Drawing Out Ideas Visual Jour

C R E A T I V E A P P R O A C H E S T O R E S E A R C H
Drawing Out Ideas

Visual Journaling as a Knowledge Creating Medium
During Doctoral Research
Haz e l M e s s e ng er
Abstract
This paper explores the use of a visual journal in a doctoral study of transformative
learning cultures. Journaling has a wide range of possibilities in higher education and
in a research context, adopting one signals a commitment to recording both its process
and progress. This is particularly relevant in practice-based qualitative studies where
journaling can be one of the strategies that supports reflexivity. The following discussion
explains how visual journaling promotes knowledge creation through linking sens-
ing, feeling, thinking and doing, and how, when used purposefully, becomes a useful
member of the researcher’s toolkit. The final part of the paper provides an account of
a researcher’s development as a visual troubadour, and includes examples from visual
journals.
Keywords: drawing, visual journaling, reflexivity
In writing about place of creativity in research, Byron (2009, p.18) suggests that
“visualisation can help: try drawing instead of writing”. Visualisation and visual
methods in research have a growing profile, with Prosser and Loxley (2008, p.2)
Messenger, Hazel (2016). Drawing Out Ideas: Visual Journaling as a Knowledge Creating Medium During Doctoral Research,
Creative Approaches to Research, vol. 9. no. 1, pp. 129-149.
© 2016 Creative Approaches to Research
130 | Creative Approaches to Research | Vol. 9 No. 1, 2016
suggesting that their adoption represents an alternative to ‘word-and-number’,

offering the chance to:
slow down observation and encourage deeper and more effective reflection on all
things visual and visualisable; and with it enhance our understanding of sensory
embodiment and communication.
Drawing tends to be thought of as the domain of children or the creative

professions (Barry, 2008); however, sketches and diagrams have always been key
tools of natural and social scientists (Prosser & Loxley 2008) and as the subject of
the 2004 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, drawings by sur-
geons and sports coaches were exhibited alongside works by da Vinci and Michel-
angelo (McKenzie 2008). In an academic world dominated by text, suggesting
that drawing may be a useful addition to the research toolkit involves exploring its
nature and how it may be used. Drawings may be understood as “marks that have
meaning” and when self-generated, have the capability to link sensing, feeling,
thinking and doing (Adams 2013, p.2). Whether alone or accompanied by text,
drawing can be used in an academic context to enhance observation, conceptual
development, reflection and communication (Ridley and Rogers 2010a, 2010b).
Adams (2014) adds perception, invention and action to this list, but it needs to
be acknowledged that many people face challenges when being asked to draw as
this assumes that individuals possess a natural toolkit developed in childhood. Al-
though children will draw simply for pleasure (Barry 2008), adults are much more
reluctant to do so (Clarke, 2009), possibly because they were told that they lacked
talent (Gregory 2006) and abandoned it as a learning tool when competence in
reading and writing became established (Ridley and Rogers 2010a; 2010b). Even
the very successful cartoonist and author Lynda Barry describes how people say
that she can’t draw or that her drawing is bad (Barry 2010) implying that for it to
be a valid form of creation, representation or communication it has to be ‘good’.
This paper explores the use of a visual journal, part of the methodology for
a naturalistic, ethnographic study of transformative learning cultures (Messenger
2013, 2015). Journaling has a wide range of possibilities in higher education
and adopting one in research signals a commitment to recording both its pro-
cess and progress. This is particularly relevant in practice-based qualitative studies
where journals can be one of the strategies that support reflexivity (Jarvis 2001),
defined by Dowling (2008, p.748) as “qualitative researchers’ engagement with
continuous examination and explanation of how they have influenced a research
project”. Although reflexivity should identify the limitations of the claims being
made (Nightingale and Cromby 1999), Alvesson and Sköldberg (2009) suggest
that reflexivity can also be effective in revealing new opportunities or avenues to
follow. This means that, as an alternative to the apparent stability and coherence
Drawing Out Ideas | Messenger | 131
of sequential text, visualisation can be particularly helpful in actively revealing

