Week 14 Prompts for Illustrate Your Week 2024
Prompts for Week 14 of 2024 for #illustrateyourweek in your illustrated journal
I post a new set of Illustrate Your Week prompts every Sunday to help inspire and nurture the process of keeping an illustrated journal of your life. Add text and images to make a visual record that is uniquely you.
Illustrate Your Week Prompts for Week 14
Week 14 for 2024! Happy Easter and happy April (this week). Here’s an early rabbit, rabbit for you.
I posted a few additional prompts in the Sunday post for this week. I think these are more for written reflection, but you never know. You might find them interesting food for thought. (The Sunday post goes live a few hours after this prompt set.)
I’ve been toying with palette ideas and also with intentionally taking a step back into some comfortable and familiar approaches to my own illustrated journal layout. April seems like a good month to experiment or reconnect with your practice and remind yourself “why” you are doing what you do.
About prompt 4–It was too long to put it in (I tried), but I think you could also challenge yourself to draw someone from a book you are reading. Assuming fiction (and not a graphic novel and not from the children’s area), that might involve putting the character on the page the way you see them in your head. If you are good with imaginative drawing, this can be a fun exercise. It also might underscore how we often gloss over some of the descriptive details we are given about a character. I am reading a space opera right now, and I have no idea what these characters would look like if drawn, but I think it’s interesting to think about. (They are not all humans, and I’m not good at visualizing anyway.) I wonder how it would change our reading experience if we had an image sheet at the beginning that showed us the main characters.
Illustrate Your Week is a flexible project. I share weekly prompts and calendar notes that can be used as fill-in or fodder. Or, you can use the prompts as your starting point. Write or draw as much as you want. The illustrated journal is a record of your life. Only you can record this story in your unique voice and style.
You can draw anything on your pages and fill in with your daily notes. There is no one-size-fits-all formula for how to keep an illustrated journal or for what counts.
Your illustrated journal is a freeform space to hold your personal documentation, memories, hopes, wishes, and the tiny details that make up everyday life. — Amy Cowen
Calendar Connections
The calendar connections each week give a bit of random context that might inspire you to think about or notice something specific. Maybe they spark memory. Maybe they nudge you to draw something you wouldn’t normally draw or give you an idea for something to draw when you want to draw but don’t want to figure out “what” to draw. Many of these are very informal observances, but they can be fun starting points.
Here are some of the calendar notes that made my radar for Week 14:
Eiffel Tower Day (31)
National Crayon Day (31)
Easter (31)
Transgender Day of Visibility (31)
April Fools' Day (1)
World Autism Awareness Day (2)
National Ferret Day (2)
Hans Christian Andersen birthday (2)
National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day (2)
International Children's Book Day (2)
National Find a Rainbow Day (3)
Hostess Twinkie Day (Apr 3) (3)
Read a Road Map Day (4)
National Wildlife Week (4)
National Dandelion Day (5)
Peeps Day (5)
(I pick and choose. There are a lot of these “made-up” days on the calendars. Some weeks, there really are a bunch.)
Extra/Bonus Prompts
I typically share the prompts at Instagram as well, but I share a few extra prompts in the version here.
A bird you noticed this week
A gratitude a day
Make a wish
I leave most of the information below week to week so that anyone finding the prompts will have some guidance no matter what week it is.
Illustrated Journal Basics, Background Information, & How to Get Started
You can start your illustrated journal at any time of the week. Just pick up and start where you are with whatever the current week is. You may also find these earlier posts helpful:
There Are a Lot of Prompts
Should you do them all? Probably not! Prompts are always just ideas for things you might include in your journal. Your immediate life is really where your journal starts - and it may be that your memory life has an equal role. Observances can be a conduit to memory, an excuse to buy and draw (or Google) something simple (like a Twinkie), or simply fun to write down for context in terms of the passage of time.
Daily Notes
As always, I hope you take time to make plenty of notes in your pages. As an illustrated journal, there is an implicit mix of drawings and words. For me, the project is always a journal, not simply a sketchbook. Even though I draw lots of random things (especially portraits), the book as a whole is a “journal” — an illustrated journal of my life. For me, this isn’t simply a sketchbook. My daily notes help keep the journal anchored in my life.
While I don’t believe in rules for personal projects, for myself, I do think the personal notes, stories, lists, and tidbits are a foundation.
Something is Missing on the Calendar List
There are lots of dates on the calendar each week. I don’t want the weekly prompts to be simply a calendar toss-up, so I pick and choose, always aiming for a list I hope will inspire you to draw or reflect. Your journal has the space for any and all of the days that are important to you. What you value and want to record comes first. Prompts are always best thought of as filler, not as a prescription. You might have other days that are of particular note for you. We shouldn’t all be recording exactly the same things in our journals!
Use the Prompts that Speak to You
As always, the prompts are provided simply as optional nudges you may want to mix in with the recording you do of your day-to-day life. If you do Illustrate Your Week for a while, you will find that some prompts recur. (This is a good thing and true to the process of keeping a journal based on your life.) The weekly prompts give you options if you find yourself, pen in hand, and not sure what to draw, paint, write, or record in your journal.
You don’t need a more exciting life. This project celebrates the quotidian.— Amy Cowen
Your journal has the space for any and all of the days that are important to you. What you value and want to record comes first. Prompts are always best thought of as filler, not as a prescription. — Amy Cowen
I had a tiny panic attack, and then laughed at myself. It took me a minute to realize that these were the prompts for the coming week and not this past week. I thought, “where the heck did I get the prompts I have been using…” 😆
It definitely gave me a laugh! I’m sure the people who sleep didn’t notice. 😀