Week 38 Prompts for Illustrate Your Week 2024

Prompts for Week 38 of 2024 for #illustrateyourweek in your illustrated journal

Sep 15, 2024

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 38

Week 38 for 2024!

There are some fun things on the calendar this week and quite a range of directions you might head. Maybe you find your way in with food, with the memory of food, or with the adventures of pirates. Maybe someone close to you is facing memory-related loss or illness. Whatever your inroads are, embrace them.

What do you think of when you hear someone mention Rice Krispies treats or butterscotch pudding? Does Batman have a place in your history? Pirates? What do you see out the window?

Some weeks you may find that you have something to write about every day or you know something every day that made you smile or you were in a scenario where you heard something wonderful or quirky or brilliant every day. If that is you in this week, embrace that. But keeping an illustrated journal doesn’t require extraordinary days.

You may find that the week itself is quiet and there are less external things to capture in your journal. It is okay to lean in on other things that you might use to illustrate your days and your week. You may find things in the prompts or on your bookshelves or on the table or in the kitchen.

Remember that your journal is a private space, a space that aims to help you be aware of time as it is passing, and aims to help highlight the importance of appreciating the things that are happening right now as well as following and tracing and celebrating and capturing memories that arise in the wings.

An illustrated journal is a strategy for reinforcing creative habit, for slowing down, practicing mindfulness, and creating a record of your weeks.

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 38:

International Dot Day (15) (related to Peter Reynolds’ wonderful books, like The Dot and Ish. Related old show—Episode 355)
Hispanic Heritage Month (begins 15)
Collect Rocks Day (16)
National Play-Doh Day (16)
National Apple Dumpling Day (17)
National Cheeseburger Day and Double Cheeseburger Day (this week)
Rice Krispies Treat Day (18)
Talk Like a Pirate Day (19)
National Butterscotch Pudding Day (19)
International Red Panda Day (21)
World Alzheimer’s Day (21)
World Gratitude Day (21)
Batman Day (21)

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.