An art journal is a natural extension of your brain. It's a place to store ideas so you can free your mind ready for new possibilities.

Most artists keep some form of art journal. Not quite a notebook, not quite a diary, not quite a sketch book and not quite a scrapbook. An art journal is none of these things individually, but all of them collectively.

I never really kept an art journal until my third year at art school. Who needs a journal when all your ideas are being realized as class assignments? However I started to get ideas beyond my learning with no time to explore them.

These ideas would float around in my head, evolving, morphing and becoming more informed. Still I had no time. So I bought my first journal and started to write my ideas down.

Everything about them streamed onto the page. Nothing left out. Who knows what might be important when I came back to them.

My first journal entries were pure writing. Over time I started to include diagrams, rough sketches and even interesting 'doodle sketches' of characters drawn onto scrap pieces of paper.

In the years that followed my journals have gotten bigger...from that first small book to large sketch pads. I still use them the same way. Sketches, writing, bits of paper stuck in. Even my poetry and more.

These journals are essential for assisting with the dreaded 'Artists block' that all artists suffer from now and again. When I've run out of ideas I turn to my journals and page through them.

Sometimes I'll see something that sparks an idea. Sometimes I'll take a half finished concept and explore it more. It doesn't always result in a new artwork but it is never boring to page through my journal.

An art journal is an essential part of being an artist. It's more than just a journal. It's a book of memories for future possibilities.

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