Journal for self-care

In today’s post, I’m following up on a tip from the Mean Admin Club post: journaling – how I journal, tools, my journaling evolution and examples of both physical and digital pages.

I started with written journals as a tween using those old timey locked diaries then moving on to pretty blank books. As an office and art supply junkie, the pens were of various kinds: felt tip markers, multi-color clicker pens, until Uniball gel pens came onto the scene and quickly became a favorite.

Journaling is a great way to brain dump and, at first, it didn’t bother me that someone could read my journals. Until a friend gifted me The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon. Sei was a Japanese court lady circa 1000. The work is a collection of essays, lists, court gossip – basically an ancient Bullet Journal. These journals were kept, you guessed it, under one’s pillow. At one point in the story, the pillow book is stolen, throwing Sei into a panic because of the content and her mortification that someone was reading her journal.

I was reading the book a 1000 years later and imagined how mortified Sei would be to know that not only had her journal has been translated into other languages, it has been read by many more people than Sei ever wanted.

After reading The Pillow Book, I wasn’t keen to have people read my journals, either in my day or 1000 years from now, so I found ways to cover what I’d written.

In addition to my love of office and art supplies, I enjoy magazines, mainly for the pictures. In the 1990s, I found the Canson spiral bound mixed media XL sketchbook 98 lb weight paper. With my love of gel pens, I prefer a smooth, uncoated paper to avoid smearing. My journal evolved into glue books or if you remember the K & Company Smash Books. I’d cut out images from magazines, collage them into my sketchbook then drew and doodled around them.

In the mid-2010s, I found Zentangles, which are doodles created from 6 or fewer steps. They lend themselves well to journaling and are very easy to learn. And I got to buy a new pen: Sakura Micron, which is waterproof.

After a few months of tangling, I’d built up my fine drawing skills and took my first online mixed media class from Jane Davenport on draw facesing. I was hooked and my journals quickly evolved more elaborate art journals.

I found art journaling as a great way to take all that awful, brain dumped material and turn it into something pretty. Best of all, no one will ever know what lies underneath.

Themes

My art journal pages favor portraits of lone figures. This is due partly to the courses from female instructors but I also feel these lone figures represent me.

Admins tend to be the only person on their team that does the job – at least the places I’ve worked. Sure, I’ve worked with a team of admins, but each admin was assigned to support specific executives. We often worked largely in isolation, coming together in weekly or monthly meetings to review policies, processes and hang out with our peers.

As mentioned in my Trust article, admin professionals should be cautious about who they talk to regarding their day-to-day world, quirks of their leaders, the stupid crap we face from people who don’t understand the complexities of this profession.

The non-admin members of your team won’t understand what you’re going through and as we learned in the Mean Admin club, not all admins are your ally. Until you’ve identified true allies, the safest place to vent is a journal.

Below is my process for journaling then covering the content. The process works for both physical and digital journals.

There is no obligation to share your journals with anyone. Ever. Make this a ritual just for you.

My process – Blonde Girl with Purple Eyes

This is the process I use in my journal pages. After the brain dump, follow some or all of the steps to cover the writing. After each step, allow the page to fully dry before moving on, otherwise the layer below will smear. Allow the final layer to fully dry before closing the book or the pages will stick together.

• Brain dump with a waterproof pen – turn the page and write in all directions to further mask the words
• collage with whatever printed/pattern paper is on hand
• paint the entire layer
• collage another layer
• draw or collage the main image
• Doodle and black and white inks
• Add text and reframe the icky brain dump into a positive message to yourself

Digital art journal

When I started taking mixed media courses, I made a habit of taking a photo of my works in progress. I’ve saved all these images and frequently use them in my digital work.

In 2019, I wanted to switch from physical media to digital due to limited space at home. Also, I’ve never been the best about cleaning brushes and felt badly about how much brushes I ruined.

There’s no mess with digital art journaling and I can use the vast library of digital ephemera – my own work and the collections I’ve amassed from many years taking Photoshop artistry courses.

You can get great digital content from G&T Designs, Tracy Bautista, and The Lily Pad, to name a few.

Digital art journal tools

I use a 6th generation iPad, Procreate, 1st generation Apple Pencil, my own images and commercially licensed kit images.

I follow the same process listed above, and add a new digital layer for each step in order to mask and adjust layer mode and opacity as desired.

Here is a sampling of my digital art journal pages.

Keeping a journal or art journal is a great way to process your feelings, brain dump after a bad day, and express gratitude for what you do have. Getting started is easy. All you need is a blank book and a pen. From there, you can expand into whatever creative realm speaks to you: collage, paint, markers, doodles, anything. The sky’s the limit with art journaling. You can even make your own journal using 1 sheet of watercolor paper, waxed thread and a blunt needle – Teesha Moore shows you how in Part 1 of this 2 part video.

There is no right or wrong way to journal. There is your way.

To see more of my creative works, please check out my other website, Tenukihandcrafts.