the complex and often paradoxical nature of human experience (Weber 2008).
This becomes especially relevant in qualitative practice-based research, where the
identity, experience and positionality of the researcher are central to the research
process. Alvesson and Sköldberg (2009, p.306) suggest that researchers should
develop strategies that allow them to “think things together” and “stand where op-
posites intersect”. Therefore, as Weber (2008) suggests, this is where visualisation
is particularly helpful as it can simultaneously show multiple messages in a con-
crete and permanent form, and reveal the ongoing self-awareness of the researcher
in knowledge construction (Pillow 2010).
The term ‘visual journal’ is used here to refer to notebooks which freely com-
bine both text and image as purposefully used research tools. Although visual
journaling is recommended practice for art therapy (Ganim and Fox 1999) here
the term is used to refer to something more like artists’ or designers’ sketchbooks.
Sketchbooks have been the traditional form of recording process in art and design
for centuries, but there room for advice on how they might contribute to the
research process when used in other contexts (Holtham, Ward and Owens 2010).
Arts-based approaches have a particular part to play in educational research
(Springgay, Irwin and Kind 2005) but although there are studies which use par-
ticipants’ drawings (for example Theron, Mitchell, Smith and Stuart 2011) and
reviews of artists’ and designers’ sketchbooks are available (for example, Brereton
2009; New 2005), there is little available that shows how using a visual journal
might form part of the personal toolkit of the researcher, particularly when the
researcher would not describe themselves as an artist or art educator.
Visualisation in Research and Knowledge Creation

Visualisation is part of a growing appreciation that arts-based approaches have
a valuable part to play in research. Barone (2001), for example, highlights how
scientific research traditions may limit the opportunities for challenging or dis-
turbing familiar situations, suggesting that researchers who wish to do so could
adopt approaches more aligned with the arts. Eisner (1981; 1993; 1997) also
wrote extensively on this area, and in 2012, the two authors came together to
highlight how the “premises, principles and procedures employed by artists can
serve certain purposes for engaging in social research […] that complement those
of the sciences” (Barone and Eisner, 2012, p.x).
Arts-based methods are having a growing presence and impact in research, for
example through the A/R/Tography movement (Springgay et. al. 2005). McNiff
(2008, p.29) defines arts-based research as:
the systematic use of artistic process, the actual making of artistic expressions....
as a primary way of understanding and examining experience by both research-
ers and the people that they involve in their studies,
and approaches adopted particularly acknowledge the limitations of Western spo-

ken and written language when exploring or expressing the connections between
internal and external experiences (Maynard 2005). Although writing nearly 40
years ago, the illustrator Kingman’s comments (1978, p.24) that “the essential
function of art is to change or intensify one’s perception of reality” provides a
straightforward reason for using artistic forms systematically within a research
process, providing the means for revealing aspects of the researcher and their re-
search which may inform the study, be shared and critiqued.
Visualisation studies are associated with understanding how complex issues
may be converted into accessible explanations through the use of imagery (Len-
gler and Eppler 2007; Margulies and Valenza 2005). Research in this area is mak-
ing use of knowledge from a wide range of disciplines including art, graphic de-
sign, computer studies, education, management studies and neuroscience (Hyerle
2009). Visualisation externalises ideas, enables scattered concepts to gain some
coherence, facilitates communication and supports the capability to make and
remake connections (Sonneman 1997; Margulies 2002; Margulies and Valenza
2005; Hyerle 2009). As such, visualisation is an epistemological act, forming and
transforming the known world (Vaughn and Akama 2009). Eppler and Burkhart
(2004, p.3) consider that knowledge visualisation utilises rich and expressive
means to convey complex insights or relate new understandings which take into
account “experiences, values, attitudes, expectations, perspectives, opinions and
prediction”. Its use supports the principles of ambiguity and pluralism which are
core features of practice-based research.
Holtham, Owens and Bogdanova (2008) emphasise how visualisation pro-
vides a meaningful challenge to typed text in learning and communication, with
Maynard (2005) and Eppler and Burkhard (2004) pointing out the interactive
nature of these processes as both the creator and the viewer become involved in an
active process of sense –making. Visualisation has the advantage that it can make
extensive use of a combination of text, visual metaphor, cartooning and anima-
tion to develop explanations, and may be seen for example in the popular RSA
Animate series (RSA, nd). As Eisner (1993) indicates, different representational
forms together with the experiences they promote encourage different forms of
understanding. In research, this may be the researcher’s understanding at different
moments in time, as visualisation provides the opportunity to make a permanent
immediate record of thoughts and experiences and later to revisit them, to see
them for what they depicted at the time and reinterpret or revise them through
the frame of the present.
Qualitative research in the social sciences stresses that “knowledge cannot

