The reflective visual journal is an indespensible tool for visual creatives. It is a weapon that when utilised properly and efficiently can form the foundation of great pieces of art. Legendary artists such as Picasso used their diaries and visual journals to great use. “I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else”. It is a secure place for those working in visual fields to test their creative influences and put them to paper, without becoming embarassed, and thus, precious with their attempts. This is because the RVJ is important for processing final outcomes, not the outcome itself. A visual communicator will experiment in their RVJ by collecting, organising, developing, editing, refining and evaluating visual information. The Reflective Visual Journal will give a visual practicioner the chance to learn, and by this act, gain knowledge. It should not just show the practicioner information, the process around acquiring the information is more important than the final outcome.
“A portable laboratory for the development of visual thinking”.
Below are examples of RVJ work from a conceptual illustrator's blog I found when browsing the net.
Design Process with written annotations:
Final Outcome:
Drawing
A visual communicator’s rvj should be filled with drawings. Not extremely detailed designs or portraits however, but simple thumbnail sketches that allow the practicioner to communicate their thoughts. Drawing should be an outlet, a channel for one’s creative storage after a given amount of time. It should also be used during the embracing of all of the creative influences around us from day to day. Drawing into a Reflective Visual Journal gets ideas out of one’s mind so they have an opportunity to develop without anticipation. Leonardo Da Vinci called it “thinking on the page”, some call it thinking out loud. During the flowing drawing process into the journal, it is important to suspend habitual critical judgement. This requires one to let their guard down, consider less preciousness about their drawings and to halt harsh self judgement. Work inside a Reflective Visual Journal is the development, and process stages of a piece; drawing for ideas and not for “art”. With this knowledge a visual practitioner should be able to make mistakes without embarrassment, thus, discover unique and challenging pathways developed all by process. It is important to understand that a Visual Communicator can use other materials other than pencil and paper for their drawing processes inside their RVJ. Other media and materials may be more suitable for expressing specific statements or attempting to solve specific problems. For example, if an illustrator was experimenting with screen prints and a client required a background that looked like carpet material, one may find cuttings of different types of material in their journal. They may also find etchings, screen prints of how different textures look, even lino mono prints and painted drawings, or brush pen drawings.
Brain
A visual communicator should be able to use their creative brain often. Both halves of the brain have different functions, for explanation purposes we can pretend that we have two brains.
The left brain is used by humans for organising, clarifying, managing and time keeping; overall logic.
The right brain is used when playing, experimenting, risking, when curious, and when being creative.
It is important to understand that no side of the brain is more important than the other, and that without access to one half day to day activities and tasks would become much harder. The left and right halves of the brain intertwine when in the creative processes of visual work making. The left brain analyses and the right brain experiments. This system is how a visual communicator should attempt to work in their RVJ. As communicators we should be consciously switching brain modes from right to left. Between spontaneity and focus. Between experimentation and analysis. It is also important to know that these expressive and experimental drawings should not just be random conundrums and doodles. They need a theme, a pathway, a direction that can be gained through the early parts of analysis and annotation (using the left half of our brain, this is logic). Afterwards, one should open their “right brain” to explore the theme they have reached, progress on it and briefly halting to reflect on their creative outgoings by questioning and reasoning between themselves, and their work inside the Reflective Visual Journal.
