Textual Play

A creative notebook is a place where there are no rules, where you can just put anything and everything that comes up in life. But that “no rules” thing can be hard to adjust to. So let’s ease in today with some SWATCHING.

Supply List

• Your notebook
• A category of writing or arting supply (e.g., pens, markers, watercolors, highlighters, washi tape, ink pads, paint sticks, acrylic paints, etc.)

Steps

1. Find a page in your notebook. If you’re in a new notebook, skip that very first scary blank page and head right to the second page. If you’re already in a notebook, just head to the first available page.
   
2. Gather your writing/arting supplies. Now that you have the page all picked out, collect the category of supplies you have chosen.
   
3. Swatch. Yep. It’s just that simple. Start making marks in your notebook with the selected supplies. It does not matter how you do it. You can make a list; you can make circles or swirls or cats. You can go in rainbow order or random order or the order dictated by the next person you see. Anything goes. Just put the supplies on the page and make the marks.

Here are a number of examples from my notebooks.

I pull out this exercise often: when I’m stuck, when I start a new notebook, when I get a new supply, or, shockingly, when I actually need swatches of something. This is a good one to keep in your arsenal.