Back next week

So that no one worries…

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

🎯 Thank you to those who support this space
with monthly or annual subscriptions, donations, or gifts of dice, paint, ink,
and scraps for making nests, filling snow globes, and keeping lanterns lit.
I hope you are inspired to make time each day for your creative habits, to value the documentation of your journey, and to explore your relationship with memory.
Thank you to those who read, comment, ❤️, and share.

A Small Pause

I am still sitting with something, and I don’t feel the need to rush. Just a note so that no one worries and so that there is a post with the prompts, for those who look for them.

Every morning this week, and maybe for the last few, I’ve listened in the still-dark room to the plaintive sound of the owl-that-is-not-an-owl. I wonder now that I haven’t heard the owl at night to convince myself that there is also an owl. I wonder how many times I’ve misheard the mourning dove, even though at times, I have known the difference. Maybe it just recently found a home somewhere in the hillside trees? Maybe I am hearing it again. Maybe I am hearing it anew. I forgot about the dove on the roof last year.

I tucked this into the post a few weeks ago. It wasn’t related that day, really, other than as a reminder that we may be wrong:

Last week, I heard an owl during the day. It turned out to be a mourning dove. Both may be carriers of wisdom, but I am reminded I might be wrong, about the crow, not the dove.

---

Illustrated Journal Prompts

• Prompts for Illustrate Your Week - Week 23 (2026)

---

Looking Back (Year Over Year)

• 2025: Holding Back

• 2024: Hip to Be Square & Random

• 2023: Kites, Index Card Art, and More

  ---

Made It?

Thank you for reading.

Comments are off this week. Don’t take it personally.

---

New to Illustrated Life?

Here are a few posts you might be interested in if you are new here and looking for illustrated journal posts:

• Nine Reasons a Weekly Illustrated Journal Works

• Circles in an Illustrated Journal (and squares)

• Why Aren’t You Keeping an Illustrated Journal?

• Positively - 100 Diary Comic Affirmations

• Finishing 52 Weeks of List Comics - Year 2

• 100+ Lists for Your Illustrated Journal

• Icon Practice and Building Visual Vocabulary

• Making Comics—Week 8 (and 9, 10)

• 13 Reasons to Keep an Illustrated Journal

• Weekly illustrated journal prompts

---

Thank you for reading Illustrated Life. Writers need readers, and I am grateful for every reader!

Paid options are available for those who find value and inspiration in the weekly posts here and want to support Illustrated Life and the #illustrateyourweek prompt series. Subscriptions not your thing? One-time tip jar donations are always appreciated.

Unless otherwise noted, all images in this post are © A. Cowen. All rights reserved.

Links to books and products at Amazon.com are affiliate links. Always use your library when possible.