caught in a landslide no escape from reality

[kinston]

back in the day when i used to text journal only, i had no problem with rambling on and on about my day and other mindless thoughts. since i began art journaling at the beginning of the year, the amount of writing i do has dwindled down to almost none at all, especially since i've gotten better at the "art" part of journaling. nothing seems good

Comments

[summermoonpaint]

I tend to be in this situation as well. But I completely stopped journaling at all. I am not an "artist" in that I do not create art or whathaveyou, I only ever had my words. Now, I feel like I've lost those, and am curious to see what suggestions arise.

Thanks for posting the question.

[kinston]

I hope you find what you are looking for in a comment on this entry. Best of luck to you, dear. xox.

[papercigarettes]

Okay, I'm usually lurking here and not posting. However, I'd love to contribute my bit on this.

Sorry if this ends up TL;DR

I like to lurk inspireplease and www.weheartit.com, and when I find a really inspiring photo / illustration / something. I like to print it out and paste it in my journal. And from there, I usually end up writing a story loosely based or starting with that one image. Starting with some random thought my imagination drew up.

Like a short story book, I illustrate it as it goes on and what not, and that's usually the few times that my journal is text. I'm mainly drawings / collages only with my moleskine though.

[kinston]

Thanks for taking the time to contribute to this discussion. It's not TL;DR at all! Thanks for informing me of weheartit.com. I wish I had a printer because between those two sites I found a ton of images I would like to have paper copies of in my journal.

Those sites are very inspirational.

[perdrix]

If you put them on a memory stick, you can usually find an internet caf that'll print them for cheap in the town centre. :)

[crazystargrl]

I actually have trouble writing in my journal because I don't know where to start and it's easier to express myself through art. I think for me though, it helps if I write about a theme. Making lists really helps me organize my thoughts - list of movies I've seen, things I want to see, places I want to go, you can get really creative. I might also do theme pages where I write down all my dreams or all about one specific topic in my life like school. Like, I had one page in my journal that had painted watercolor clouds and it reminded me of dreaming so I made it my page for writing down dreams and what they could mean. Sometimes, I'll also look for "writing prompts" in google or fill out survey type things.

[kinston]

I used to enjoy writing lists so much, and I thank you for reminding me that lists are a completely acceptable journal entry. (And, in truth, anything I deem as acceptable is acceptable.)

What survey type things are you referring to? :)

[crazystargrl]

Sometimes you can find surveys when searching for writing prompts. I don't know, sometimes I like to sort of make it up. Like for my first entry of my last journal I made a survey with my name, what time it was, what song I was currently listening to, what book I was reading, etc. and filled it out. It's fun to look back on to see what was going in your life the time you filled it out. And you could fill out the same survey at different points in your life and compare the differences. Hope that helps. :)

[kinston]

It helped so much. :D By explaining what you meant, you inspired a new journal page I will make a little later this evening. Thank you very much. xoxox to you!

[intheshadows__]

I have the opposite problem. I can always think of a lot to write and how to express my feelings through words, but I recently realized I have no idea how to express myself through art. This was an odd realization because I've always been into art, drawing since I was little. Then I fell into a slump a few years ago and haven't been able to crawl out. I tried to start an art journal but I've been having a hard time incorporating drawing into my writing, or vice versa. I am always clueless as to how to start each page. I feel like my creativity has gone out the window.
Haha, sorry for a depressing response. Wish I could be of more help.

[kinston]

I don't draw as much as I layer mixed media and and paint and move colors around on pages. I love to scrapbook and collage and words just aren't fitting in with things these days.

Your response wasn't depressing. It was honest and appreciated. :)

[acryingshamex]

aw man I agree so much

[kimnrowdy]

This is how I've felt recently. I just can't do anything artistic and it's making me insane.

[mousepoo]

Oh God. For me, it's sort of like a curse. I get this idea that haunts me until I get it out of my head. It has no order, but it's usually in poetry form first, though I don't like to incorporate my poems in with my art. I write what is in my head, and rarely ever change the first draft.
The art comes from the poem, from the visuals I get from it. They are usually goofy and cartoonish, but have the meaning behind them.

Um. I do all kinds of things. I like to layer. I like to write how my day went or a story all bunched up on the paper, and then paint over it with watercolors, and then draw on top of that so no one else can really read what was there to begin with.

And then sometimes, I just start drawing without knowing what I want to draw, and I get something that imresses me.

[kinston]

I love the idea of writing your entry and then covering it up with color, or scraps or whatever. This is something that I will be trying out in the near future so I can find out how it would feel for me to do this.

[kinksterr]

I do that too with drawing on top of my writing! the writing there was just meant to come out of your head at that moment and not necessarily read again.

[kinston]

Again, I wanted to thank you for the suggestion of writing and covering up the words with paint/pictures- I did it and it was one of the most liberating things I have ever done in my journal.