be separated from the knower” (Steedman 1991, p.53). The traditional scientific
method of research consisting of a pre-defined set of steps being undertaken
by an uninvolved researcher becomes inappropriate for expansive, responsive,
practice-based studies (Cohen, Manion & Morrison 2007). Byron (2009 cit-
ing Harwood 2004) suggests that a more helpful way of viewing the research
process positions the questioning researcher at the centre of ten interlinking ac-
tivities, which include observing, defining the problem, carrying out the study,
examining the results and communicating with others. This conceptualisation of
the research process emphasises how the researcher actively revisits each of the
activities as necessary in the light of new knowledge and experience. This active
model is useful for representing how practice-based research can have an emer-
gent and naturalistic quality as the researcher reflexively engages with the process
of research, drawing too on their own context, experiences and values to make
decisions and interpretations. Byron (2009, citing Harwood 2004) suggests that
the researcher may adopt creative methods to engage with each of these activities,
so supporting the development of knowledge creation. Support for the validity
of this approach comes from Ridley and Rogers (2010a, 2010b), Adams (2014)
and New (2005) who all indicate how visualising, especially through drawing,
provide active means for observing and exploring, defining, conceptualising, in-
terpreting, reflecting and communicating; elements that link well with Byron’s
suggestions.
Drawing in a Research Context

Pfister and Eppler (2012) in a review of sketching, highlight its use in knowledge
creation by a range of high-profile individuals including Charles Darwin, Leonard
da Vinci, Sigmund Freud and Michael Polanyi. In each case sketches were used to
capture ideas whilst they were emerging, providing a permanent base from which
to develop more advanced concepts. A simple, exploratory sketch of the Tree of
Life in one of Charles Darwin’s notebooks made during his voyage on The Beagle
(Chancellor and Van Whye 2009) is often cited as an example of how visualisa-
tion is used in research. However, it is important to note that drawing was some-
thing that Darwin did frequently throughout his career and he was very used to
developing or conveying thoughts or observations visually. Byron’s suggestion to
adopt drawing as a creative method in research implies it being used ad hoc rather
than with a commitment to it being a part of the methodology or the routine
practice of the creator (Byron 2009). However, as Tharp (2003) indicates, any
form of creativity is not something that develops with any real meaning without
habit and routine. Byron also implies that drawing is easy to adopt, but like any
other communication method or creative language, expertise benefits from prac-

