Assessing my February Weeknotes Experiment

This year began with a big intention to illustrate more of my life in my sketchbook. I’ve created those kind of pages haphazardly for years now, but I thought I would commit to a more rigorous practice. I got going in January but I challenged myself and followed through in February to create daily entries called Weeknotes where I painted one thing about my day each day and compiled them into a weekly sketchbook spread.

(I explained the project in my February Cover page post and shared spreads each week here on the website and on instagram.)

Now it’s March and after a full month of that Weeknotes experiment, I have some thoughts. And also new ideas for where I’m headed.

First, I loved painting these little illustrations. I stuck to goauche all month with the intention to express something of my days in an abstractified way (less realistic drawing), and it was great practice.

I learned a lot about painting with this medium as well as about my style. The seven pics in this post are my favorite from this Weeknotes month of illustrations, and I think there is a throughline. There’s a certain graphic quality. I like bold, high contrast color and shapes, and I guess I like clean lines. And a bit of quirkiness.

And yet…as these last two images created later in the month reveal…huh Maybe it doesn’t have to be so loud. And maybe I can go with more texture and layers. I think I like these two pictures the most.

All in all with this Weeknotes experiment, I gained a lot of clarity. Yes about painting and style, as I said—but also, more importantly about what I really want out of an illustrated journaling practice. And guess what? It isn’t to create daily illustrations of something in my life.

As much as thought I wanted to do illustrated journaling as part of my art practice, I realized this month that what I REALLy want, what lies beneath the surface of this ongoing creative desire to express myself—is 1) to create with paint and other art mediums because I love it (loving doing being enough of a reason), and 2) to express not necessarily what I do in my days, but what it feels like. To follow how I feel, in other words, rather than what I do.

So - I think I scratched that itch for documenting my days. I want to focus more on the pleasure and practice (and development) of mixed media painting and creating daily pages in my sketchbook that express rather than document.

Now, some would say (and my Inner Critic would lead the charge) that this is me quitting ("Again.”) But actually, let’s reframe: This is me evolving.

And actually? I’m proud of myself.

March 2026 Art Practice — and what happened in February

Okay! So March is here and I’m ready to go with my art practice intentions for the month. Here’s the cover page in my I made in my sketchbook and post on the front of my personal website, too..

And here’ are the January and February cover pages for reference.

I opened the year with a lot of experimentation. I’ve made daily art practice a cornerstone of my life for years now, but I was at a place where I didn’t really know what I wanted to make anymore, and didn’t know what I wanted my art practice to look like.

I’ve been in this place for a while. I’m totally committed to creating art—I love it! But…I’ve been feeling at loss for what, exactly, I want to make. So in January and February I focused on experimenting as a way to find out.

It turns out that what became the greatest focus of these two months was variations of illustrating my life in my sketchbook. And it was the February Weeknotes practice, particularly, where I learned something very important about my creative preferences: documenting my life doesn’t hold my attention. It’s not what I’m interested in spending my creative time doing. What I loved doing Weeknotes was simply the drawing and painting.

Okay, so not so much a discovery and a remembering. Oh yes. I really do love to draw and paint, especially in a more abstractified style that I want to develop. So that will be my March project. I’m going to draw and paint a series of wonky things in March. Let’s see how many pictures I can paint this month.

As for expressing myself in some daily way, I am also still committed to creating daily pages in my sketchbook—but I won’t be focused on documenting life. Coming to the page each day to create rather than document is a practice that has always served me well on so many levels—it’s where I learn, it’s where I explore and express, it’s where I meet myself where I am, fully present to the range of experiences that flow and float and scream through me onto the page.

And that practice, that daily experience of creating for myself, is enough.

So that’s March: Daily Pages and Painting. Hopefully a lot of it!

Weeknotes '26 - February 15-21

Okay, rounding the corner of this February experiment that actually began the last week of January, this makes week four. This week, I decided to lay out each day into a comics-style grid one one sketchbook page, painting and writing directly.

As opposed to week 1 where I collaged into a composition painted cards and text, week 2 where I painted and wrote my days in a more haphazard weekly spread, and week 3 where I collected a week’s worth of 5X7 paintings, written text over-layed on Procreate.

I am going to wrap up the experiment this next week with a final review of this month-long project, so I won’t get into what worked best or worst or what I learned, but I will say, for this week…the grid is okay. It does kind of tell the story of my week. Kind of. I don’t know.

I get a sense that I will get more out of this week’s work (and maybe the whole project) after some time has passed. I’m finding it hard to tell its value to me right now. Except I will say, I do like how the two faces turned out (Oliver and me).

Text reads left to right:

[SATURDAY]

“Congregation,” Jacob asked us in his one-man show at Berkeley Rep ([How] Shakespeare Saved My Life), “What would you choose - safety or freedom?” What a terrible choice.

[MONDAY]

Why is it so satisfying to make color copies on cardstock and slice them down edge by edge using a rotary cutter?

