Creative Explorations Vol #15: Letters

A sketchbook/art journal prompt to support your art practice.

Photo by Anna Zakharova on Unsplash

When I first started my newsletter many, many years ago, I called them love letters — I still do. I imagine you when I write, sitting down with a cup of coffee, perhaps, as you read the words I send out into the ether.

There’s an art to writing letters. To writing in a way that is both personal without being boring or tedious, and, in some ways, universal. It’s an art that seems to slowly be dying — hardly anyone writes letters anymore. Instead, we dash off emails or share memes or write articles or blog posts with a focus on keywords and finding our audience.

This month, let’s go back to simpler times. Let’s focus on LETTERS.

Creative Explorations are themed around a prompt that you can explore in your own art/creative practice over the coming weeks. Prompts will be sent out on the first Friday of every month. I hope this month’s prompt sparks your creativity!

Resources + ideas

Collage: Most of us have access to old family letters and notes. Instead of leaving them in a box in a corner, use them in your art. Collage them into the background, paint some florals onto the letters and use them as a focal image in your art piece, or make the letter the hero of your spread. If you don’t want to use the original letter, use photocopies.

Don’t have access to letters? Print some out from the internet! Here’s a resource that you can use — but for your personal use only!

Postcards: Make a set of postcards and mail them out to friends! You can work on a series of individual postcards, or paint a large sheet of paper and cut it down to size. The standard postcard size is 4 x 6 inches.

Illustrated letters: Write a letter {to a friend or yourself} and illustrate it. You can try coffee or tea dying your paper to create an old-world look; splash some watercolor on the paper before you start writing for a more colorful effect; add an illustrated border around your letter; or add some illustrations/drawings along with your words.

Custom postage stamps: Make your own set of mixed media postage stamps! You can use these as fun little elements in your art journal or stick them into your journals for a bit of whimsical fun.

Letter theme: Combine some of these prompts to create a letter or postcard themed spread in your art journal. Here’s an example from one of my journals.

Lettering: Explore different lettering styles this month! Play with your handwriting, explore brush lettering or try your hand at faux calligraphy.

Penpals: Want to exchange snail mail with people from around the world? There are quite a few websites where you can sign up to find pen pals. As with any website, it’s good to be a bit cautious, though sites like Global Pen Friends claim they have measures in place to ensure their platform is safe, and PenPal.me hides your address securely behind your username.

Famous letters: Immerse yourself in letters! I’m guessing many of you would have heard of Letters of Note. Other notable letters: Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke, Mark Twain’s letters, 1853-1910; Letters Read, an ongoing series in which local performers interpret letters and written documents about culturally vital individuals from Louisiana.

I look forward to seeing your take on this prompt! You can email your finished pieces to me on shinjinim@substack.com or share them on Notes if you use the Substack app. If you share on Instagram, tag me @moderngypsy.in

Like this prompt? Share it with your friends and invite them into our virtual studio. If you’re on the Substack app, you can tap on the like button or restack to Notes to let me know you enjoyed this post.