Illustrated Life Journal: A Daily Mindful Practice
A course by Kate SuttonIllustrator
A course by Kate Sutton, Illustrator
Document your daily life and express your feelings on paper with drawing prompts and ideas to boost your creativity
What if you could improve your drawing skills, while taking some time to reflect on your day and unwind? Kate Sutton is a freelance illustrator who finds peace and inspiration through the daily practice of illustrated journaling. She believes it is a great way to document your life and appreciate the little things that each day brings.
Discover fun ways to fill your sketchbook through illustrated journaling. Kate shares her favorite prompts and ideas to begin the mindful practice of documenting your daily life and finding new ways to express your creative ideas.
What will you learn in this online course?
13 lessons & 18 downloads
What Is an Illustrated Life Journal?
5 minutes, 1 second
Materials
5 minutes, 29 seconds
Inspiration
4 minutes, 44 seconds
Drawing and Visual Language
14 minutes, 46 seconds
Daily Gratitude
12 minutes, 24 seconds
What I Ate Today
12 minutes, 9 seconds
What's included in this course?
Meet Kate, hear about her creative journey and love for illustration. Discover where she finds inspiration for her work and see some of the artists she admires.
Hear about the idea behind illustrated life journaling and what it means to Kate. See her favorite materials and learn how to use them whether at home or on the go. Explore the different areas in your life to look for inspiration for your illustrated life journal. Then, gather reference material and start creating your first drawing.
Start working through a variety of prompts and ideas such as gratitude or the last meal you ate. Discover how to create a comic book narrative by documenting your day, then going outdoors and illustrating the things that catch your attention. Fill your sketchbook with the things that bring you joy by learning how to work quickly with Kate’s tips.
Learn how to digitize your work and adjust your drawings in Photoshop. See how to share your work on social media and hear Kate’s final advice on how to keep up your daily habit of life journaling in your sketchbook.
What is this course's project?
Explore various drawing prompts and techniques to start an illustrated life journal.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
This course is for anyone who would like to develop a regular drawing habit and explore a creative mindful practice using their own life as inspiration.
Requirements and materials
No previous drawing experience is required to take this course, just a desire to express your thoughts and feelings through illustration.
As for materials, you will need a sketchbook, brush pens, fineliners, a pencil, and an eraser.
Reviews
- 1 month ago
La profesora me encanta, los ejercicios son divertidos, aunque no veo por qué proponer un ejercicio con Procreate pero dar sólo unas breves indicaciones en un pdf y no mostrar el suyo, tampoco muestra su time lapse (otro ejercicio propuesto). La interacción es a través de la IA, por lo que interacción verdadera con la profesora es 0. Es decir, NINGUNA.
- 1 month ago
Excelente curso, me ayudo mucho en mis procesos de cuadernos de bocetos
- 2 months ago
This course is great! 5 stars!
- 2 months ago
Un curso muy simple y divertido. Apto para principiantes sin ninguna experiencia.
- anisa53PLUS2 months ago
Ive always wanted to learn to illustrate and journal like that and this course is perfect to learn that!
Kate has worked in a wide range of illustration projects including enamel pins and jigsaws, toys, books, fabric designs, editorial, and much more. Her clients include Lonely Planet Magazine, Roxy, Lululemon, Urban Outfitters, and Lesportsac.
Content
- U1
Introduction
- About Me
- Influences
- U2
The Illustrated Life Journalling
- What Is an Illustrated Life Journal?
- Materials
- Inspiration
- Drawing and Visual Language
- U3
Creating Your Illustrated Journal
- Daily Gratitude
- What I Ate Today
- What I Did or Saw Today
- Seen on My Run/Walk
- Things That Inspire Me
- U4
Presenting Your Illustrations
- Digitalize and Post Processing Using Photoshop
- How to Use Social Media and Keep Up Your Journalling Habit
- FP
Final project
- Illustrated Life Journal: A Daily Mindful Practice
What to expect from a Domestika course
Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
Certificates
PLUSIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
Yes, this course is designed for beginners and covers foundational drawing and journaling techniques, making it accessible to anyone new to illustrated journaling.
To get started, you'll need a sketchbook, pencils, fine liners, brush pens, erasers, and optionally, markers or colored pencils. Digital tools like Procreate and Photoshop are also covered for digitizing artwork.
You’ll learn daily journaling techniques, drawing from observation and imagination, color selection, digitizing and editing pages in Photoshop, building a portfolio, and sharing work on social media.
The course includes gratitude journaling prompts and techniques—such as simple line drawings and selective color—to help you document positive moments and enhance mindfulness.
While not mandatory, digital tools like Photoshop and Procreate are recommended for editing and sharing your illustrated journal pages. The course provides tutorials for both traditional and digital workflows.
The course explains how to select sketchbooks based on paper quality, portability, and compatibility with various drawing tools to prevent issues like pen bleed.
Yes, the course covers photographing, scanning, editing, and posting artwork on platforms like Instagram, including tips on hashtags and community engagement.