Why I keep a journal

From a small moleskine sketchbook where I am compiling all my ideas and inspirations about Illustrated Journaling.


I took an Illustrated Journaling class to get my creative juices flowing again. It had been years since I drew for fun...In fact I do not even remember drawing just because I enjoyed it. But I did know this: I enjoy drawing...enough to know that I wanted to do it more. Before, the drawings I did were comissioned by someone, for a project for a class, but not for me. I had never attempted to draw in order to record my life. I kept written journals here and there, but never filled one of them. I guess they bored me. I remember in college, my drawing professor told us we should be keeping sketchbooks. Which I did - only they were only filled with drawings, sometimes with a line or two description. He encouraged us to write when we drew. Write about colors, sounds, smells, textures. I didn't get it then and I never did it. I didn't get it until now. I love to write. I love to draw. Now I see writing and drawing as one - inseperable from each other. A drawing by itself can not tell the whole story. I look back at drawings I've made in my college sketchbooks and wish I would have understood what I now practice. I wish those drawing had been accompanied with thoughts of how I felt about what I drew, where I was, what I was thinking about, etc. In the same way, I wish my written journals had included drawings. Especially my travel journal from my trip to Italy. It is one of my biggest regrets, as I didn't visually record my trip in any way except slides. Someday I hope to redo my Europe Journal as an illustrated journal. So now, here I am, well on my way to completing my second illustrated journal. It is part of my life now. I take my journal everywhere. And in the few situations where I have left it behind, I often scrounge around to find some kind of surface to draw on, an envelope, a napkin, a receipt...whatever I can find. Life is more exciting. I am more fulfilled and happier and less stressed. I have found inspiration in my illustrated blogging friends online. I have been blogging myself for nearly 8 months. I share my drawings, my experiences, my life with whoever comes across it and I have discovered that I have become an inspiration to many people...even people I do not even know. As the years go by, I will look back through my journals and remember the moments I have recorded in them. One day my kids, maybe my grandkids, will read them and know more about who I am and what I did and how I felt. They will not forget me.