Children’s art is one of my greatest inspirations: it’s intuitive and impulsive, without the confines of “should” and “can’t”. Kids don’t have any sense of limitation, or any reason to doubt their own abilities.
Picasso famously said “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” And, in one of my favorite talks ever, Do Schools Kill Creativity?, Sir Ken Robinson spoke about the confidence of a child drawing.
Today, I encourage you to pull out some paper, or canvas, and explore like a kid. Cheap materials work well for this kind of exercise: you’ll worry less about “wasting” your supplies and focus more on experimenting.
Try picking a color — paint, pen, pencil — and making random marks on a page. Close your eyes. Use your non-dominant hand.
Step back. What color is next? What color feels like it should come next? Add that.
Step back again, and look at what you’ve made. How does it make you feel? What is missing? What materials can you experiment with? What’s next?
I find that when I create like this, I wind up with tons of messy pieces, some that I’ll toss or paint over. But often, I also end up with some very surprising and joyful works of art that I would never have discovered had I not let go and experimented.
Let go and channel your inner child: curious and unafraid of failing. And most importantly — have fun.
I have heard from a number of people over the course of my own creative journey who’ve said something along the lines of “I’m not an artist, but I’m interested in starting an art journal [or painting, or exploring collage]. Where do I begin?”
First up: yeah, actually, you are an artist.
Creating is innate; as a species, we’ve been expressing ourselves through dance, sculpture, music and painting for tens of thousands of years. You don’t need a degree to make art, and you don’t need to make “good” art to be an artist. All you need to do is start.
I wrote on My Peacetree — way back in 2011 — about the creative process:
The journey to creativity is not a static one: we must always be searching, pushing, moving, and striving forward. There is no end to be reached — there is only new discovery, exploration, growth, stretching, and learning […]
Art is something which must be practiced over and over again. It is only through this we can really make it our own.
As to where to start: What art makes you pause and stare? Go buy some of those materials — cheap ones are fine. Try them out. Make mistakes. Experiment.
Seek out other artists, look closely at their work, and pull elements of it that you love into your own. (Don’t steal others’ work, though! Incorporating colors and processes and materials is ok; duplicating work is not. And always, always credit artists where it’s due.)
What do you like about your art? Do more of that. What don’t you like about your work? Do less of that.
And above all else, don’t apologize for your work or for yourself. Take yourself seriously and others will, too.
As 2023 approaches, I am reflecting on the past and planning for the future. It’s my favorite part of winter: How did I grow? What do I hope for in the coming year? What is most important to me?
In addition to my art journal, I primarily use three kinds of journals to guide me: a planner, a commonplace notebook, and a log book.
Planner: Clever Fox Weekly Planner In early 2020, I bought my first Clever Fox planner. It includes space to create a vision board, identify goals and break them down by month and week, track habits, reflect on weekly and monthly wins, and, of course, keep a daily planner.
There are also ample dotted pages at the back for whatever is important; I keep my address list, book list, and other notes and things to reference here. There’s also a pocket in the back (my grandmother’s speech for our wedding reception is tucked inside).
Commonplace Notebook: Leuchtturm1917 I’ve been keeping some kind of journal for decades. Lately, I’ve loved the Leuchtturm notebook: it’s numbered and has a space in the front for an index list and plenty of creamy blank pages to write and doodle. I make it my own with a sticker.
Log Book: Moleskine Daily Planner Since reading about Austin Kleon’s practice of keeping a log of things done (rather than a to-do list), I’ve kept my own. This practice has been simple: right before bed, I write down in bullet points what I’ve done, people I’ve talked to or spent time with, and any major world events.
It’s also been a very meaningful habit: I now have more than two years’ worth of daily memories that I very likely otherwise would’ve forgotten. In 2020, I shared some entries from the pandemic.
Note: This is not a sponsored post, nor does it contain affiliate links. All opinions are my own.
I make my own art journals. They measure about 4.5×6 inches (11×15 cm) and are filled with watercolor paper. They’re simpler to make than it looks; the only special materials you need are chipboard, an awl, and waxed linen thread. Check out the tutorial I use here.
In the past, I’ve also used thrifted books or handmade books by other artists.
What supplies do you use?
I use many different kinds of paper for collage, from graph paper to security envelopes to vintage book pages to other things I’ve collected over the years. For adhesive, I use a regular glue stick.
When adding color, I use a variety of mark-making tools, acrylic paint, tempera paint sticks, and acrylic ink.
What is your process?
Lay down some collage
Scribble
Add some paint
Add some drips
I always let the wet media fully dry before adding new layers.
How do you take and edit photos of your work?
I take photos with my phone in natural light, placing my art on a white foam core board. I used to edit the shots with A Color Story, but it stopped being usable. Now I use Snapseed. Both apps are free.
More questions? I’d love to hear from you. Reach out through my contact page or on Instagram!
Somehow I’ve made it this many years before ever hearing about commonplace books. You, too?
Commonplace books seem to be, generally, a written collection of the things that attract your attention and pique your interest — a more right-brained version of an art journal, I suppose. The actual definition is broad.
Commonplace books are accessible
Wikipedia explains commonplace books as “a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books.” Kevin Egan describes them as being “like a ‘thinker’s journal’ that serves as a focused act of self-reflection and way to learn;” Ryan Holiday similarly calls them a “central resource or depository for ideas, quotes, anecdotes, observations and information you come across during your life and didactic pursuits.”
MasterClass, by contract, emphasizes that a commonplace book (they call it a commonplace diary) is not just a place to write all these tidbits down, but also a system for keeping track of the information you gather. Some people use index cards or a table of contents, or color code their entries. This is where my eyes glaze over, but it’s well worth reading about if that’s something you’re interested in.
What surprised me is that commonplace books have been kept for centuries, by both ordinary folks and historical geniuses. Marcus Aurelius kept a commonplace book, as did Virginia Woolf. Austin Kleon is keeping one that’s just quotes. I imagine that many of the diaries shared by Papers of the Past could be considered commonplace books, too.
There are no rules
That commonplace books aren’t a single definitive thing makes me all the more interested in keeping one. The idea of a daily journal intimidates me: I get caught up in the idea of what a journal “should” be — namely that I “have” to write proper entries, dated in order, while recounting my life and my feelings about my life. (My logbook has been the best and most sustainable way for me to record my day-to-day life: I’ve kept it up for over two years now.)
But writing down a sentence here and an idea there as I discover new things, mixed in with occasional personal reflections, seems just right, and is a much more apt representation of how my brain works.
Capture what you’re already paying attention to
Since discovering the idea of commonplace books — it was on September 6, and I know because I wrote an entry about it — I’ve jotted down a bunch of random and interesting things, including thoughts on value and productivity, deep work and flow, procrastination, and writing.
While it might sound lofty, all the excerpts I’ve written have been from tweets, newsletters, Reddit, TV shows, and other sources I was already visiting, reading, or watching. The difference is that now I have a record of things that inspired me. Now, I can go back and find connections, go back to the sources, get reinspired, and actually remember what it is that I’m interested in and what I like thinking about.
I’ll leave you with a song lyric that I pulled today that made me laugh (here’s the song):
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