Making a journal page about yourself

Planning a journal page about yourself

This is an exercise you could do on a regular basis. It doesn't need to be frequent, it could be yearly or less. But if you wanted to, you could do it much more often - whenever you felt like it!

(Please note, this blog post is to support an in-person session, so it's not a full tutorial - but you're welcome to use it whoever you are!)

Start with this brain-dump / self reflection, then use the ideas to draw your page. 

Put yourself, or something that represents you in the centre of the page, then you can use pictures, a word cloud, or a mixture to complete the page!

For inspiration, there is a list of personality traits at the bottom of this post

Using basic building blocks to draw

These pictures are based on:

 simple shapes: oblongs, circles, semi circles, triangles

Lines: straight, wavy, zigzag and dots

Using simple shapes we can draw anything - and draw it quickly! Often when we draw, especially in a daily journal, we are doing it to remember and to record events. If we make it complicated and add too much detail, it can become overwhelming and a time consuming chore.

These doodles are like making notes instead of writing an essay - they are sketch-notes.

Why not try using the examples to make your own doodles and sketch notes? Use my examples and adapt to draw other things. Always look out for how you can use the basic shapes.

You can also search for line art and doodles on line, or use The Noun Project to find hundreds of royalty-free images to inspire you.

Containers

To organise your page, and link ideas, you can use design features of containers and connectors - things like speech and thought bubbles, boxes, arrows, sign posts, pinned notes, star bursts, banners/ scrolls.

Here are some examples:

Examples of 'Big Day Doodles'

Positive Character Traits

It can be hard to think of words to describe yourself, so here is a list to help you. As you read the list, try to notice which ones resonate with you, even if it's a voice dismissing that particular trait. Is this something you aspire to be? 

What would other people say about you? Think about people whose opinions are important to you.