About the Illustrated Journal

From Leonardo da Vinci to Marie Curie, from Marcus Aurelius to Virginia Wolf, great men and women have kept journals. Journals can be impactful in so many ways: by serving as a place to reflect on our lives, to explore new ideas, to keep a record and leave a trace.

In this class we’ll be getting together with a cohort for an seven-week journey in keeping an illustrated journal, one which combines regular writing with an additional visual component.

If you don’t yet keep a journal, this class will help you build a solid journaling habit, opening up a dimension of self-exploration.
If you already do keep a journal in written form, this class will introduce you to visual journaling and its benefits: enhanced creativity and holistic thinking. Visual journaling is much more than just drawing in your journal; we’ll explore techniques like doodling, collage, calligraphy, mind mapping, diagramming, storyboarding, bullet journaling, and watercolor.
If you are amongst the rare people who already keep an illustrated journal, this class will inspire you to try new techniques, and introduce you to like-minded friends and future creative collaborators.

Since most people are more familiar with writing than with drawing, there will be extra support for the visual part of visual journaling, with easy exercises designed to free us of any fear of drawing, and to reconnect us to the pleasure of drawing.

No experience necessary! If you don’t draw, we will be going over the rudiments. If you already draw, this class will energize and inspire your practice.

Each session will be divided into three main parts: warmup, practice, share.

Warmup: we’ll be doing rapid-fire exercises designed to get us over inhibitions. We’ll get into a playful, exploratory mood together. We’ll brainstorm prompts together that can guide our daily writing or drawing.

Practice: We’ll be diving deeper using longer exercises to develop our writing or drawing skills. Also, there will be a period where we can write or draw freely in our journals, side-by-side.

Share: this is where we break off into pairs or small groups to talk about how our project is going. We’ll also have a final group share where those who choose to can share an image or read a passage from their journal. Fractal University courses have a great track record for sparking new friendships, and I think sharing at such a level will only accelerate that process.