Exercise: Constructing a Visual Journal

Brief

Find a way to assemble what you’ve now gathered to make a visual journal that is a memory store of the exercises and activities you have most enjoyed and the experiences that have been most important to you. Integrate this with the action plan and combine drawings and words that might serve as a reminder of what you want to do more of.

You should have quite a pile of drawings, including your collections. Go back to the processes for constructing sketchbooks, that were described in part one. Think about how you might order and compile the work in your pile, integrating key phrases, or drawings from your action plan within it. See that the actions could be used as a key to make simple sections in your visual journal, by positioning them so that they relate to the content of your composite drawing collections. You may also decide to write out key words, or sentences from your tutor feedback printing them out digitally, or using illustrative typography so that you take more ownership of them. These could also be threaded into your visual journal where you think it would be most befitting

How will you connect or compile these pages? With a bulldog clip? In a series of envelopes? Stuck onto larger pieces of paper that you sew together?

Be inventive, be resourceful, try new ways of connecting the drawings, integrating your plan to create a sketchbook that is a visual journal that documents your experience to date feeding back on your discoveries and feeding forward into the final assignment. Don’t be precious - it might be rough at the edges. Make sure this feels like your book- a journal that is a snapshot summary of where you are at this stage of the course and where you want to go next in your learning journey.

The idea

I wanted to digitally collage and add comments from my feedback into several pages, with the end result in an A4 pages kept together with a bulldog clip.

Process

I wanted to collaborate my sketches/illustrations together, without being too hung up on trying to make it look pretty-- I added images on a page and added one or two feedback comments onto the page, either encouraging the work or constructive feedback, just something important to remind myself of so when I look back I can be reminded of where I've come.

These are the initially pages created digitally, then I printed them off on some matte paper (100gsm), and attached a bull dog clip to them.

However, I want to be able to take this with me as I sketch in public or plan ideas, whether it's in public or private-- and one of my goals is to show my sketchbook more often, and I feel like if I show them what I've previously done, I can better explain the purpose of this new sketchbook (my last assignment).

Because of this, I wanted to utilize my new-found obsession with zines, and created it in that format, coincidentally enough I had enough pages to include a front and back cover; the front having a painting that I did in the early stages of my sketchbook (that I am very proud of looking back now), and the back being of my friend's d&d character for motivational purposes... and she looks cute.

I used an envelope backing onto the new sketchbook so my zine (and future zines) can fit into the back, carrying my inspiration wherever I go.

Evaluation

This little exercise was really good to incorporate some of my work into one, making it easy to reflect on what went well and what went not so well this elective. I wanted something that I could carry with me and still be an effective visual journey, and I feel like I was somewhat able to capture that I included some of my older work that were important throughout this elective, and some newer work, including the last exercise where I incorporated visuals together, I did this so I can really see a variety of work in one.

The bull-dog clips are a good idea since you can see everything more clearly, however I love the portability of the zine, and it makes my work feel more valuable in a zine form. I am so happy with the zine...

I would love to see even more work included next time as a big visual journey book.