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Making Art Everyday

Sketchbook Journaling

This week we’ve got something extra special for you! Since our theme this month is GROW, we’ll be taking a look at how much you’ve grown as an artist. I’ve designed 7 really cool sketchbook journal pages for you to write, draw, and doodle all over – right in Procreate! By the end of the week you’ll totally see how much your drawing skills have improved and how much you’ve grown!

I also made you the perfect pencil for journaling in Procreate. Download it for FREE!

Download the Jounaling Pencil Brush

Click a prompt below to jump to that section 

1

Past Reflections

2

Art Manifesto

3

Growth Map

4

Draw your Future

5

Award Ribbon

6

Tools for Growth

7

Star Chart

How to Use the Sketchbook Journal

Step One: Download the sketchbook Procreate file and the Journaling Pencil Procreate brush. (above)

Step Two: Import Procreate file. You’ll notice that the “Page Assist” feature is on because of the bar along the bottom of the screen. This will allow you to flip from page to page.

Step Three: While you’re on a page, go to the layers panel and open a group. You’ll see two layers: one that contains the journal prompts and another that says “write here.”

Step Four: Select the “Write & Draw Here” layer and fill in your sketchbook journaling pages!

Have fun!

Prompt 1

Positive Past Reflections

Our first journal prompt invites us to look back and reflect on a past piece of art. It could be one you just created last week, or even this time last year. What’s important is that you reflect on your art in a positive and loving manner (as if you were talking to yourself how you talk to your best friend.)

Instructions

  1. Pick a piece of past art and call out 5 things you like about it. It could be anything from “love the colors I used” to “I am really into what’s happening right here with this paint swoosh texture.”
  2. Next, reflect! Pick one or more questions to journal about.
    1. What inspired you to create this piece? Maybe you saw a youtube video about the solar system and you wanted to draw your own. Maybe you saw an artist doing something cool and you wanted to try it yourself.
    2. What parts of this drawing did you enjoy making? Let’s practice emphasizing process over product because as artists we know it’s alllll about that creative process.
    3. What was your biggest challenge while drawing this? Maybe you had a hard time drawing the legs of your lion, or the hair texture on a person. Whatever it was, note it… and then congratulate yourself on not giving up and finishing your art piece.

Prompt 2

Art Manifesto

Art Manifestos have been helping artists declare their mission throughout history. Writing your own art manifesto can help you define who you are as an artist, motivate you to keep making art despite your own challenges, and give you that extra bit of creative inspiration if you’re feeling like you may be in a creative rut.

Instructions

  1. If you feel like you don’t know where to start when it comes to writing your own art manifesto, here’s a Pinterest board of other artists’ manifestos. *Note how they made their manifestos look like art itself!
  2. Answering these simple questions can give you a good idea of what you’ll write about:
    1. Why do I make art? What motivates me to create?
    2. What do I enjoy about the art-making practice? What parts bring out the positive feels?
    3. Lastly, what challenges would I like to overcome?

Prompt 3

Flower Growth Map

Today we’ll expand on our dreams and goals while taking a peek into the past at our roots. The practice shows how far we’ve come and makes us grateful for our roots (even if they don’t look as pretty as the flower that stemmed from them).

Instructions

  1. ROOTS: Begin down at your roots section and take inventory of where your art journey started. Maybe you are new to drawing and decided to participate in MAE this year. Maybe you got your start by going to college to be a graphic designer.
  2. STEM/LEAVES: Now let’s focus on the middle section (the stem that holds your goals up.) This is your road toward your goals and as with every road, there are new chapters or challenges to overcome. Use the leaves of the flowers to note your art-journey chapters or challenges.
  3. FLOWER: Finally, use the flower petals to write 1-5 of your dreams and goals. These can be large or small. It’s totally up to you.

Prompt 4

Draw your Future

This practice will help you look toward the future and get all charged up to achieve your goals. For this journal entry, we’ll pick one of our goals from the previous post and we’ll write or draw them coming true!

Instructions

  1. Pick a goal from the previous journal prompt.
  2. Write about this goal as if it’s already happened.
Writing in future tense is a tricky thing to do, but here’s an example to help you understand: Say your big goal was to illustrate a children’s picture book. In your journal prompt, you would write about it as if you’ve already done it. For example:
 
“Today Penguin Publishing reached out to me about illustrating their children’s book My Zoo Trip! They had seen my animal illustrations online and thought I’d be perfect for the fit! They’re offering me $1000 per spread! I am so excited! This is a dream come true.”
 
Alternatively, if you didn’t want to write it, you could draw it! If one of your goals is to have a beautiful art studio in your house, draw what that would look like.

Prompt 5

Award Ribbon

If you’re feeling like you’ve done a lot of soul searching and reflecting while working on these prompts you can rest at ease for today’s prompt because this one is short, sweet, and to the point. Today we will be giving ourselves an illustrated award for something we’ve accomplished. You can use the award in the journal pages or draw your own. It doesn’t have to be an award either, it can be a trophy, blue-ribbon, or gold star.

Instructions

  1. Think of something that you recently did that you’re proud of. It doesn’t have to be huge. It can be as simple as “Gave the baby a bath today.” or “Folded my laundry right after I took it out of the dryer.”
  2. Celebrate your win! You’ve earned it!

Prompt 6

Tools for Growth

Now that we’ve reflected, let’s set ourselves up for success. What are your tools for growth? How do you plan to water your beautiful art garden?

Instructions

  1. Watering Can: We all know the saying “you can’t pour from an empty cup.” So how will you practice self care or provide for yourself?
  2. Gardening Boots: These protect your feet while gardening, but today we’re going to ask ourselves what we’ll do to protect our art-making practice.
  3. Shears: Every good gardener knows that to have new growth, you need to trim back. What will you trim or cut back on to help your art-making practice grow? (I.e. Maybe you spend hours scrolling on Instagram and you want to do less of that and more art-making.)
  4. Soil: Healthy soil gives a garden a great place to thrive! How will you tend to your soil to ensure you have a good art-making environment?

Prompt 7

Star Chart

We all remember being in grade school and doing almost anything to earn that gold star! We’ll today’s prompt is a little different in that you’re going to give yourself as many gold stars as you want!

Instructions

  1. Make a list of everything you’re proud of yourself for doing
  2. Use the star Happy Star Stamp Brush (below) to give yourself all the gold stars your heart desires.
Bonus points if you decorate your star chart! Then print it out, hang it on your fridge so you can always be reminded of how amazing you already are!
Download The Happy Star Stamp Brush

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Bardot Brush was created by California-based illustration artist, teacher, and all-around creative person, Lisa Bardot.

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