tice, firstly learning basic skills and then finding ways to use them.
Suggesting that self-generated drawing be a legitimate tool to be used by a
researcher involves exploring the nature of drawing itself and the ways in which it
acts as a strategy for knowledge generation in a research context. Paris, Lipson and
Wikson (1983) consider that a strategic approach to learning should be goal-di-
rected, enabling the organisation of knowledge and the improvement of learning
for the task in hand. Creating drawings is considered to support learning because
it is a constructive process, helping with the internal process of integrating and
organising knowledge obtained from multiple sources (Van Meter and Garner
2005). Turner (2014, p.223) emphasises the essential critical nature of drawing by
describing it as having an “unequivocal facility for astute critical practice that en-
compasses both practical skill and intelligent reflective understanding” therefore
providing an intimate relationship between thinking and doing. Adams (2013,
2014) highlights how drawing spans time and place, using visual codes that en-
hance perception, making thoughts visible and capable of manipulation. It may
be used to show process and explain ideas where words are inadequate (Edwards
2008) with Maynard (2005) indicating that it is a complex activity, an embodied
act involving learning how to see. Gravestock (2010) emphasises that although
drawing makes a product, it is also a process owned by the perpetrator, a physi-
cal, analytical and inventive act of mark making. Adams (2014) reinforces this,
considering that drawing can provide the individual with the means for capturing
any context, idea or process before it is ready to be communicated in a form that
others will understand. The artist Antony Gormley (1979 in Moszynska 2002,
p.1) explains it as follows:
What is drawing to me? It’s a kind of magic, a kind of necessity. Drawing is an

attempt to fix the world, not as it is, but as it is inside me. So the drawings are
mental diagrams. You can condense things in a space that is infinite….drawing
is not so much a mirror or a window, but a lens that you can look through in
either direction, either back towards the retina of the mind, or forward towards
the space. You could perhaps not look so much at the drawing as through it.
Adams (2013) explains the versatility of drawing in that it can represent the
real and the imagined, with a language that includes line, shape, space, edge and
position making it possible to represent physical objects and places as well as
emotions, processes and abstract concepts. She emphasises that drawings may
not just be ends in themselves, but may be perceptual, conceptual and expressive
tools which when used tenaciously can aid understanding and the creation of
ideas. In environments dominated by digital technologies, drawing may be per-
ceived by many to be a childish activity, a technique with less gravitas than other
communication languages (Eisner 1996). However, with an established pedigree,
for example in storytelling (Eisner 1996) and in the arts and sciences (Maynard
2005), its development is being promoted in a range of academic contexts (for
example, Adams 2013; Ainsworth, Prain &Tyler 2011; Ridley and Rogers 2010a,
2010b; Van Meter and Garner 2005) because it demonstrates use of a language
that links what can be re-presented with a means for representation, a vehicle for
thinking in and thinking with. Orland (2000) considers that it may be beneficial
for all stages in the research process, particularly in complex contexts which may
be personally ‘charged’.
Like Anthony Gormley, both Edwards (2008) and Maynard (2005) empha-
sise that drawing is something that can look both outwards and inwards. It is
helpful therefore in a research context to ask what drawing is for, rather than what
it is of (Adams 2014, italics in original) and what skills and approaches might it be
worthwhile to develop to take advantage of its properties. When used by graphic
facilitators (Sonneman 1997) or in sketchnoting (Rohde 2013) drawing consists
of the mind and body working together using combinations of shapes, symbolic
language, connectors and text to create memorable records of events. Abstract
analog drawing (Edwards 1986) uses shape, space and emphasis to convert ex-
periences into visible forms and then into text, and drawings which use visual
metaphor (visual expressions of metaphorical concepts, el Refaie 2003; Lakoff
and Johnson 1980) are often useful for situations where words are inadequate.
Used in combination with words, drawing in research goes beyond the use of
visual imagery to record context or even to express ideas and becomes personal, as
the researcher is central to the experiential dimensions of the representational act
through which they aim to show the concepts and feelings they hold. This owner-
ship is echoed in the design industry where there has been a move away from visu-
alisation that uses digital perfection through computerised technologies, towards
ways in which the personal can be incorporated in the design message (Heller and
Illic 2004; Perry 2007). The typographer Perry (2007) promotes working by hand
because of the way it allows him to reflect while he is working and show his own
personality in his illustrations. Heller and Illic (2004) talk about the self-control
needed by the graphic artist who works by hand and the expressive ability of the
medium to depict emotion. This challenge to the predictable conformity of mod-
ernism worked comfortably alongside the way in which a naturalistic research
approach embraces unpredictability and evolution.
Visual Journaling as a Research Method

