Art Journal

Drawing and journalling are my favourite things to do in my free time, apart from reading. However, life often gets in the way and these last couple of months I barely had time to even steal a glance at my sketchbook. I guess you fall into this tedious routine of work, sleep and more work, and you forget what it means to actually live and do what you love most. It’s awful isn’t it, that as we get older, parts of our childhood innocence get chipped off bit by bit, and society trains us to focus only on materialistic things. We forget how much time we used to spend outdoors running jubilantly in the sun, or afternoons spent in the kitchen bent over a piece of paper, intent on making a masterpiece.

I guess I reached a point where I wanted a release from this routine and revisit my childhood through the colours and the feel of the paper under my fingertips. It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to learn how to paint so I resolved to dedicate more time for art and teach myself watercolour painting and combining this with my love for journaling.  Both of these have been a wonderful outlet for my creativity. But apart from this, they have also given me a chance to forget my worries for a little while and allow my mind to focus on the colours, the brushstrokes and the sound of the pencil gliding over the paper. It is such a relief to lose yourself in art and allow your mind to wander in uncharted places.

I don’t have any specific theme for my journal. In fact, every single page is different but they mostly revolve around nature, books, favourite songs and quotes. It’s been extremely fun to learn new watercolour techniques, line drawings and cursive writing, and while I still have a long way to go until I’m completely happy with the end result, I’m just genuinely content that I’m creating something instead of spending hours browsing on my phone. I had no idea how exhausting social media is until I decided to shut down my laptop and do something that does not require me to scroll incessantly and watch images blur into each other.

These are the items that I use the most for my journal and paintings if you’re interested:

-Journal: Paperchase

-Watercolours: Winsor & Newton Sketchers Pocket Box

-Watercolour Paper: Canson Montval 140lbs

-Watercolour Brushes: Da Vinci 1570 series

-Pen: Faber Castell Ecco Pigment 0.3

-Watercolour Painting Tutorials: AhmadArt

I think my favourite watercolour painting so far is Bag End. I’ve been slowly making my way through Lord of the Rings (currently reading The Return of the King), so I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to draw one of my favourite places in Middle Earth…because who doesn’t want to live in the Shire?!

What do you love to do in your free time?

I hope this will be the first post of many. Thank you so much for reading x