A journal is a good place to just play with art supplies or to just keep your hands busy and the following pictures are examples of that. They are not necessarily very good or interesting, but I have made the commitment to myself to show the ordinary stuff too, the in between stuff, the stuff I do while watching old episodes of Law & Order on tv. ;-)
First two examples of what I do when I want to draw, but don't know what to draw. That's when I fall back on my first love: the drawing of girls. By that I mean usually just the faces of girls. I have done this my entire life. My school notebooks were always a mix of notes from the classes, homework and .... girls faces. I have no idea where this love comes from, but I still enjoy drawing them very much.
Another good use for a journal is to try out new media. I bought two graphite crayons. Until recently I didn't even know these things existed, but they are way cool. They are thick crayons made of watersoluble graphite and come in different grades, just like pencils. I bought a 6B and a 9B. When they arrived I just had to make some lines with them and that turned into the following two drawings which are just nonsense really.
I call all my drawings and art that have no rhyme or reason nonsense and I mean it in a good way. It's just about trying out shapes and lines or playing a little with materials. I guess that it is play in its purest form. You can also do this in color as the next one shows which was done in neocolor crayons and then wetted with water. Fun fun fun!
And last but not least another nice way to play in your journal, which is making found poetry. All you do is cut out words or sentences from magazines at random. After you have a nice selection you start organizing them into a more or less coherent way so they form a kind of poem. This one was pasted on top of a spray stenciled background. I added some lines with a marker.
I guess what I'm trying to say today is that art doesn't always have to be Art with a capital A. Just keep the juices flowing and have some fun. Enjoy what you do even if it's just ... well.... nonsense ;-)