How to: Workbook (or IB Investigative Journal)

People ask me a lot what my workbook is, I often carry it around and work on it in class. Well its technically called my International Baccalaureate (IB) Investigative Journal/Workbook. I recently finished up my 1st workbook of 185 pages, I'm quite proud of it. And looking back I feel like I can now tell you how to keep a strong workbook. A workbook does not just have to be for art, its just like how an author keeps a journal. Its a great way to keep your thoughts going in an organized time line and book, collected in one place, not table napkins and in the margins of math hw scattered around your home.
To begin a workbook all you need is a blank page book, no lined pages. The cover I would say should be black, just to keep your ideas from being interrupted by the work on the cover, you don't want your idea to be altered as you look at your book. However, that is just my suggestion, you can get whatever cover you would like. Or just decorate the cover yourself. Its up to you.
Now that you have a book, you need to not worry about who will ever see it. Its your personal space to do as you wish. As you do as you will to each page it is most important to date each page and number each page. On your blank pages you can write, draw, glue, color, paint, or whatever else you can think of.
Write about artists you see. Even if its just going to the store and you see a homeless man selling chalk drawings on cardboard and you like the art, write it down. You see a logo and think something about it, 'the blue and green makes me think the company is enviromentally aware'. Also write about whats going on in your life. "Man smoking in front of my apartment, I hated how he made my porch smell so awful I felt like I was choking." How could you do a piece of art to reflect that? Art that has something to say is important, give an opinion and run with it.
Draw what you like. Its important to draw things you like, along with doing observation sketches to test and challenge you making you better.
Research goes along with writing, but you have to read up on something too. The news paper can be research or an internet article about the new painting a local museaum just bought.
Process pages are important. If you are going to get published or applying to college, they will want to know you are thinking about your work. Show the original idea, sketch it, draw arrows, point out things. Is there symbolism? What is it? Why? What do you think about ___? Why did you draw it so up close? What is their expression suppose to mean? You have to write it down. Write what you change. "I didn't like how full the flower was, so I drew it in its bud state." "The F-stop made the foreground way too blurry, so I'm changing it to a ## F-stop to get a sharper image".

The most important thing is to keep up with your book! Don't stop working in it for months at a time, do a sketch or write a sentence once a week if you must!

Here are some pages from my books::

Notes/Research
book 1

Process Page

book1

book1

book2

I strongly encourage this form of working. It really helps people who are unsure what they are to create in art.