Book Review: Draw Your Day

At the end of the summer, I was on a quest to read a stack of books on creativity and review them. The book Draw Your Day by Samantha Dion Baker was my favorite book so far. I liked the cover art and the idea of drawing everyday objects. Inside the book, she talks about how to begin an art journal and the types of supplies you might need. She also talks about where to look for inspiration. For me, the spark came from her artistic style. She uses permanant pen with watercolor and it was truly a breakthough for me. I used the supply suggestions from her chapter on that and bought this set of pens:

(Disclaimer: This is not an affiliate link. It probably should be. I just am not that cool as to have set up an Amazon affliate program. It is an Amazon Smile link to my favorite charity EPAK which supports teachers and students in the underserved community of East Palo Alto.)

The author uses a page a day journaling method to paint small places and objects around her in New York city. I found this really simple to try in my own life. I used a sketch book that I already had but was only partially filled and just used a pencil sketch the first day. As the days went on and my pens arrived, I tried her pen and watercolor fill in and it’s just been magical for me. I’ve had watercolors in the supply stash for a while, but it’s been hard for me to use them without over thinking. The sketch outline with permanent marker makes it easy and such a clean look. Here’s my first attempt:

Since then, I’ve been able to work with more complex scenes. I’ve been fascinated with architectural features and in the past I only tried acrylic paint on canvas or pencil drawings. I hadn’t considered watercolor and ink. In some ways, the fact that my sketch notebook isn’t true watercolor paper even makes it easier to use because they are less able to flow and blend. When I fill this notebook, I might end up buying the same brand with watercolor paper instead, but so far, my regular sketch notebook works.

I have tried art journaling with paint and mixed media collage in the past, but the work and examples in Draw Your Day inspired me for the first time to really do it every day. It’s so fun to look back on the work and see what’s happened each day. My kids like flipping though. It’s also low stress so I can try experimenting with people or other things that are hard for me without worrying it will look awful.

I often take photos of things I see in the world during the day if I think it will make a good page for the journal. I’ve taken pictures of houses and kids. I’ve stolen pretty pictures off the internet. This is a photo my friend Tom took on his vacation to Maui:

One day I even took a photo from my friends’ travel pictures on Facebook and added that in. I’ve also been able to play around with collage or other types of art journaling styles now that I have a daily habit established. Overall, this book was a great read and inspired me to dig into art journaling.