Positive / Negative Journals Look Through (Part 1)

Back in September of last year, I wrote a post about how I was going to start keeping two art journals: a positive journal and a negative journal. My idea at the time was that I would work in my positive journal when I was in a good mood and my negative journal when I was in a bad mood. I thought that it would be a good way to get me to paint and play with ideas on my good days, but also a way to work through feelings on bad days. I liked the idea of having those two things separate, to keep the journals constant. I was also interested in seeing if there was any correlation in colour or techniques I used based on how I was feeling.

I have now, finally, gotten around to making this post. I only recently finished my positive journal, but the negative journal has some pages left. I’m sure this is something to feel happy about, but I did struggle to feel inspired to paint during December, which is why it has taken me this long to get this post out. I think if I had been journaling the whole time, unfortunately those days would probably have contributed to my negative journal. I decided I would make this post now, because it might be a while until I complete the negative journal (or at least, here’s hoping!)

I have had to split the post in two, because of how many images there are in two journals, so this post will just be what I have of my negative journal, and next week I will post the pages from my positive journal.

Here are my negative journal pages. I think my negative journal is fairly similar to previous art journals I’ve done. Maybe it is just me and my relationship with it (i.e. it being the journal I worked in when I wasn’t feeling creative or excited about doing art), but it feels messier and the pages feel less complete. Of course, there are a few pages that are successful and that I like, but on the whole, I am less happy with it than I am with my positive journal.

It was an interesting and revealing process. In the past I have spoken about my attempts at keeping art journals and how I have struggled to do daily journals. (You can see my posts on my previous art journals here.) In fact, I’m sure I’ve even explicitly said I wouldn’t do them again. Despite how difficult I find it to do, I like the idea of doing daily journals a lot, and I think I may have discovered a way to make them work for me.

Check back next week to see the pages from my positive journal!