This is the third interview for our Meet the Artist and this time we have Lucie or as how she is known on Instagram as "Journalsanctuary". She tells about when she first discovered bullet journaling, how it has helped her, and gives great tips on choosing color schemes!
Could you present yourself in a few words?
My name is Lucie, I am an artist, illustrator, and bullet journal lover from a country in the heart of Europe, Czech Republic.
So you are 22, are you still in school? If yes, what are you studying?
I indeed am! I study animation at a local university. This year should have been my last. I was supposed to get my Bachelor's degree and decide whether I want to continue with my studies for Master's, but I have instead chosen to postpone my finals for the next year.
Why do you choose to keep a bullet journal?
I stumbled upon this system quite a while ago, on Tumblr. To be perfectly honest, I was skeptical at first. Would writing a to do list every day make my life any better? At that point I was very deep in my depression, and nobody else knew about that yet. My days seemed to be in haze, I didn't feel like I was accomplishing anything, I was very harsh on myself. I needed to find something new, something that would help me sort out this mess in my head, and something that would distract me a bit.
So in the end, I decided I have nothing to lose, got a journal, and made my very first spread. I was giving it about a week, a month at most, before I give up and completely forget about it. It has been almost four years since I made that spread and I still enjoy the system. Though it didn't magically cure my depression, it helped me to get back on track. I could see what I was doing each day, and ticking off the tasks made me feel like I'm not as much of a failure as I thought.
I keep my bujo to this day for the same reason. There are periods of time when I don't make weekly spreads as religiously as I used to, sometimes I don't even touch the journal for a few days. But I find that I am a bit lost without it. I would be a mess if I didn't have my monthly spread with all of my doctor appointments and deadlines! :D
It also doubles as a quick diary -- it's really nice to look back on the things I accomplished in the past. A normal planner might work the same, but I also enjoy the fact that I start with a blank page, and can use my creativity to customize it however I want. That was also one of the things that sold it for me in the end, and probably also the reason why I haven't switched to a premade planner yet.
What are your main materials for your bujo?
The journal I currently use is the Leuchtturm1917 A6, softcover dotted notebook. I downsized my bujo last year from A5 to A6 to make it easier to do spreads.
I enjoy decorating them a lot, but I found that it took too much time, and was kind of defeating the purpose of the whole system -- it's supposed to save you time, not take it away!
But I couldn't part with all of the embellishments, so I made a compromise and bought a smaller notebook. It now takes half the time to create the spread, but I can still make it pretty! :D
As far as other materials go, for writing I use the Muji gel pen and a ton of various colorful markers. I also like to put some washi tape to my spreads. There was a period of time when I was obsessed with it, so I managed to get quite a big collection of it. Now I ban myself from buying more, as I feel like I have enough to last me a lifetime.
Another big part of my journals is various paper scraps. I actually have a drawer dedicated to storing various pretty paper, be it leftover packaging, cutout from a magazine, or simply a sheet of paper I liked and bought. I love to reuse old paper.
Some of my favorites include: an old book that was about to be thrown away whose pages I mercilessly tear out (normally it would hurt my bookworm heart, but it was about to end up in a landfill!), old bus tickets that I got from eBay, scanned, and printed them out, so that I can use them over and over again, and good old sticky notes! I also print out pictures that I usually find on Unsplash -- a page full of wonderful photographers, who let you use their pictures for free in whichever way your heart desires.
We see on Instagram that a lot of people combine their drawings with their bujo. Can you explain why you decided to separate the two?
That's a great question! It's probably because of the same reason I described in the previous question -- it would take me too much time. Now don't get me wrong, I adore all of the artistic bullet journals! I love it when people have time for this and make their spreads into pieces of art.
I just think it would distract me, personally, from the planning too much, and take up space in my tiny journal. It's also probably due to the fact that the media I enjoy the most don't go well with the paper I use for my bujo -- they'd bleed through or warp the paper. But I still do enjoy adding a small doodle here and there to make the spread more interesting! :)
When did you start drawing?
Ever since I was able to hold a pencil in my hand! My favorite thing to do when I was a small child was to sit down with my mom and draw princesses. I am very thankful she always found the time to do this with me -- who knows whether I'd be still drawing now if it weren't for her! Both my parents were and still are very supportive when it comes to my art.
I really admire your illustrations and the color scheme, it's always difficult for me to choose my colors. Would you have any tips or advice for selecting a good color palette.
Oh thank you so much, that makes me very happy! :) To be honest, when I choose colors, it's mostly a guessing game. Often, whenever I'm deciding on a color palette it goes something like "I guess I like this color with the ones I already chose better than this one...?".
Nevertheless, I'd say it helps to take inspiration from the world around you, as cliche as it may sound. I like to keep Pinterest boards with pictures that have nice colors, sometimes I stumble upon a nice color combination in the "real world" and take a picture of it for future reference -- recently I based an illustration off of three pieces of clothing randomly hung next to each other!
Another tip I would give is to take a look at art pieces you really enjoy and dissect them --
1. What colors did the artist chose to portray the mood they wanted to?
2. Why does this piece work?
3. What is it that makes you enjoy looking at it?
Do this with as many pictures as you can and then try to find correlations between them:
4. Do they mostly have saturated colors?
5. Do you enjoy when the color palette is limited, or do you like it when people use all the colors of the rainbow?
6. Do you prefer warm over cold tones?
You can do that with photos, movie screenshots, posters, whatever you like! Once you have an idea of your color preferences, and have tons of examples of how to use it well, you can start experimenting with the knowledge you've acquired. I believe this advice works for more areas of the process of creation than just colors!
However, if everything else fails, there's always the good old color theory. Choosing two complementary colors and adding some neutrals to accompany them works like a charm! :D
That is all for our Part 1 interview with Lucie. Thank you for reading, and to continue click here, and find out where she finds her inspiration.
If you are interested in seeing more of Lucie' s work you can find her on :
Instagram : @journalsanctuary
Pinterest : lucieells