VISUAL JOURNALING

Happy July little puff pastries! How are you?

Today we're talking all things VISUAL JOURNALING - a fancy name for drawing and writing your days.

Page from my visual journal 2017 (which made me laugh reading it this morning!)

Do you keep a sketchbook, travel journal, or visual journal? I used to keep visual journals religiously. For years, I'd document my days - even when things didn't seem interesting, the ordinary became a spectacle. Mostly I drew food, places I went, conversations I had, visits with friends. Simple things. I worked in Micron pen - sometimes adding marker. I'm not sure if it was covid, or that I was just bored of drawing, but the practice became quite sparse after moving to Japan. (In hindsight I'm furious with myself for not making it a daily practice there - so many little moments lost to time). Visually journaling helped keep me grounded and connected to myself and to fill that void, I started meditating and writing morning pages - which has been huge in my mental health - but I miss drawing my days! I miss connecting to my thoughts in a creative and visual way. What’s better is now going through them and recounting all the details of my life I would have undoubtedly lost. Here are a couple pages from my journals of yesteryear.

Mostly food and friends, who can blame me?

I have limited entries from my time in Japan which I kick myself for.

Drawings of people from memory…

More food and a friend who also happens to be a dog in a diaper named Fuku.

One of my last serious entries in Oct 2021. Yikes it’s been so long!

When Meera and I were presented with the opportunity to teach a retreat abroad - it wasn't a tough decision to focus on visual journaling. She's the author of many journals and someone who reflects deeply in image and word. With all the major projects she's working on - including bringing a bright star of a human into the world - she doesn't have much time to give her to own personal drawing and writing practice. On my part, I know how enlightening visual journaling was for me and I wanted so badly to make it a part of my practice again. We decided to teach in France to a group of 18 students and after a year and a half of waiting, we jumped on a plane to Toulouse! Today, I’m excited to share a bit about the retreat but also some tips if you’d like to start visual journaling yourself. The students taught me so much, and there's no way I could discuss today's topic without their insight and brilliance.

THE RETREAT

I’ve never wanted to paint a landscape so badly!

In the rolling countryside about an hour outside of Toulouse, we stayed at La Salamandra. The place was welcoming, and lovely - a perfect place to spend eight days together drawing, painting, and talking shop. The first night everyone arrived, we had a welcome BBQ and each met, sharing where we were from, what brought us to the retreat, and what we hoped to gain. It was a varied group, each coming from a different background of life and art, but honestly, it couldn't have been a better fit of over a dozen strangers coming together. Everyone was thoughtful, earnest, creative and kind. We lucked OUT! I truly miss each and every one of them already and wish I could have scooped them up and brought them home with me.

[image error]

Literally surrounded by the best humans on the planet here.

View fullsize
View fullsize
View fullsize
View fullsize
View fullsize
View fullsize

The week was filled with visual journaling lessons, prompts, an amazing zine workshop from Meera, an acrylic gouache demo, trips to Rabastens, Albi, and Lisle-Sur-Tarn. We visited the Toulouse Lautrec Museum and ate ratatouille and wandered tiny streets, collecting what I estimate to be 2,087 photos of doors and windows. While Meera and I half expected most of the students to lounge by the pool and relax, many hours were spent in the art building working away on their visual journals. A studious and earnest group of artists to say the least. Below is a slide show of just some of the highlights of the trip and the students working.

Photo by Ginger Williams Cook
Photo by Chanamon Ratanalert














[image error]







Photo by Jamilla Beukema

Can I be super honest? I haven’t felt this alive and like myself in SO long. I saw the pic (below left) and wanted to post it because it captures the joy I think we all felt. I was in my element and I think the others really loved being in such a thoughtful group of artists too. I’ve missed teaching and being around people and exploring and having deep conversations and crying to strangers. I can’t thank Meera enough for being such an incredible teaching and travel partner. She kept me grounded through some tiny bumps and also always found the best restaurants to eat at. <3
I’m itching to plan another retreat - some abroad but also some in the US so keep your eyes peeled! I’ll announce anything that comes up first on Patreon, and soon after in my newsletter. I know Meera and I will be teaching this visual journaling retreat again as well!