Adopting a journal, diary, notebook, sketchbook, field book or lab book in re-
search demonstrates an intention to create a permanent, physical narrative of ob-
servations, reflections and emerging ideas. However, although it is not difficult to
gain some insight into the use of journals in research (see for example; Cooper
and Stevens 2006; Hiemstra 2001; Lincoln and Guba 1985) finding guidance for
using a visual journal is less easy, so investigating practice in art and design, where
the sketchbook method is commonly used to record the creative process provides
a useful starting point. Gilbert (1998, p.255) indicates that “artists research the
visual through drawing, collage, painting, found imagery, photography, reading
and the written word” and Holtham et al (2008) and Holtham et al (2010) ex-
plain how the sketchbook method has formed the foundation of knowledge cre-
ation in engineering, art, architecture and other professions for centuries. The
sketchbook provides the means for documenting inspiration and explorations by
integrating text and image, description and comment. It combines both form and
function and Greenlees (2005), a textile artist, emphasises that there is a close link
between the outcome of a project and the book used for reflection, recording and
analysis during the research process.
Although these points explain the purpose of sketchbooks, they do not high-
light the presence of their owners and creators. In a review of sketchbooks Brere-
ton (2009, p.6) explains how they contain the “visual intimacy of how creative
people think” and New (2005, p.8) describes them as “unsung heroes, the work-
ing stiffs of creative life”. Their permanence allows their contents to be revisited,
affirmed, developed, neglected, shared or discarded, with the capability for show-
ing feelings as well as the formation of ideas (Eisner 1981, 1993, 2008). Without
the stability of sequential text as their main form of recording, they celebrate and
accentuate the possibilities that may develop from uncertainty, ambiguity and
pluralism, acknowledging the central and unique role of their creator in the cre-
ation of knowledge. Grauer (2012, p.3) explains them as “a voyage of discovery
where ideas, imaginings and observations can be brought into existence”. In a
research context they can integrate all types of visual media including drawings,
photographs and other ephemera with text, and if used with some purpose but
also allowing for spontaneity, can become a playful companion, teacher and con-
fidante.
Johnson (2001) considers that journals provide the means for revealing pat-
terns, organising devices associated with, for example, key influences, hidden is-
sues and challenges. A reflexive approach to research involves appreciating the
presence of these factors. Reflexivity also involves revealing the conceptual systems
that inform the commencement of the research and guide its progress. Lakoff and
Johnson (1980) propose that these conceptual systems form a hidden agenda,
a personal metaphor for life that guides perception, thinking and action. Used
purposefully in research, a visual journal can bring this hidden agenda into the
open and reveal lasting footprints as well as providing a database of the developing
mastery, direction and self-confidence of the researcher, a permanent, memorable
record of unfinished business, crossroads and breakthroughs.
A Researcher’s Story
As indicated earlier, Paris et al (1983) consider that a strategic approach to learn-
ing (including learning in a research context) should be goal-directed, enabling
the organisation of knowledge and the improvement of learning for the task in
hand. When I began my doctoral studies I was aware that I had a certain degree
of visual literacy, with the ability to know and create knowledge through visual
forms, but my capabilities for using visualisation in a research context were poorly
developed. To paraphrase Miller (1995) choosing to use a visual journal represent-
ed an ‘autobiography of the method’, a conscious decision in line with Gardner’s
theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner 2011) to capitalise on my own predis-
positions. However, for this to be a meaningful strategy by becoming a confident
visual troubadour, I needed to develop my own visual literacy (Bamford 2003),
confidence in my ability to draw and to use it as a means of visualising research
process and progress.
Although I have a healthy addiction to stationery shops, at the beginning of
the research process I had only ever seen ‘real’ artists and designers working in
journals and had to adopt an intuitive, pragmatic, everyday approach to using
them. I had chosen to use visualisation, and particularly drawing, as part of my
methodology but I was not sure where to start. This is something that Holtham
et al (2010) also found, suggesting that perceived lack of skill and lack of clarity
about how to proceed in using a sketchbook in research to be at the bottom of it.
As a doctoral candidate, the visual journal would be the place where I would be
developing some of the most significant work of my career, providing a container
which would be a place for creativity and for charting the sequence and progress
of ideas. I wanted it to be special. Johnson (2001, p.24) describes an art or sta-
tionery shop as “the kingdom of childhood enjoyed in adulthood” and I recall
standing in front of a huge range of journals wondering which type to choose.
Margulies (2002) comments on the limitations to creativity provided by white,
lined paper because of its association with linear thought and text-based record-
ing, and eventually I opted for a hard-backed spiral-bound A5 book with plain
brown-paper pages. It was easy to carry around and use, and being spiral bound
provided somewhere to keep a pen.
Using Edwards (1986, 2008) and Gregory (2006) I began to teach myself to
draw, something that I had enjoyed doing when I was younger. I kept a sketch-
book for practicing techniques in parallel with the visual journal and as I pro-
gressed I realised that the touch of the paper under my hand and the stillness
and concentration involved provided a valuable experience in its own right. I
developed the habit of drawing in the sketchbook every day, using objects to
hand, photographs, the environment and printed media as sources, developing
awareness of perspective, boundary, space and shape. I took photographs and col-
lected examples of visual materials produced by graphic designers and illustrators.

