Cover Image: My Day in Small Drawings

My Day in Small Drawings

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Member Reviews

"My Day in Small Drawings: Write. Draw. Reflect." by Matilda Tristram is a delightful journal that encourages creativity and self-reflection. Tristram's approach to capturing daily moments through drawings is both charming and therapeutic. With space for personal reflection, this book becomes a cherished keepsake of memories. It's a wonderful tool for anyone looking to add a creative touch to their daily routine and document the small joys of life.

I was provided an advanced copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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It truly is therapy in a book! It illustrates the experience of getting through a lockdown while also including the reader to make their own cartoons. So funny and brought a smile to my face. Anyone can participate and love this like I did

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The book reminds me of Austin Kleon's work. Tiny, joyful sketches to depict small, kind acts throughout your life. Easy to follow and engaging enough to pick up your pen and start sketching yourself.

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A lovely book for both adults and children. It's almost a doodle-along sort of thing. Learning about simple drawings as well as having a go yourself. It's a book of non-judgemental ways of sketching and just having a go. I really enjoyed it.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for sharing this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is a great book about making comics. This was a really interesting read and the drawing prompts were fun and varied. I found this very inspiring.

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This is a nice little instructional book if you want to start cartooning as a journal. I was expecting it to be more of an art based journal book with fun ways to draw your days, but this is more about making up comic strips about your day. It will be great for those who want to do this, but I wasn't inspired to try..

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Looking for a new way to journal, or a different way to help you deal with stress? Matilda Tristram suggests giving cartooning a try. After an introduction explaining how cartooning helped her through difficult times, the reader is taken through 52 prompts covering different aspects of life to cover in a comics journal, with examples provided, as well as a couple of blank, 4 panel pages to use to complete each prompt. I liked the idea of using a fun, creative process to journal about one's life, and this book makes the idea accessible- the loose, doodle-y style of the art focuses on just doing it rather than feeling pressure to make it look perfect. While this might not appeal to everyone, I think it will be appealing to most people.

#MyDayinSmallDrawings #NetGalley

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I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

My Day in Small Drawings is a therapeutic and thought provoking book to encourage the reader to use comic book sketches/small drawings as a mindfulness, therapeutic therapy or for just creativity purposes in general.
The book contains 52 prompts (1 per week of the year) and each prompt comes with example illustrations of the artists own work to accompany it and to give you ideas and inspiration. There is then a page next to this which is blank to enable to reader to create their own sketches/illustrations for the prompt given.
I found this an interesting and inspirational book to help decompress, relax and unwind after a hectic and stressful day.
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Love this premise! Simple but profound - recommend for artists and wannabe artists, like myself. :) Hope to see more books like this on Netgalley!

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The author is a professional artist and this book opens the reader up to the benefits found in creating comics as a form of journaling and highlights the creative freedom it gives. I love the comics included with each of the prompts as examples, they are fun and can help ease the anxiety of a novice in the art form. The prompts themselves are varied and start out with more concrete things to draw and then start pulling you deeper into intro and retrospection. The prompts are also given in an entertaining and clear way, while being detailed enough to avoid frustration or confusion. Some of my favorite prompts are: your favorite things, overthinking, and smells. After each prompt is a page divided into four sections to create your illustrations and writings.
This is a great resource for beginners or people who want to use art hobbyists. It would also be great for artists who are struggling with art block or want warm-ups. This would make a wonderful gift that can be used up and then saved to look back on.

Thank you to Netgalley and Quartro Publishing Group, Leaping Hare-Leaping Hare Press for the ARC.

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A good one for those who are exploring comics.

Took a bit longer to get through it - so might not be engaging to all the audience.



Overall - 3.5 stars

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I really enjoyed this book, and it made me want to try and capture more little sketches in my day to day life. I’m not very good but the ideas here were enough to spark interest and confidence to try. The tone of the book is encouraging and captures the sense of fun in trying these things, without any big ideas about ‘art’.

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Thank you to the author/publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for honest feedback. I am not an artsy person, but I am always hoping to try out new hobbies/interests. One of my favorite things about this book is that it doesn't just appeal to talented artists. Rather, it is entertaining and accessible for all levels of ability. I think it's really cute to doodle and look back on days and think about what inspired them. Cool idea and great for a budding drawers.

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A helpful guide for journaling and for people who keep journals who might want to add comics or little doodles to their writing, or in place of it. The book contains some instructions, ideas, and doodle-art pages.

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This is a lovely and inspiring book with lots of ideas for topics for creating your own little comics based on your day.

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This book is a lot of fun! Great drawing prompts and I love the unperfect style in which they are presented. The style of the drawing in the book make it easy for the kids to join in with me and not get too hung up on being perfect! We do a little morning drawing and have a fun chat about the prompt. For example there is a page about drawing your favourite mug, and why it is your favourite. So we sketched our favourite mugs and had a cute chat about how the mugs are our favourite for tea or hot chocolate and why it is special to us (made it in pottery class/ gifted by a loved one etc) The prompts really are a wonderful way to start the day with a loved one. a quick fun sketch and a chat to bring us closer.

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A fun little book in which cartoonist Matilda Tristram expounds on how her daily drawing helped her through the troublesome periods of lockdown. The book is filled with suggestions for the reader to start working on their own cartoons, each general suggestion fully explained and illustrated with Tristram's own work, which are insightful and funny.

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A wonderful introduction to diary comics. This book offers an accessible introduction to some basic comic creation techniques, with a particular focus on brief, daily diary comics. The bulk of the book consists of themes and prompts, clearly explained and with cute example comics from the author. Lots of good ideas here to get started drawing daily in a small way.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

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ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher.

My Day in Small Drawings proves to be a great guide on comic-diary keeping, regardless of artistic chops. Tristam breaks down the ways in which you can freely scribble, doodle, and otherwise sketch the events of your day, overheard conversations, and other responses to a variety of prompts that make self reflection easier.

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Write. Draw. Reflect.
This book offers a unique insight into recording your daily life and embracing the ordinary through comic art.

My Thoughts
The author started writing diary comics and posting them online after a cancer diagnosis during her first pregnancy. She used comics to journal about the people, places, and situations that she was facing in her everyday life.

Ms. Tristram believes diary comics can be used as a therapeutic outlet or just for the fun of creating. She provides 52 sections of prompts in this book and blank pages after each prompt for practice (in the print edition).

The drawings are simple doodles that anyone could have fun drawing. I like the way the author encourages the reader to reflect on the different aspects of the day and record impressions in a journal using both words and drawings.

This is a type of art journaling that can be done with nothing more than a notebook and pencil. You don't need any expensive equipment or supplies.

Many of us have kept written diaries or journals. This book demonstrates how we can take it to the next level with comic illustrations.

MY RATING: 5 STARS OUT OF 5

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