Category: Journaling

Journal Prompts for this week

Creativity / Journaling / Journaling Prompts

Make a cuppa and take a break for a few moments. I have a few articles of interest to share. Each holds an interesting tit bit and all make good jumping off points for a written journal entry. I often use this sort of reading matter as a journal prompt. One of the topics that is an ongoing reading project which is driven by the question “What makes a person creative?” Following this interest I came across Leonardo da Vinci: How to See the World Like Nobody Else by Zat Rana who is summarising Walter Isaacson’s ideas explored in his …

Morning Urban Sketching at the Arboretum

Journaling / Travel Journal / Urban sketching6 Comments

We have started our training for our next travel adventure. Yes we are planning another long walk across Spain but that is not the sort of training I meant. I have increased my urban sketching as I hope to keep more of a travel sketch journal this next trip. I usually manage a few sketches in my travel journal but this time around I am wanting to record the trip with even more sketches. Today we walked from our home to the National Arboretum, a trip of about 11km. The arboretum is set in a hilly part of Canberra and …

How to keep a journal

Journaling4 Comments

How to keep a journal Just about every self-development book and blog tells people to keep a journal, but not necessarily how to keep a journal. I’ll let you in on a secret – it is not particularly difficult to do and there are no rules to keeping a journal. You can write, draw, glue-in ephemera, take photos and paste printouts in your journal whatever you enjoy, is OK. If I had to think of ‘rules’, I would recommend you date the page and add your entries chronologically. However, I am sure somewhere in the world, there is someone journaling …

Why Keep a Journal

Journaling25 Comments

Do you keep a journal? I have been squirrelling away my thoughts in one for almost 30 years. Today, I will share with you why I keep a journal. I encourage readers to take some time out every day – take some self-time and enjoy the process of writing. Journaling is a very worthwhile, practical and interesting thing for anyone to do. Journaling does not take too much time in any one day, but to gain benefit from the process you do need to be consistent. It is one of those activities that the more you do it the more …

The 1000 Journals Project

Art Journals / Journaling / Resources online / Reviews2 Comments

I have always been fascinated by 1000 journals project.  Browsing the website I enjoy the raw, unmediated creativity of it. Since the project started there has been a film made about it and a book produced. Today I thought I would share some links to this inspirational site Graphic designer Brian Singer who goes by the name “Someguy” purchased blank journals real, physical book kind of blank journals and released them into the world in the summer of 2000 in other words he gave them to friends, left them public places such as coffee shops, book stores,libraries, park benches.The project …

Finding threads of a story while traveling

Journaling / Travel Journal9 Comments

I am not sure what I feel about omens as sometimes they sound like new age clap trap but I did pause to think about the person who carried this shell on a pilgrimage. This shell dated at 1200 AD was found in the old city at Bristol. Now, the interesting thing about this shell is that this type of shell is not found in British waters. The scallop shell is the symbol of St James and worn by pilgrims as a sort of badge while walking the Santiago de Compestela in Spain. In times past it was believed to …

Journaling is not about perfection

Art Journals / Journaling9 Comments

Journals don’t have to be perfect. This applies to all types of journals, studio journals, written journals, art journals or what I call observational journals. A quest for perfection is a curse.  They do not have to hand crafted pages of mini masterpieces on each opening. Something that really puzzles me is someone saying they have a collection of empty notebooks that they do not use because they might “spoil” them. Using them is what makes a notebook better. An empty notebook is just paper but put some ideas down or some doodles it takes on a life and becomes …

Some ideas on how to journal

Art Journals / Journaling / Sketching   10 Comments

I am often asked how to journal. Journals can be kept in any way you choose. You can write in them, sketch in them, add photos, paint in them, do a collage, paste ephemera in them in other words just about do anything in them! There is no certain “look” or style in journaling. There is no blueprint that must be followed, no right or wrong way to keep a journal. There are no rules because they are a creative space and if you tie up a creative space in too many rules it quickly becomes a non-creative space. In …