Friends and colleagues in art and design became interested in my progress, rec-
ommending books to look at, for example The Art of Looking Sideways (Fletcher
2001), Drawing From Life: the journal as art (New 2005), Handjob; a catalog of
type (Perry 2007), The 1000 Journals Project (Someguy, 2007) and Sketchbooks: the
hidden art of designers, illustrators and creatives (Brereton 2009).
Developing a comfortable relationship with drawing helped me learn that not
only could I use it to make a permanent record of something already formed, like
an environment or process, but also that it enabled me to turn ideas into visual
forms. As indicated by Adams (2014), drawing can not only be of something, but
for a purpose and gaining familiarity with procedures including abstract, analog
drawings (Edwards 1988) visual metaphor and mapping (Margulies 2002; Mar-
gulies and Valenza 2005), creating sketchnotes (Rohde 2013) plus the principles
of boundaries, negative space and perspective all helped to express what could not
yet be seen. As time progressed I was able to use these strategies unselfconsciously
and automatically to develop personal awareness as a researcher, take notes from
reading or during conference presentations, develop and connect complex con-
cepts, and show the affective dimensions of being engaged in doctoral study. Col-
lectively these supported the ability of a practice-based researcher to tenaciously
pursue a reflexive approach to the research.
Prosser and Loxley (2008) comment on the complex interplay between per-
sonal and professional experiences influencing the research process and during
the progress of my doctoral studies I created fifteen visual journals that are now
permanent artefacts available for further evaluation and sharing with the research
community. The following section includes extracts from the journals, firstly re-
vealing how patterns from the past, the present and the imagined future were
powerful organising devices from the outset (Johnson 2001), and then how draw-
ing was used to support the progressive development of a researcher and the un-
derstanding, interpretation and communication of the subject of the research.
The first two pages of Journal 1 still remain blank because I didn’t know
how to start. Also, I found the blank cover quite worrying; concerned that it
was getting ‘spoilt’ by being carried around. Scott and Modler (2010) suggest
that ‘activating’ plain paper by modifying it in some way can dispel anxieties, so
I decided to personalise the cover with newspaper cuttings (Figure 1). This strat-
egy provided a turning point and it was something I continued to adopt for the
remainder of the research process, with each of the covers of the journals reflect-
ing my ‘position’ at the time. I found the presence of the journal reassuring and
stopped worrying about how to use it, relaxing in the knowledge that it provided
a pleasurable tool which enabled freedom of expression. I began to look forward
to opening the pages, looking back over previous entries and thinking of ways to
of record new ideas.
Figure 1: Journal 1 cover
The first weeks of entries in Journal 1 are dominated by self-observation,

