30 Days in Your (Art) Journal

I am two weeks into a 30 day online class from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer about the daily practice of art journaling.  I have been fascinated with this concept for about a year now, and in January started an art journal at the encouragement of Julie's Art Journal Every Day online community.

The things that make Julie's concept of art journaling so doable are a) there are no mistakes and b) spend just 10 minutes a day.  I started out really strong, enjoying the daily ritual, experimenting with paint and sketches, writing in a bit of the day's happenings.

While I've kept at it, adding to my art journal here and there, I admit that my practice changed as time went on.  I wanted to spend more and more time on each session, time I just didn't have.  So instead of limiting myself to the 10 minutes, I'd just skip day after day, waiting for an opportunity to play around without a time constraint.

A couple months ago I had a mind to change the focus of the journal, and use it as a life book/catch all.  I started adding To-do lists and grocery lists to blank pages, just trying to get back into the habit of cracking it open on a daily basis.   Not. Very. Inspiring.

When Julie announced that she would do an online art journaling class, I thought that would be just the thing I needed--having someone hold my hand and inspire me to get back to the basic premise of "just 10 minutes a day".  Boy, was I right!

Julie's video lessons are always so straight forward, and getting to see her talk through her process with the choices she makes is really helpful.  She really makes you feel that there are no wrong choices, no bad decisions.  And, she is sticking to that 10 minutes!  She sets a timer at the beginning of each lesson, and off we go.  After the video she types up a bullet list of take home points, and she always lists supplies she used and substitution possibilities so that you really tap into your creativity and don't feel like you need to go out and buy a bunch of stuff.  

Here is what I've accomplished in the past couple of weeks:

I am thoroughly enjoying myself!  I can't get over the culminating results of what only 10 minutes a day can become!  If you would like to join in or check it out, click here or on the "30 Days" icon on the right column of this blog.  

Thanks for visiting and letting me share with you!