the year of ILLUSTRATED WEEKS: 2019
This was the year I dug into my journal and made it a visual journal—which became three books full of notes, journaling, lists, ideas, plans—and monthly and weekly illustrations. This became my main art project for 2019. I began the month by creating an illustrated divider page. Then, week by week I created an illustration to capture something of that week.
This web page is home for this project. Below you’ll find a gallery of monthly dividers, my reflection on the project as a whole and the full collection of weekly illustrations.
Monthly Divider Pages - Visual Journal
Reflections on the Project
Wow. I started this project it because I wanted some structure to my art practice, and I also wanted to capture my year, visually. I had no idea how it would turn out, but I am proud and surprised by what happened.
My one creative goal this year was to improve my drawing and to that end, my one commitment was to practice as often as possible—ideally every day. Working on that one 2-page, illustration in my visual journal every week moved my daily practice forward, often jump starting other work as well.
The reason I kept going—of course, of course—is that I really enjoyed the process. From conceptualizing each weekly page in pencil, to inking and adding color, I surprised myself many times. And yes, there were weeks where I had no ideas or met with resistance—but I had time to work through those challenges and get to it. And I did. All in all, I’m just super proud of myself: 12 monthly dividers and 46 weekly illustrations.
I expected that I would learn a lot with this project and I was not wrong. I learned to love drawing even more. I learned more about watercolor and ink and lettering and conceptualizing ideas. I took risks - especially drawing myself - and I learned that I could be comfortable with imperfections.
I have SOOOO much more to learn—my life long creative journey continues. I want to take my drawing further and to explore ways to bring that together with my other interests, especially my concern and love for the earth. If nothing else, I am more motivated and more in love with drawing than ever—and I can’t wait to keep going forward.