explorations and reflections on the personal and professional experiences that had
brought me to doctoral study and by evidence of me getting to grips with the
language and procedures of research (for example; Figures 2, 3 & 4). Pithouse
(2011) explains how drawing can be used to develop self-awareness particularly in
relation to professional history and experience, but does point out the challenges
of adopting it as a reliable research method. She suggests that developing confi-
dence in its ability to contribute to insight is important and emphasises that it is
the process rather than the product that has most relevance. By adopting a journal
approach both the process and the products created contributed to revealing the
patterns expressed through the images which showed key influences on my life
and career and the fear and uncertainty associated with doctoral study. However,
although they also show the influence of longing for a new identity, unfinished
business and untapped potential, they also show how personal and professional
challenges had been “secret gifts” for the future (Johnson 2001, p.125). Johnson
(ibid) explains how a journal can be a self-portrait, a chance to reframe a life’s
story and this is relevant to appreciate in the complex process of practitioner
research, where the personal and the professional mingle with affective, practical
and theoretical dimensions.
Visual metaphor accompanied by words, poems and reflections have a sig-

nificant presence throughout the first journal. This intertextual strategy (Werner
2004) provided a means for defining the identities, experiences and aspirations
that I brought to doctoral study and enhanced appreciation of their mutual in-
fluences. Figure 2 shows a model, taken from Anne Dickson’s book A Woman in
Your Own Right: assertiveness and you (Dickson 1982), which was used to begin
to identify ‘what makes me tick’. Confident use of the whole page, using colour
and combining images with text are features that dominate all of the journals and
creating the image helped with producing the accompanying narrative. The use of
visual metaphor is continued on the next page (Figure 3) but this time it is self-
generated, making use of colour and lettering and incorporating extracts from fa-
vourite poems; ‘The road not taken’ by Robert Frost, ‘When I am old I shall wear
purple’ by Wendy Cope and ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’, by Dylan
Thomas. At this early point in the research process these drawings represented a
suitable strategy for self-observation and reflexively engaging with the personal
and professional experiences, values and the context for the research which would
inform both methodological and conceptual development.
Figure 2: What makes me tick?

Figure 3: Is there room for more than one glass in a life?
As time progressed I became a confident visual troubadour, able to commu-

nicate with myself and later with others through freely creating and using visual
metaphor, characters, shapes and lettering to observe, explore, combine, reflect
and interpret the practical and theoretical experiences that were driving the re-
search. At different times in the research process it was possible to be expansive,
to use strategies to encourage divergent thinking and at other times to use differ-
ent approaches to close things down, to make decisions and define directions. I
also introduced my own presence to the pages through using simple stick figures
either in isolation or as part of a comic strip format (Figure 4) to show procedures
or how I was feeling at the time. As these have remained available for review, it is
possible to look back and identify areas of struggle, liminal spaces where I engaged
with old and new knowledge (Land 2014) and breakthrough moments, those tip-
ping points (Gladwell 2000) resulting from a steady build-up of understanding
and interpretation. More playfully, versions of the comic strips are now used in
my own academic work with doctoral candidates, as they provide a way of com-
municating the experience of undertaking research to a very diverse student body.
Figure 4: All work and no play
Throughout the time of the research project my drawing style remained sim-
ple, with an emphasis on line, colour and shape. My visual literacy developed
as I created a vocabulary of literal and metaphorical symbols and also, encour-
aged by practice in graphic design, the use of lettering and shapes to explore and
record related concepts. Sources including Fletcher (2001), Lengler and Eppler
(2007) Margulies (2002) Margulies and Valenza (2005) and Sonneman (1997)
were helpful with this, and I could use this visual vocabulary for a range of pur-
poses including note taking and for generating new understandings. The page
shown in Figure 5 is a summary created following attendance at a conference on
creativity in higher education at the National University of Ireland, Galway which
integrates learning from the conference with prior knowledge.
As an isolated image Figure 5 may mean little to the reader, and it should
properly be viewed in the context of the sixth and seventh journals, which contain
a visual narrative of the conference, the time leading up to it and the aftermath.
However, this image also represents how I was becoming part of a new commu-
nity, capable of contributing to discussions on the future of higher education.
Throughout the journals there is evidence of this, the plot of my changing identity
and the source material for a memoir of an emerging academic.
Figure 5: Reflections on a conference
In time, the journals became full of sketches and diagrams as the empha-
sis turned to conceptual development. I was making connections between some
complex educational theories, including those of Winnicott (1965), Engeström
(1987) and Kegan (1982, 1994) and the observations and evidence from the re-
search sites. Drawing was an effective strategy for integrating these different theo-
retical perspectives and sources of data, for holding complex perspectives in mind
at once and being able to work with the ideas emerging from the relationships
between them. Pascale (1978, p.156) terms these spaces “white spaces”, indicat-
ing that being able to value the unknown, those areas not clearly perceived helps
with developing a unity of vision and the ability to identify fertile interpretations,
ones that will break new ground. Tversky and Suwa (2009) explain how sketch-
ing, especially when it is enhanced with words and other symbols, is a key tool in
design as it embraces vagueness and encourages reinterpretation. My own research
had an emergent quality as data collection and developing conceptualisation went
hand in hand towards interpreting what I was observing. It had much in com-
mon with the principles of the design process (Wallas 1926 in Byron 2009) and
the drawings in the journals track how my ideas developed over a period of years
(Figures 6, 7, 8)
Figure 6: In the bubble (1)

