Anything Goes…in my sketchbook

Ok, THIS was fun—and meaningful. I am following along with Carla Sonheim/Kara Kramer’s class this month and trying to play in my sketchbook. The goal is to loosen up and be more prolific: fill pages and capture ideas quickly.

I am filling pages, but for today I’m just focusing on this spread.

First, this art page is true journaling. As I’m creating, I’m speaking to myself about how to start, because of course I know! My Inner Self always actually knows.

And also, I LOVE IT! I love the colors and the graphic qualities. It feels like me. I want to create more like this - bold shapes and patterns.

Everything but the chartreuse background and the titles is collage, and the process was so fun. I found a magazine with this gorgeous indigo/aqua visual texture I fell in love with. I started cutting shapes and then more shapes, arranging on the page, paying attention to the negative spaces, and then choosing chartreuse to complement the blues made me swoon, as did lettering on bubble shapes.

As I worked I thought about all the different things I want to create on any given day - sometimes paintings or collage, sometimes comics or zines, sometimes illustrated journaling or just wild creating in my sketchbook—Anything goes! But so often it’s so hard to choose and start.

So I thought as I worked, how do I start making something if I don’t know what to make? First, check in with myself: what do I need? I listed some possibilities. Do I need to play, explore, work on a goal? Maybe I need some calming or to tell a story or just to express something.

And also, how am I feeling? I added some feeling words for when I get stuck. Even though I’ve worked on it, I still struggle to remember to check in, name it and feel what I’m feeling.

On this day, I needed answers. When I acknowledged that I was feeling confused about my art practice, I realized art journaling was the thing I needed to do—and I’m so glad I did!