Lesson 1

Creating A Visual Journal/Diary

The Objects of the lesson are:

• To create a reasonable rationale and desire with students as to the value of having a meaningful visual diary/journal
• To offer students suggestions on the best ways to create and maintain an effective visual diary/journal

  Why should I create and keep a visual diary or journal and what exactly is a visual diary or journal anyway?

  Good Questions…

  “Students need to be able to develop proposals that explain what they want to do and why. This includes sketches, materials, processes, concepts and, above all, the purpose that is motivating them to do their specific project.”
       - Tasha Parker, Art/Design, Prince Rupert Secondary.

  “The students who seem to pick up things most quickly are already in the habit of using journals and notebooks to record their visual thinking. They are constantly sketching and doodling what they observe around them.”
       - Briar Craig, Professor, Okanagan University College.

Lesson Background:

Your visual diary/journal is the place where you create visual images. It is the record of how you respond visually to the world.

Ideas can come, and be recorded in, almost an infinite number of ways. You can draw and sketch with pencil, conté, charcoal, pastel, crayon, ink, felt marker, paint, etc. You can cut out magazine pics, newspaper articles, and quotes that inspire and grab you. You can collage with coloured paper. You can and should doodle and cartoon all the time.

Every page is new and different, a safe place for you to explore ideas… no matter how wild and crazy. In order to grow and become more confident in your creativity and art making you need to exercise as often as possible… just like physical exercise or learning an instrument. Try new things, make mistakes. Take a creative risk. The act of creation is a leap of faith and risk, and God is always there to be glorified as we reflect His creative nature.

*Note: most professional artists regularly use visual journals. This practice goes back to and before Leonardo da Vinci. Most art schools, and now many universities and colleges, request that students submit their creative journals with their portfolios when they apply.

Before you begin, you must set up your work space and digitally photograph it.  Collect your materials (listed below) and find a quiet work space with good lighting to begin your drawings.

Materials:

• Obtain a good quality sketchbook (preferably one with a hard cover).

  • The minimum recommended dimensions for a meaningful journal are 8.5 x 11 or larger

Skype your art teacher (if you are unsure about anything so far)

Customize and decorate the outside with as much creativity and pizzazz as you can dream up… have fun.

• Think outside of the “box”. Use unusual materials, glue stuff on, collage, paint, something else.
• Keep in mind that your visual journal is going on a long (hopefully life-long) journey with you and should have some thought as to how to keep it from falling apart over time

Photograph your completed assignment.

Hand-in your assignment.

Skype or phone your art teacher for feedback on your assignment.

Your assignment/projects:

1. Visual Journal cover and cover page (20 marks)

***Note: The total (100 marks) for the Visual Journal and the sketches will count for approximately 20% of the final term grade.