The Everyday Journal: WW Draws Yesterday

Consistency is what makes William Well’s journals so amazing. WW draws yesterday. 
Everyday.

Early morning WW gets up, grabs his bag, gets on his bike and heads out.  He finds a cafe with a quiet corner and a solid table. Bill dumps his stuff. Orders a coffee black. Rolls, up his sleeves. Then he draws yesterday. 

Today WW is sitting at Café Acri in Tiburon.  It is raining... so no bike. Out the picture window Angel Island is across the water floating on San Francisco Bay. It’s a quiet Sunday morning at the Cafe.  WW talks as he draws...

“First I get out my black pen, open the journal and just start drawing. I start with the date. Then I try and remember what happened yesterday.  Where did I go? What did I do? Who did I meet? I draw in the big events.”

“So, What if nothing much happened… then what do you draw?" I ask.

“Yeah, well some days are like that. Almost nothing happened… but I know I ate something so I start with that. I need something to anchor the page. Then I fit the smaller stuff around that…. The job is getting the layout to work. The challenge is to make an interesting page even if not much happened. Sometimes I shift the point of view and do a bird's eye. I experiment with tones or textures to make images pop, like a water tone, fence texture or the pattern of a floor."

"Of course other days there is lots to draw. But whatever else happens drawing the journal starts the day with the satisfaction of making art. Even if it was a nothing day, it can still be an interesting page."



"Looking at my older journals I see they are mostly words with occasional drawings. They are harder to read and not as interesting to peruse. Over time the journal has morphed into this current form. Actually, the pages are getting better."


"Recording is also a memory exercise. I record cash spent at the bottom of the page. I sprinkle in bits of yesterday's conversation in speech bubbles. Sometimes I add thought bubbles. I note who showed up at dinner parties, interesting conversations.  It’s really fun to have a reference, so I can go back to see just what happened and when. I finish my coffee and find that every morning it's good to know I can still draw." 

Source: The Illustrated Journals of William S. Wells