How My Daily Art Journal Helped Me With Art and Mom Life

A while back I decided to give myself the challenge to draw in my art journal once a day, every day for a month.  My rules were simple.

1. Draw anything that inspires you

2. In your sketchbook

3. Every day for one month

The End

No, I didn’t print out a list of prompts, I didn’t take a class on how to draw better.  I didn’t go out and buy any special art supplies.  I just made myself stop, sit down and at some point in the day (or night) draw.  And do you know what?  It was great!

Some days I had to really stretch to get my drawing in my art journal.  Like the day I was driving home alone (which is really rare) from another state and realized I hadn’t drawn anything.  I couldn’t exactly draw while driving so I stopped at the gas station and whipped out this masterpiece (I know….it’s pretty amazing 😉 ):

Other days were really easy.  Like the day I drew a barn owl because we had studied Barn Owl Pellets for Science (cool and eew).  Here’s that one:

Another day I literally saw a chicken crossing the road!  I had to document that:

So, what did I learn?

Daily Art Journal Drawing Improved my Art Skills

We all know that practicing anything daily helps us improve our skills in that thing.   Of course the same is true of drawing or art.  Because I was making a conscious effort to draw, my hands and brain remembered how to draw better each time I practiced.  Waaaaay back when, when I was an art student in college, I remember being totally amazed at how in just one semester, my drawing skills skyrocketed.  It was because I was doing it every.  single.  dingle.  day.

So yes, daily drawing in my art journal really helped with my own art skills, but surprisingly, it added a lot to my life too.

Daily Art Journal Drawing Improved My Life

Here at Lily and Thistle, the focus is helping moms and their families connect and find joy through creativity and art.  Of course, you don’t have to be a mom to find joy through art (duh).  But since that’s my focus here, let’s talk about it.  Being a mom is awesome.  Like I-didn’t-start-really-living-until-I-became-a-mom awesome.  But it’s also HARD.  Really hard.  And if you are doing it right, it takes a lot of time and energy.  My daily art journal drawing habit gave me an avenue to express both the awesome and the hard.

Somedays I was really, really tired when I finally sat down to sketch.  Like the day (actually late night) I drew a tired moon:

And some days were challenging.  Like the day we woke up to Pink Eye and I could hardly see through all of the eye snot.  I naturally drew this:

Other days were filled with hyper children and a lot of fun, like this:

On the day we finished reading The Magician’s Nephew (one of my all-time favorites), I drew this:

And yet another day, we spent hours looking for the frogs we could hear but couldn’t see.  Hence:

The beauty of keeping a daily sketchbook is that you are actually keeping a daily journal.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  This is so true!  All of my sketches from that time, bring me right back to where I was and what we did that day.  It is a powerful journal!

And if you are anything like me, creating art fills you up in all of the best ways.  It makes you happy!  It’s also really awesome for your kids to see you doing something you love.  It inspires them to have a passion and to create something too.

It makes everyone happy! 

Don’t Make It Complicated

At this point in the blog post, I could probably say I have an awesome freebie full of daily sketchbook prompts.  But I’m not going to do that because you don’t need it.  You just need to find a little sketchbook and a pencil or a pen or whatever and start!  Just document one thing a day…anything!  Even if it’s the bobby pin that keeps getting stuck in the vacuum.  Draw that thing! 

I do have lots of other great resources for you in our Resource Library.  If you aren’t a member of our community yet, you should be.  You’ll get all kinds of great inspiration to help you in your creative journey as well as your parenting journey.

A New Resource to Help You Get Into an Art Practice

If you’d like to include more nature and art into your family’s life, I’d like to invite you to join us at Nature’s Art Club!  It’s a club designed to get you and your family into art and nature through monthly watercolor projects, coloring pages, original poetry, and more. You can check it out here.  Or just click on the photo below.  It makes a great gift too!

Quick Note

Before we get started, I’d like to invite you to join us at the Lily & Thistle Watercolor School!  We have bundled all of our watercolor painting courses designed to help you learn the basics FAST so you can quickly become a more confident artist.  You will learn the foundational skills you need and continue to grow as you pick and choose from 100+ projects.  We breakdown everything in Watercolor School to make it fun and SIMPLE for anyone (ages 5-95!)  Find out more about Watercolor School here or click the photo below.

Final Thoughts

Drew Kimball says:

“Before you can write 2,000 words a day, you have to be able to sit down and write a single sentence.  Likewise, before you can paint your masterpiece, you have to find a way to pick up your paintbrush.  We know that before you can accomplish whatever it is you want to achieve, you need to find a way to take that first step.” 

I invite you to take that first step today and see what it does for you and your family!