Thursday, April 19, 2007

Keeping an Illustrated Journal

I think I mentioned before the book I was reading by Danny Gregory called Creative License.
I've been trying to add to my currrent journal- spicing it up a bit by making it more of an illustrated journal. You don't have to be an artist to do it, but it's a great way to artistically express yourself. Danny says if you really want to SEE something, draw it. I need to settle down often and try to be more "in the moment" and I think this idea of drawing would help me with that. AND, what a great way to capture interesting moments, and notice the beauty that surrounds me all the time that I often take for granted.

One thing I intend to do that has felt challenging is to take my journal with me wherever I go so when I have some extra time to jot something down, I can. The other day I went to a day-time concert perfomance and I had my journal with me. But I felt so self-concious about other people looking at me, or worse-my journal, I did just a tiny little fast drawing that really didn't capture much of anything. Just an odd sense of embarressment.

I'm working on getting over that. So last night, I facilitated my group I meet with on Wednesday nights and told them all about my enthusiasm over the illustrated journal- or at least the idea of it. I gave the "assignment" of carrying it around and jotting things down in it for one week. I gave them the assignment not only because I think it can open up all sorts of creative ideas, but because I wanted the assignment as well.

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