Enough Excuses – Get Creative! Keeping an Artist’s Journal
Get creative anytime, anywhere!
Do you feel that you would love to be more creative, but never seem to be able to find the time to set it aside for artistic endeavours? Why not try keeping an artist’s journal with you whenever you’re on the move, to record some of your day-to-day activities?
Even keeping just an A5 or A6 slim-line sketchbook with you, and some fine-liners, colouring pencils or coloured gel pens is enough to start you off, and can keep you artistically engaged in the world around you. Even better, you don’t have to carry lots of materials around, nor do you have to set aside special time after a long day to do it – just keep your drawing gear in your bag!
Seize and capture any moment!
Whilst you’re on the bus, waiting for a train or in the airport, in a queue at the post-office or even on a lunch break, taking out a sketchbook and drawing/ doodling/ writing can really calm you down, help you to relax and allow some small moments of creativity into your day-to-day. Whether it’s a peculiar architectural detail, a quick interaction between two strangers or simply a colourful window display that captures your attention, try to note it down in whatever way comes to you. Drawing has been proven to relieve stress and engages your brain in a different kind of mental stimulation – and it’ll help you to put down your phone and be with yourself a little more.
Our Hahnemülle journals and booklets have lined pages alternating between blank pages, allowing you to note down ideas, thoughts and bits of poetry, or even funny comments overheard at a supermarket. All these minor moments that you capture eventually build into something much bigger, which you can look back on in your visual diary. Small ideas or colour studies quickly noted down can also be the germinations of bigger ideas, such as a series of prints, paintings, a poem – or even all three.
Pen, pencil, watercolour, pastel… use anything you like!
If you’re feeling a little more ambitious, and love the idea of noting the wonderful changing colours of spring, for example, you could always keep a Van Gogh watercolour pocket box, a travel-size bottle of water and some Fabriano A6 postcards with you. Equally, carrying a handy small pack of Rembrandt pastels with an A5 or A6 kraft paper sketchbook means you’re always prepared to embrace the surprising, moving or intriguing moments of your day. You could also collage onto some pages in advance, with newspaper, magazine cuttings or tissue paper which can give you something to work on, instead of the (sometimes frightening!) blank white page. As you become more accustomed to carrying a sketchbook around with you, your observation and drawing skills will also develop.
Remember – you’re not setting out to make a phenomenal ‘work of art’ here, nothing needs to be judged. If a drawing doesn’t work out, don’t worry, just move onto the next page, and you can always make it into something else at a later date. You are making personal observations that relate to you and the quiet moments you encounter throughout the day, and no one needs to see what you do – unless you want them to!
Images courtesy (top – bottom):
Jenndalyn, Charlotte Alice Murray, Miss Wearer, Andrea Joseph