Above: a page spread from a journal I made with Lion's Cover, a now defunct paper from Barcham Green (also now defunct). I love painting on this paper, yet whenever I start a journal with it I always find myself covering it up with notes from projects and meetings. It's my life. I keep on using these books. It's more important to me that I use them and enjoy them instead of trying to save them to make the perfect journal—the perfect journal is the one where messy pages and notes abound, where my life is reflected. Click on the image to view an enlargement. See other selections from this journal at the above link.
I've been writing about taking trips and mini-vacations. Well, now I want you to consider taking one away from your favorite paper. Or away from the paper you normally use, which isn't your favorite, to one which you don't believe you "deserve."
For everyone this trip will look different. For some, who make their own books and use exactly the papers they want to use, it will mean taking up a book filled with cheaper paper, or making a book with paper that isn't one of their favorites, or purchasing a book (like a Moleskine, or a Hand•book…).
For others, who buy commercially made journals this will mean buying a different brand, or "gasp," making one of your own (and don't worry, it doesn't have to be an elaborate structure—just a pamphlet structure is fine—it's about the paper not the structure).
Which ever way you go, use that new paper for at least a week, and if you can stand it, use it for a month. Pick a paper that will allow you to use your favorite medium (for me that's pen and ink). But go into this project knowing that if things go badly with the paper you might be using pencil, or a different pen—and that's OK, because it's about exploring. And it's about sitting with something that might be ever so uncomfortable and working anyway!
So for some of you the project will mean that you are going to purchase 5 sheets of that expensive paper you've only read about. Or maybe you're going to drop $30 on a Moleskine Watercolor journal? The trick for you will be to ignore your internal critic as he yells at you that you are wasting valuable paper on meeting notes and grocery lists and drawings which have only the slightest resemblance to their subjects. Just tell him to shut up.
For others you'll be working in a Japanese school exercise book that cost 3 bucks and your internal critic will tell you you're wasting your time. Just tell him to SHUT UP!
At the end of the week (or month if you can allow yourself the time), take an assessment of what happened. Maybe you switched to a higher quality paper and saw an improvement in your work you weren't expecting. Now you'll need to look at how you can make that paper a regular feature in your life. (Yes this means you might have to set a new series of priorities for your budget, or work a few extra hours, or eat out less, or save for the one special journal you can afford every year—it is within reach in some way if you move consciously towards it.)
If you switched to a lower grade of paper you might find a new abandon and ease entered your work (one which you can carry back to your favorite high-quality paper), or you may even find that you prefer the inferior quality paper (because what is "inferior" after all if you're having a great time creating?).
Why experiment this way? We get into habits that don't serve us. Why spend $80 a month for paper when you can get by with, in fact thrive on, using a $3 notebook with ruled lines? Why listen to an internal critic who shoots your efforts down without ever giving yourself permission to really fly? (It doesn't matter if you don't soar right way, what matters is that you give it a shot.)
So for people who are using commercially bound sketchbooks and journals go to my page that lists links to my reviews of several. Flip a coin or draw a number, whatever, just try a new one, different from your normal choice. One of my most pleasant journaling experiences was in a surveyor's notebook.
If you are looking for higher quality papers read my post on buying paper samplers for suggestions. Or you can read my two-part post, Paper: What Do Visual Journalers Want, starting here.
If you don't think you deserve quality papers read my post: Journaling Superstitions #12: Art Papers are Only for Painting.
Which every way you currently tend—switch it up. You will learn in a week of experiments, or a month of entries, something valuable about your skills, your tastes, and your goals.
... and the same works for the medium as well: I had a very (VERY!) hard time learning to use my *best* pencils and crayons. Possessing the usual product lines like the Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer and Polychromos, the Derwent Ink Tense, Drawing, Watercolour, Studio, Coloursoft, GraphiTint, Tinted Charcoal, Lyra Rembrandt, Copic Markers plus the Refills, Neocolor II etc., mostly the whole range of these lines, what did I use in the end? Right, old pencils and colours, I had doubles of from shopping "errors". Those stacks and piles of coloured pencils were only taken out when the time I had before me - mostly in the evening when the children are sleeping - seemed long enough to *really do something* as if there was a certain rule not to doodle with these precious things. I had to learn to mess around a little bit with them, disorder them instead of putting them back in their place right after use (not to talk about actually learning to use them at all before, the hardest part that hold me back from doing anything for about ten years due to lack of self esteem and courage).
So your great advice to change something about the daily art routine could be widened to the medium used. If one only uses the most expensive crayons he might surprised by the creativity a simple pencil can release while others who fear to waste the good supplies should take comfort in using those with joy and even abandon.
As you wrote before and ever so often, it's all about releasing, not restricting the art in you and the ways to get there are as different as we all are.
Posted by: Julie Paradise | June 28, 2010 at 03:18 PM
Julie, I'm so glad that you have learned to mess around with your art supplies instead of being intimidated by them.
Yes all this applies to supplies as well as paper. I have written elsewhere on the blog about changing supplies and focusing on one media to get some facility with it. (I've written about this more than once I think, but at least one post fully about it—of course I can't right now remember what to look it up under. So much for the utility of search engines.)
My point is that it is always good to look at ways habits (whether it's paper or reliance on a certain medium) can be pushed so that we can benefit from them. But with some restraint, in the following way—not a new medium every day.
Basically it comes down to this, change one variable at a time to push what you can with that change. The variable can be the paper, as suggested above, or the medium you elect to use, but it needs to be one a time so that people can see the change and possibilities.
Too often new visual journal keepers switch from one journal to the next, each with different papers, every day of the week, keeping 4 journals going, using different media in each journal and wonder at the end of the month why they seem so frustrated and worn out.
