Art Journals and Why You Should Be Keeping One.

When I first started studying art, I was told to keep a journal. I had no idea what to put in it. Like not a clue. My tutors told me to 'just put stuff in it; ideas, sketches, stuff you collect.' 

That kind of confused me even more. Stuff I collect?! What kind of stuff? 

Colour Charts are always useful, and great to refer back to

I would take photos of current projects so that I could compare them without having giant pieces of paper everywhere.

So for each assignment or project I had to do, I brainstormed and sketched and took photos. And I put those photos in my journal and as I went about my life, if I saw a magazine clipping or article, or paint chip sample or anything else really that made me think of my current project, I'd throw that in as well. 

Recording progress of your projects can be helpful when you want to work on something similar later on

Including information on how to do things is so useful!

And so then after a while of keeping this journal I started to see the benefits of it. I could go back and remind myself of things I wanted to include in projects, I could record my feelings about what I was doing, where I hoped it would go, what I wanted to achieve with it. And therefore I could go back and re-evaluate what I was doing if it wasn't where I wanted to be heading in the beginning. On the other side of that it also let me see if things needed to change in another direction. 

Notes and photos from exhibitions you went to, whether you liked them or what you didn't like about them can all help your artistic practice.

I started to record more notes and thoughts along with my images, and being an art journal, I also loved making notes about exhibitions and other artists. It is so very useful to look at work of other people because you can learn so much. You might pick up a new technique or way of doing something that adds to your own work. 

Photos can be useful to refer to for current and future projects.

Sketches and ideas

As an artist you should never stop learning, and never feel you are too good to learn from other artists. There are always going to be people to compare yourself with, the objective is not to try and be the same as others but have your own unique style. And because art is so subjective, that cannot be compared in the traditional sense of one being necessarily better than the other.

After a while of keeping journals, you'll find that it's a nice way to spend an afternoon; browsing through your books, remembering projects you wanted to start, ideas you came up with, and techniques or artists you wanted to research and learn about. This will in turn only benefit your current work and allow you to grow within your art.

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