General Information - Illustrate Your Week

Basic information, answers to commonly asked questions, and reminders about keeping an illustrated journal and doing illustrate your week.

Apr 02, 2023

What Is an Illustrated Journal?

An illustrated journal is a journal that combines drawings and text (or journaling).

While it is super simple as an idea, there is a lot to talk about. I’m writing about the process to inspire others to keep this kind of daily and weekly personal visual record!

I will be continuing to share information here and build out this repository of resources, suggestions, tips, and inspiration. I hope you’ll follow along.

In the meantime, here are some of the basics that I’ve added to the prompt sets as I’ve shared them each week over the last few years. Every week, I wrote a different spin to introduce the week. There is a lot of information below, not fully cleaned up and condensed. For the moment, the repetition isn’t a bad thing. Especially if you are new to this idea as a way to combine your interest in drawing or sketchnoting and keeping a personal journal, it doesn’t hurt to hear some things several times in slightly different ways.

I hope this information helps. If you have questions or want to know something specific that isn’t covered here in this broad overview, just leave a comment. I really want to know what questions you have!

So What Is It?

Your illustrated journal is a freeform space to hold your personal documentation, memories, hopes, wishes, and the tiny details that make up the quotidian. The illustrated journal is a combination of drawing, writing, sketchnoting, collage, graphic novel (or cartoon), and more. The combination is completely up to you!

The Illustrate Your Week prompts are gentle nudges to help you see that everyday there are things to record and ways to make art from your life.

Thinking you'd like to start drawing? A weekly illustrated journal can be an excellent and inviting place to practice daily drawing. By mixing in lettering/text and mark marking, doodling, lists, notes, and whatever else comes up in a week, you break free of the idea that each page has to be a frameable piece of art. The more you draw, the more comfortable you will be. What matters is doing it - over and over and in ways that feel meaningful to you. No workbook required. Your life offers plenty of material to draw what you see, what happens, what you think or feel or want.

The journal is YOUR space. It doesn’t ask a lot of you. What you choose to include is up to you. What made you smile? What are you grateful for? What do you need to get rid of or let go? What did you read, listen to, or watch? What are you trying to change? What is broken or new? What makes you happy or sad or anxious? What is challenging, frustrating, whimsical, joyful, calming, exciting, overwhelming, real? What intention will you set this week? What will you manifest, admit, reveal, conceal?

This project invites you to document your life with a flexible, mindful, and meaningful sketchbook project. Your illustrated journal pages are records of your days, your weeks, your memories, your hopes, and your wishes. Use and fill space in a way that works for you, your time, your voice, and your aesthetic. Fancy paper, fancy inks, and special tools are NOT required.

“This kind of illustrated journal process is part sketchnote, part art journal, part daily drawing, part list-making, part storytelling, part journaling, and more. But it’s 100% you!” Amy Cowen

What are the Prompts?

The Illustrate Your Week weekly prompts are a small set of nudges to give you ideas for things you might include on your pages. The prompts are simple, open-ended, & flexible. They are designed to give you a mix of things to draw, letter, record, and respond to as you capture real-world details, day-to-day events, kernels of memory, and sprinkle in other random elements, reminders, lists, and observations alongside any other journaling, bullet journaling, or tracking you do.

Each week offers a new mix of prompts to keep you on your toes. If nothing else, the randomness may help you not overthink it. Pick a prompt and answer it… with lettering, or writing, or illustration, or a combination. Use paint or pencil or markers or fountain pen. There is no wrong approach.

These are simple prompts to match the ebb and flow of days and the echo of memory. Only you can journal your own story. Use the flexible prompts for daily drawing/recording/reflection in your illustrated journal and mix and match with other elements of daily drawing, doodling, or daily recording. The prompts are open-ended and open to individual interpretation. This kind of illustrated journal process is part sketchnote, part art journal, part daily drawing, part list-making, part storytelling, part journaling, and more. But it’s 100% you!