[TUESDAY]

We convince ourselves the rain has stopped, but as we drive down our street it pours again. We turn around and go home.

[WEDNESDAY]

After a busy, grey-skies morning, I settle into the purple hair to read, Oliver climbs into my lap, and suddenly the sun comes out, sunshine finding us through the windows. We both close our eyes.

[THURSDAY]

As Sherry and I walked in the sunshine pas the roaring creek below the street, I didn’t at first realize the water hitting my face wasn’t creek mist kicked up by the wind.

[FRIDAY]

Archie do it! he said, asking to be picked up. So i did and one by one, his little fingers switched on the electric candles on the mantel.

Weeknotes '26 - February 8-13

Continuing my search for how I want to do these Weeknotes (having tried so far this and this), I used gouache again, but this time on 5x7 watercolor papers and I limited my palette to JUST Winsor Newton Opera Rose, Holbein Cork Yellow and black and white.

THEN I uploaded them into Procreate to write the text on top of the digital images using a guoache brush. Much easier than trying to fit all that writing on top, believe me. Maybe not super legible? But I like the visual aesthetic.

I learned so much this week! First, man those colors out of the tube are BRIGHT, but once you get mixing, you get some lovely purples and oranges. I wish I’d mixed more. I was pretty critical of the colors mid way through the week—but as happens, I’m happier now with it. Bold and bright, yes. Me? Sometimes, yes.

Second, I have so much to learn about painting. Painting takes practice and it is time consuming in a good way. It was really absorbing and satisfying to paint in this way. And yeah, it took too much time for a project that is supposed to be small and sustainable over the long haul. But painting a series like this is good practice. I felt more and more in control as I continued with it and I know if I keep work, I’ll get better with guoache.

Third, I really love to abstractify objects—and ideas. The alarm clock and the water bottle, I think, are fun—and the C for Curves and using grey as a symbol. That was fun. The egret is my favorite, though. All in all, it’s been and continues to be a journey to develop an abstractified style—but I am improving and this kind of project really helps.

Finally, it takes so little time to write about one thing that happened in a day. It’s just about making it a habit. I end up editing the few sentences I write down even further—and of course, the writing is even better as a result.

Okay - so here they are individually - with the words and a few comments:

After a rough insomnia night, I woke up at 7:07. I made it out the door and too bootcamp by 7:40. Younger me just wouldn’t have believed it!

This was Monday morning. I’m kind of proud of this alarm clock depicting the alarm going off.

Pastor Paul stood at the entrance of the chapel in robes arms and doors wide open. “You are the light of the world” was the sermon of the day.

I don’t do Religion but I believe deeply in spirit. So I went to the Presbyterian church in Sausalito with friends this Sunday because I’d heard good things about Pastor Paul. Yep, truly spiritual.

I opened the door for Oliver to go out, but the wind blew leaves and rain spit at us. He turned away and, I’m sure of it, sighed.

Not bad with the abstractifying. I like the orangey-pink here. Wish I used it in more places.

A nice morning, i walked a few blocks to the gym before i realized i’d forgotten my water bottle. i had to pay $1.00 for hydration and its plastic insult.

That was Wednesday. I was so mad I had to buy a watter bottle—but I needed water!

“Twenty years ago,” Pat said as she showed me the machines,” there were eight Curves in Marin. I looked around t he room full of frail women in their eighties and nineties. all who are left. and me.

Yep, I joined Curves. And yes, at least in the morning, no one is under 75 I think. Grey hair for a grey Curves…but I need to build up my leg muscles on the machines and I need the cardio and the flexibility, so who cares?

At bootcamp, the egrets fished next to us, silently, peacefully.

Thursday - I watched the egrets as we worked out by the marshes. They are so beautiful.

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!

Weeknotes Feb 1-7 2026

Seven days, seven Weeknotes. Yay! I like this practice - it’s bringing me into my life (and less in my head). What is one thing each day to remember and express. One thing each day to draw.

I’m experimenting with how I want to do this new Weeknotes practice. I’m finding the process of capturing one thing each day in a few sentences super easy. Wake up, fire up Notion on my iPad, think about the day before and pick one thing to say something about. Easy. The next step is to capture one thing about that one thing visually - but how?

I can draw or paint or collage and also compose them collectively in any way. And I’m not sure yet which way I want to do this.SO. I’m experimenting to find what I like best.

Last week I painted on small papers and then arranged them as a spread in my sketchbook and collaged in typed text. This week I started on the left side of a blank spread and moved my way to the right, day by day. Drawing/painting/writing directly on the page.

I’m not sure either of these ways is how I want to go. Both weeks I painted with gouache, mostly. I like gouache a lot, but it is time consuming and I’m finding that I don’t know how to use gouache as much as I thought - again, good practice. I’m not loving how they are arranged on the page. Maybe I’d prefer something more linear. I also don’t like my handwritten text here.

I’ll try something different this week.