Concluding Remarks
This paper proposes that a visual journal may provide a way of enhancing and evi-
dencing knowledge creation in practice-based research, with visualisation being
helpful at all stages in the research process. Journaling itself also documents the
changing identity of a researcher, with the combination of image and text pro-
duce a memorable, reflexive, visual vocabulary capable of expressing the personal
experience of being engaged in research. The journals evidence the limitations
of human thinking and memory, because as I turn their pages I am constantly
surprised at the knowledge they contain and inspired with ideas for future work.
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Hazel Messenger is the Course Leader for the Master’s in Business

Administration(MBA) and the MBA with Professional Development in the Lon-
don Guildhall Faculty of Business & Law at London Metropolitan University.
She is interested in the transformative and developmental potential of higher

education and challenges students to make the most of their potential. She has
developed an experiential learning programme on the MBA which involves the
students in working collaboratively to develop their management and leadership
potential. Her postgraduate teaching and supervision also involves the Doctor-
ate in Business Administration programme, where she works with students to
develop their own reflexive understanding of the contexts they are researching.
She also teaches final year undergraduate modules associated with research and
personal development.
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C R E A T I V E A P P R O A C H E S T O R E S E A R C H

Drawing Out Ideas

Keywords: drawing, visual journaling, reflexivity

suggesting that their adoption represents an alternative to ‘word-and-number’,

Drawing tends to be thought of as the domain of children or the creative

of sequential text, visualisation can be particularly helpful in actively revealing

Visualisation in Research and Knowledge Creation

and approaches adopted particularly acknowledge the limitations of Western spo-

Qualitative research in the social sciences stresses that “knowledge cannot

Drawing in a Research Context

other communication method or creative language, expertise benefits from prac-

What is drawing to me? It’s a kind of magic, a kind of necessity. Drawing is an

Visual Journaling as a Research Method

lected examples of visual materials produced by graphic designers and illustrators.

Figure 1: Journal 1 cover

The first weeks of entries in Journal 1 are dominated by self-observation,

Visual metaphor accompanied by words, poems and reflections have a sig-

Figure 2: What makes me tick?

Figure 3: Is there room for more than one glass in a life?

As time progressed I became a confident visual troubadour, able to commu-

Figure 4: All work and no play

Figure 5: Reflections on a conference

Figure 6: In the bubble (1)

Figure 7: In the bubble (2)

Figure 8: In the bubble (3)

Hazel Messenger is the Course Leader for the Master’s in Business

She is interested in the transformative and developmental potential of higher

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