Our lives can get busy and writing about our life in a lined paper journal isn’t for everyone. A different and creative way to journal our lives is with watercolor painting. Watercolor journaling the highlights of your week is a great way to document your year in a beautiful way with painted memories.
How to Start Capturing Your Moments
Make Notes
It’s good practice to write your notes in the moment. Usually when you think you will remember, you won’t. You can use your notes app on your phone, a small notebook that you can take anywhere or any spare piece of paper. As long as you capture it somewhere, that is all that matters.
Draw with Simple Shapes
If you are new to drawing or just think you aren’t very good at drawing, just remember your journal is your own space to be creative. Try to be easy on yourself, give yourself grace. We all have an inner critic and this is when you tell it to shhhh.
Breaking down subjects into simple shapes is a good way to see objects and figures so you can draw them easier. A cute dog in the park turns into a circle with a cone on it for the head, 2 triangles for the ears, a rounded rectangle for the body, 4 skinny rectangles for legs, and a moon shape for a tail!
Pick Colors In Advance
It’s fun to pick colors that represent a feeling or a person in your life. When you choose them before you start painting, you already have that part figured out so you can focus more on painting the moments instead.
In this painting I thought about my mom, the things she likes and the colors that represent those things. Reddish pink: love, yellow: sunny days, green: gardening/spring, and blue: the sky and the ocean.
Make a Plan to Journal
Pick one day of the week and set a time for putting your drawing and painting together. Think of a time when you won’t be distracted and there aren’t other commitments that could get in the way in the future. This is a set time to commit to watercolor painting and journaling your life in a creative way. Put it on your calendar, (I love gmail) and don’t forget to set notifications 30 minutes and 10 minutes before so you have extra reminders.
What Supplies Do You Need to Get Started Watercolor Painting and Sketchbook Journaling?
You just need a small supplies list to get started with watercolor painting!
A metal palette with more than 10 wells for paints and a nice amount of room to mix paint mixes
A professional grade primary red watercolor tube paint
A professional grade primary yellow watercolor tube paint
A professional grade primary blue watercolor tube paint
A synthetic blend round tip watercolor paint brush - size 3
A paper towel to blot up your mixes or an area where you used too much paint
A pencil
An eraser
A multimedia sketchbook
Layout Ideas
So now you have everything ready to go, don’t let the blank page intimidate you. There are no rules but here are some options of how you can journal and paint in your sketchbook.
Don’t Fill the Page
You absolutely do not need to fill the whole page with a beautiful composition like you see in children’s books. Telling a story using an entire journal page can feel like a big project. Start small instead.
Draw in Small Bits
Consider drawing spot illustrations. They are individual drawings without borders that are all over the page. Free flowing drawings that are in a sequential order or just random. It’s fun to have just a little bit of white space between them and have them relate to each other in an organic but organized way.
Draw Squares
You can draw squares (also called frames) and have your illustrations fit inside. In the end it would look more like a comic strip and you can play with the shapes of the frames too. If it feels constricting, draw bigger frames or alternate with frames and no frames. The sky's the limit!
Have any questions or comments about sketchbook journaling with watercolor paints? Feel free to leave a comment or ask below!
Get started journaling the moments of your life and paint them with beautiful splashes of watercolor!
This is just one of the watercolor exercises you can do when you paint along with us in The Playful Painter Studio!
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the purpose of watercolor journaling?
To have a visual diary of the moments of your life in a beautiful and creative way that is unique to you. Creatively express your feelings, thoughts, emotions, memories, etc with watercolor painting.
Are there any books where I can learn more about watercolor painting?
I love this book by Samantha Dion Baker, it is all about how you can draw your day. So many great ideas inside!
What can I journal about?
You can keep it positive and journal about the things that make you happy. Or you could also try to draw things that make you sad, angry, discouraged, etc. Things that are hard to communicate with words.
Creative expression through watercolor painting can be a good way to release emotions, problem solve, process things in a different way or just remember a joyful and happy time in your life!