Better to focus on one type of paper in one journal and really work it out with different media you are familiar with, or your one favorite medium as I mention above, until you see what is really happening between you and the paper and the medium.
This leads to some mastery, some success, and the confidence to branch out from pencils to colored pencils or to pens, or to watercolor, all on the same paper, over time.
Once you get that base of understanding about paper and materials that's when I believe people are in the best position to really make strides in their art, make discoveries, and release their creativity.
The most memorable piece of art at a recent show I saw was a 5 x 7 inch portrait of a man's face made with ball point pen! The paper looked to be a good quality paper, but not a $30 a sheet paper. The result was stunning because that person had mastery over his medium (the biro) and was comfortable with the paper he used.
Even if we stick with a paper for a month and really, really try it out and find at the end of the month that it has been grueling—well we still know we don't want to use that paper any more and have solid reasons why, not just some wimp reason like, "ah, there was a storm coming and the air pressure gave me a sinus headache," or "I ate potato chips for lunch and they didn't sit well and I couldn't concentrate," or the very simple, "I didn't sleep at all last night."
If we use something regularly over time, in all situations then we really know the problem is with the material and not the other little things that jump up at us through life.
when I train students to track with their dogs one of the most important parts of the training is that they go out every day for the first 6 weeks. It's a huge time commitment but it builds a base for the rest of their tracking partnership. One of the things it does is establish work ethic for both the student and the dog. Another thing it does is prepare the dog and handler to track in any kind of weather, any conditions, because they have gone out and worked a problem whether they felt like it or not.
I have that attitude towards art.
Work the problem, whether or not you feel like it!
Again, Julie, I'm so glad that you are finding a way to use your materials and push yourself and your creativity. Kudos to you and your efforts!
Posted by: Roz Stendahl | June 28, 2010 at 04:40 PM
I decided to "go shopping" in my own art supply stash and to drag out all the paper I thought I didn't like and give it a new try. Much to my surprise, some of the paper I'd rejected, I now like again (or like more than before). It really feels so great to be using up my stash of supplies. I promised myself no more shopping until I've made a dent in what I already have. There are treasures lurking right in our own cupboards. Here is a nice paper for visual journaling or for anything, for that matter. If you have not tried the Strathmore Dry Media paper/sketchbook/pad, give it a whirl. It's 100 lb. paper and takes pen and ink and washes really well. It is not so hot for watercolor but for sketching, doodling, drawing, writing etc. it works really well. I don't know how gouache would work but I'm happy to put a few sheets in the mail to you if you'd like to try. :)
Posted by: Janine | June 29, 2010 at 08:32 AM
Janine, congratulations on your adventure to "go shopping" at home. I'm glad you're using up things that you already have. You'll have the dual benefits of saving money and regaining storage space!
I have used Strathmore Dry Media paper for life drawing. I prefer "The Great Canadian Sketchbook" for that type of use. It has 110 lb. paper that is super smooth which suits what I like to do with dry media. I'm sure the pencil artists out there will go seek out the Strathmore Dry Media paper, however. (Thanks for the kind offer.)
Posted by: Roz Stendahl | June 29, 2010 at 10:48 AM
You're welcome :)
I am also thinking about this "vacation" concept in terms of my own writing/sketching. I had this idea that it would be interesting to pick a focus for my sketchbook each month. For example, today I was playing around with my brush pen and I realized I don't know how to use it very well. But what if I made a commitment to using it every day for a month? I'd know it a lot better. It occurs to me that this "focus of the month" could express itself in many different ways: a particular subject matter, tool, place, etc. I tend to be impatient and decide too quickly whether I like or don't like something. I would like to feel that luxurious sense of time, of not making a judgement too soon. I'm going to try it for July - my focus will be the brush pen and I am planning to do all of my sketching with it. I'll keep you posted how it turns out.
Posted by: Janine | June 29, 2010 at 03:29 PM
Janine, I'm a huge advocate of just this kind of focus. My journal selection in part is predicated upon what I want to work on for the month that I'll be in that journal.
I say go for it. Just before you start, check yourself that you don't change so many variables (totally unknown media AND unknown paper AND unfamiliar drawing tasks—e.g., like drawing from life if you have never done that) all at once.
Pick a paper you love to work on with pen and ink that's suitable for the brush pen and have at it. But also be gentle with yourself and allow a fall back media for "breaks" every few days perhaps, if you think you'll feel trapped. Some people do.
The point is to keep working and really test things out so we can make a good judgment about the variable under scrutiny—but not tie ourselves up in knots to the detriment of our journal productivity.
Best wishes for a great July of brush pen sketching. Take time to look at the work of people like Carloni. (I reviewed his facsimile of his sketchbook. You can see the book here http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/4300
Also I suggest you go over to Urban Sketchers and browse around because there are many, many sketchers over there using a brush pen and by studying their approaches I think it will help get you through difficult times during your focus month.
Posted by: Roz Stendahl | June 30, 2010 at 10:30 AM
Funnily enough, I've inadvertantly done exactly this: I'm a total Moleskine addict: though I do change between sketch, watercolour and Japanese. I'm relative newcomer to sketching: but I've been commissioned to do a series of illustrations for a book of Dutch poetry: so I've started anew sketch book for this project: A gift from a friend. I didn't like the paper at first, but I decided I'd stick with it .. and I'm now enjoying it.
Posted by: Rowlandjones.wordpress.com | November 11, 2010 at 01:09 PM
Rowland, thanks for writing in. Good luck on those illustrations for the Dutch poetry. I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying the new paper in the journal your friend gave you!
Posted by: Roz Stendahl | November 11, 2010 at 01:26 PM