Visual Journaling

I am not much of a journalER...When I was a kid, I had a diary, that my brother found and he read one of my entries out loud. I was soooo embarassed that I swore I would never write down my thoughts again.

Well,(more than) a few years ago I read "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. She talked about a good way to start tapping into your creativity was to start every morning with "morning pages." 

These pages are pretty much 3 pages of notebook paper where you just write. They don't have to make sense, no worry about capitalization or punctuation. You could even throw them away after you were done (that last part perked my curiosity). Well, the point of the "morning pages" is to dump thoughts, worries and even my prayers to God onto these pages so my mind could be clear to receive those ideas that are trying to come, but are getting cut off by all the things that are tumbling around in my head. I tried them and I liked doing it. I found that it did help me to be more creative. 

Consistency is a problem for me, so I did not keep up with them.

Well, I did found something similar to the "morning pages."

       It was called "Visual Journaling." 

There is a book, however, I have not read it.
I am loving this way of journaling. It is not only "morning pages" or "brain drain" but it also involves some drawing. These 'visual journaling entries" have even inspired some new artwork ideas for me. What I love most about it is that it is always a surprise what I end up with. So, here are the steps that I follow below...

• 1. When you first wake up, write a page of whatever it is that is in your head.


• 2. I read a chapter in Proverbs or any other bible passages.


• 3.Close my eyes and let my pen move across the paper ( I try not to think about anything specific.)


• 4. I open my eyes and try to see what image or images I can find in my scribbles - just like when you find images in the clouds.


• 4. Take a sharpie and outline your images.


• For me, I am really pleased with the images I am finding.

• You can let these inspire some new artworks. 

•  I hope this helps some of you out there with creativity!