If you have been reading my blog long enough you will know I am a big advocate for art journalling. It is my paper brain filled with all the ramblings in my head be it my grocery list of my art ideas. It is the way I aggregate my thoughts overall.

But I tell you, journaling was not always something I was driven to do. Hell, I find I even resist it to this day. But honestly most of the time as thoughts and ideas bubble up, I jones for that quiet time with just me, my favorite pen and my book.

Now granted many people have little note books for notes. I began moving my note to my an art journal because it was easier to keep everything in one place. As I began to slowly add little bits of art and ephemera to that book, the magic of art journaling began to evolve.

So today I thought I would share with you the top 4 most awesome things I have experience because of art journaling.

Through art journaling, my signature art style started to emerge.

How could it not when everyday I was adding just a little bit here and there. It is the repetition that made that style second nature. I have no doubt that style will evolve over time. But by journaling I became more comfortable with all areas of creating and expressing through color snap and texture.

I became brave enough to just use my supplies with out fear of “messing up”.

It is not that I became more skilled, I became more fearless. Anyone who has any kind of stash of creative supplies, knows what I am talking about

I increased my productivity.

Because I can hammer out my work in my journal, I am able to think through so many stages of my work  before I began. In 2001, I taught a computer design class at my alma mater. Much to the chagrin of half my students, I required them to keep a sketchbook. On the day of finals, they had to execute a design and turn in the thumbnails and rough sketches along with the final. Half the class did thumbnails after the design thinking they could save time skipping this step, the other half did sketches before the design (I can tell but the amount of ideas that did not make the cut). The half that took the time to do the sketch work first, finished way faster than the half that did not.

I will alway have ideas to unhinge creative blocks.

I would like to think I have a grasp on all my awesome creative ideas. But with only so many hours in a day/week/year, some of those awesome ideas get back burnered and eventually forgotten. I do not know how many times I have gone back through my books to discover a long forgotten idea whose time has come to be set into motion. It is almost uncanny how looking through is almost as if I am reading someone else art journal. Seeing all the old information with fresh eyes, changed by the perspective of time can yield insane new creative sparks. It is almost like a little gift from my past self.

I am sharing with you my journal video from a year ago. I go through my books and share how simple, messy and forgiving my books can be.

So my question for you is…of course…do you journal your ideas? If so do you do any kind of art journaling, or is it mostly notes? Leave me a comment below. and if you like this post please share!