View fullsize
View fullsize
VISUAL JOURNALING TIPS

This could go by other names - it could be a sketchbook, a travel journal, a collage journal - anything that has you recording visually. I wouldn't get caught up on the details of doing anything 'right' or working within any sort of boundaries but for the sake of organizing my thoughts - I usually work in one of three ways.

ON LOCATION
This is sadly rare for me, but it's lovely when I make the time. I usually keep it simple on location - a couple of markers or colored pencils and a micron or other black pen. It's also fun to draw with larger pencils or chunky crayons to get some gestures of location. When you sit down to draw in person - pay attention to way you're paying attention to. Is it the details of brick? Is it the sky and the way a building fits into the landscape? Perhaps it's the people that you end up drawing. I personally love to draw old buildings and people in person - I rarely get jazzed about drawing trees or plants because they overwhelm me.

[image error]

I pasted a small drawing of the chateau in Rabastens into my larger sketchbook. The tea bags I drew from life during one of Meera’s lessons.

One of my fave drawings from the trip - from Lisle-Sur-Tarn. Really trying to be free and exaggerated with my line work here and get more wild!

Doing an impromptu sunset drawing demo and Salem came out onto the balcony, waving hello! My drawings always come to life when there are characters.

Collaged this together from drawings on other pages. The art room and the cypress trees I drew on location. The color emotions were from an exercise Meera led!

FROM MEMORY
If you're new to drawing, working from memory might be intimidating for you. But it can also be really fun! The point is making a recording of the memory - the feeling or event of the experience - maybe what caught your eye. The basic shapes and happenings of the situation. It's not to record every detail correctly, it's to just mark the memory. Sometimes my memory drawings are of the things I saw, but often they are drawings of myself and other people, experiencing time together, or food I ate, etc.

Drawing from memory also sharpens your observational skills because you have to really see things to imprint them in your memory to draw later.

Our first day in Toulouse on the right. I collaged this from the tram ticket and old paper, and also used previous drawings I didn’t love, to create new ones. I’ve actually never worked in a visual journal this way - creating such detailed work after a trip but it was really fun and helped me process my time away.

This was fun and also new - I rarely put this much color into a visual journal. Just proof that we can keep changing and growing!

FROM PHOTOS
I don't love drawing from photos because everything has a certain flatness to it. It's best if you're drawing from photos you took so you can remember (however slightly) the actual feeling of being there. That said, it's not always possible to sit and draw for hours, so snapping pics to bring home and draw in your studio is a wonderful way to work. One of the students in the retreat, Ginger, had a great way of working that I'd never considered - she started drawing quickly on location but then snapped a pic to finish the piece back in the studio where she'd have more time. I think it's so smart! You get the energy of drawing in person but the finesse of the final piece unrushed.

I drew these from the photos I took - I still have to do the details that I loved. Maybe I’ll share it finished next month! I rarely draw from photos when I get home but it was a nice way to process everything.

View fullsize
View fullsize [image error]
View fullsize

I truly can’t thank everyone enough - from Uptrek who put the retreat together, to Marléne and Mart who were our gracious hosts to all the students - friends - who trekked all the way to France to spend 8 days with total strangers. I miss all of you already!

If you want to see more, I posted a bunch of other visual journal peeks on last months post on The Dessert Club Patreon. This month, I’m sharing the time lapse video of this little memory drawing page. I also have a poll running for the next painting process video - I’m either painting something with French pastries, an old window or building, or……the most EPIC sailor that ever was! Painting goes up mid July so hop onto Patreon and cast your vote!

Ok friends, take care of yourself and one another. And eat lots of blueberries and strawberries and tip your toes into water if you can. It’s SUMMER!! It always just flies by way too fast doesn’t it??

xoxoxo,

B