The goal of the prompts is to support and kickstart a personal journaling process that combines illustration, mindfulness, mark-making, doodling, and documentation of your days as they unfold. The bits and pieces you choose to record are up to you. Record the wins, the struggles, things that are overdue, things that need a checkup, and things that are sentimental. Jot down or draw the foods you eat, the shape of the trees, the morning light, the book you are reading, how you feel, what the doctor said, what you wish was different, and who you miss. Your journal offers a space for however you are feeling today.

Use the prompts when you are stuck or have an odd space to fill, or use the prompts to help build and kickstart your illustrated journal habit and practice. You can work in a Hobonichi or in a sketchbook, in a field note or in something big. Do what feels comfortable. Spend 5 minutes a day or spend longer. Your #illustrateyourweek project can be a way to start your day, a way to close your day, a sidekick to other creative projects, or something you view as a primary focus, your creative ride-or-die. Conveniently, it’s always there. There is no set start and end time…. It’s your life.

I didn’t always use or enjoy prompts. I have moved from not using prompts to finding having some gentle nudges and contours to call upon comforting. On nights when I feel tired or lost or just don’t know what to write or draw or record, the prompts help. I start my new weekly spread on Sunday. My weekly spread might be 1 page. It might be 2. Or it might be 4. Some weeks I work in a rectangular grid. Some weeks I use all circles. Some weeks are full of words, and some weeks have a mix of illustration, sketchnotes, and documentation. Some weeks are black and white, and some are more colorful. I don’t make many rules or set expectations. I let the pages unfold, just as the week unfolds. I let my mood, my schedule, my energy, and the calendar determine what happens in each weekly spread. The freeform nature of the creative #journal is what makes this process work for me.

Illustrate Your Week / Illustrated Journal Basics

An illustrated journal encourages you to capture the bits and pieces of your days, from what you are reading, to the recipes you make, the things you see and hear, news, projects, goals, and more. There is room for things that make you laugh, things that make you cry, things you hope, fear, wish for, want, wonder, love, discover, and more.

As you fit your illustrated journaling practice into your days, draw and record things you love or find comforting, mindful, and reflective. The prompts offer additional nudges you can use to fill in spaces with notes, to challenge yourself to add more illustration, or as a simple checklist for your journaling.

You can use as many pages as you want each week.
You can draw your responses or just write or letter them.
You can use prompts (like the ones I share) or not.
If you use prompts, you can mix and match; use several or just a few.
You don’t need a more exciting life. This project celebrates the quotidian.
You can work the prompts and drawings, doodles, or sketches into your planner, your bullet journal, your art journal, a composition book, or your sketchbook. If you already keep a journal or a planner, start small by adding in some drawings each week. These can be simple icons (and icon practice is something I encourage).
You don’t have to do large, huge, realistic, or fancy drawings. You can. But realistic drawing well isn’t a requirement for keeping a visual journal.
You will likely find that you draw more when keeping this type of journal and that your skills will naturally grow simply because you are working on your pages consistently.
Prompts are posted on Sunday, but you can start your week on the day you prefer. (Many people start their weekly projects on Monday.)
You don't need anything special. Any sketchbook or journal is fine. A composition book can be perfect and can help you focus on building and exploring this habit rather than getting caught up in the tools and whether or not the paper crinkles or buckles or bleeds or feathers.
You can use pen or pencil or pastels or paint or add collage. How you fill pages is completely up to you.
Your approach can vary week to week.
Nothing is set in stones because it is your project, your journal, and your space to fill.
You don’t have to finish anything on a given day. Instead, if you think of your journal as “weekly,” you can work on drawings or pages over the course of a week. This can be freeing!
There is no wrong way to keep an illustrated journal. It’s a record of your life. Anything counts, and your own personal aesthetic should guide the way.

Take the Plunge!

If you are considering starting an illustrated journal, I encourage you to jump in. It’s flexible, and it’s fun.

If you are interested in drawing more, building a daily drawing (or journaling) habit, blending your drawing and journaling, or keeping a visual record of your days, I invite you to join me. You can mix and match these prompts with other things you record in your journal or sketchbook. Pick and choose. Hopscotch. Leapfrog. Whatever works for you. If you are new to the idea of drawing your day or illustrating your life, give it a try. Add a little something every day, and see how the page fills in over a week.

Questions? I’m happy to answer them. Leave a comment below.