascinating and I hope to find the ability within to do the same. For now, I will just enjoy the imagery in the article and hope that one day I will be able to something that powerful.
Before I headed out to college I really enjoyed bullet journaling but I find that I don't have time to sit down and organize for as long as I used to. However this is something I could get into. This seems to be a way to help visualize and realize emotions and I think thats just what most humans need.
The images included in this article are so stunning that I automatically thought "but I can't do that". And I think in a way that's the point. I can't attack the empty page the same way that the artists featured can but I can bring myself to it in a new and interesting way. This could easily be coupled with a poetry exercise that I want to get back into doing everyday called "Morning Pages". It is meant to be done in the morning and it is just a mental dump of all the words in a poet's mind so they can abandon those thoughts and get back to the poeming of it all. I think I will try to combine these and see how my focusing abilities change.
This is actual something that I have done since I was probably about 14 years old. I have boxes full of art journals from over the last decade. I have from time to time moved towards a more traditional journal or tested out new ideas such as bullet journaling or even the one line a day journal but have found that personally the art journal allows me to express myself in a way that other journals cannot quite achieve. The use of an art journal allows me to de-stress especially when I have allowed for it to be a low-pressure experience with in which I can explore and create as well as express myself. One of the major benefits of journaling is that it simultaneously allows reflection and self-awareness while one is writing. In its own way an art journal can do this too and allow insight into your life as the years pass as well as allowing for beautiful work.
The concept of an art journal is very interesting to me, as I am a person that keeps both a sketchbook and a writing journal but I have never really combined both into on journal together. I have always thought of words as a way to express ideas, while drawings as a way to verbalize emotions, and for some reason I have found it more beneficial for me personally to keep those two separate rather than being self aware of in a journal that combines both. After reading this article, I definitely think that art journaling is one of many ways to have a daily self care regimen. In the crazy schedule of CMU it is hard to remember to take time for yourself, but I think even just taking 15-30 minutes out of the day to write or draw or do something that makes you feel better as a whole and allows you to get in touch with who you are as person is beneficial to staying true to yourself.
Journaling is a fantastic release for us to document the experiences we have in a day, and they can serve as a record for us to reflect on. A massive factor that goes in to being able to maintain something like an art journal is the amount of time you have to do so. Allowing yourself to be free to create work that stems organically from your experiences in that week is something that is so important for us all to pursue, and a level of ownership over where we are emotionally and mentally at each stage of our lives can be established. I like how the article gave the reader ideas as to how to begin and what are some good materials to begin. The photographs of other peoples’ art journals were incredible to look at, and I really do want to try it, possibly in a minimal way where I can stick with it despite a busy schedule.
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