planner art

wonder | wander | women love art journaling! Scrapbooking, watercolour, doodles and urban sketching, whatever it is, we want to try it. But over the past few years we noticed the trend of artistic planners, from Hobonichi to bullet journaling, and last year we finally decided to try it.

I used bullet journals for almost a decade, but aside from a single highlighter, a few stickers, and the occasional doodle when I didn't have my sketchbook, my planner was very basic. I preferred to keep art in my journals and sketchbooks. But watching others draw and paint in their planners, I really wanted to see if I would enjoy it too.

There's something fun about drawing your own planner. When I was a kid I used to draw on the top of school intermediate pads as a sort of DIY stationery. My classmates even paid me a few cents to make them a few sheets too. That's what this feels like.

In art planning, each month usually has a theme, and there are staples like habit trackers and monthly "covers", like magazine issues. Often the theme relates to the season or a holiday - cherry blossoms in April, or the trendy Halloween theme for October.

October is also Inktober month, so I must have been particularly inspired. The beam of light shining down to mark the weekly Sundays was a fun idea to paint into a dark, monochromatic theme.

Other times I like to do collage, just like in some of my art journals. The statues for October made me want to try a light academia aesthetic in the dimming month of November.

Still, it takes a lot of energy to do these double-page spreads so I don't do the full set from month to month. And for the weekly calendar I just mark the date, appointments and to-dos as usual, no need for decoration. In fact I often forgot to fill up the trackers!

In other months, most importantly December, I never had time to do a Christmas theme. But luckily the bullet journal method doesn't require art to work; that's why I've been using it all these years. When January 2024 came I was inspired again.

For February, of course I had to do the Lunar New Year and celebrate the year of the Green Wood Dragon, with metallic paints.

And in March I was rediscovering a ballet manga I loved back in college days, so I was excited to copy the art into my journal...now that I had the skills to do it.

I learned a lot about the artist's style by following the lines she used, but I also felt like a little kid copying favourite pages of my comics and fairytale books, turning them into something just for me. It was like the calming pleasure of Zentangles or colouring books.

Hopefully when we look back on 2024, we can see the journey we took through the year - a record of events, dates and milestones, but also a notebook filled with beautiful art and the joy of making it.