Journaling

A week ago or so, Tim gave me a set of 12 water color pencils and a notebook as a thank you gift for helping him with his teacher evaluations. I took the gift to heart and I decided it was time for me to bring out my art side.

Since then, I've been drawing a surprising amount.

I started by trying to draw simple things, like flowers and frogs. The results were pretty decent.

When Luke saw some of my work, he suggested that I create an "everything" journal. Essentially, it's a journal that includes text and images. 

I figured it was worth a shot. Notebooking is something that I've been considering for a while. I'm the kind of person that tries to do an insane amount of things simultaneously, and I find that a lot of the things I learn come in one ear and out the other. For me, the best way to remember things is to write them down, but I figure it's best to not write a blog post about every little thing I do in order to remember it. Perhaps that's more of a personal endeavor.

So I gave it a try. The first day I took random notes on things throughout the day, and I attempted to draw the portrait of Vladimir Nabokov on the back cover of my copy of Lolita.

The first thing I learned in this process: DO NOT USE PENCIL. IT SMUDGES LIKE CRAZY.

After that, I began noting in blue pen, although I continued to draw some more portraits in pencil.

I did this for a few days, but I noticed that my complex thought process could not be coherently expressed through the lists. Additionally, my ghastly handwriting gave me headaches.

My first thought was to learn something about design. To me, design is about turning chaos into coherence. It's about taking the complexity of the world and converting it into a form that can be tangibly digested.

So I googled some blogs, browsed until my computer gave me another headache, and put my pen to the paper. Though I was inspired by many of the images I saw, the one I stole from the most was a book about flatting written by New Zealander Lauren Earl.

The results were immediately evident.

I quite like making art because it helps me clear my mind. As you could imagine, I have a huge tendency to think too much for my own good. Art gives me relief from that.

My main concern now is with materials. Right now I'm using a slightly thicker than average blue pen on a basic sketchbook. Should I use a higher art quality pen so I have more drawing capabilites? Should I be using paper that doesn't seep through? Where do I even start looking for those things? I don't know jacksquat about art materials.

Thankfully, I'm in no rush.