Autumn Light — Bullet Journal Weekly Set Up

I’m ready to celebrate the first week of September with a gorgeous witchy autumn light bullet journal weekly set up!

My Materials

• Archer & Olive Watercolor Dot Grid Journal
• Winsor & Newton Gouache Paints
• Grumbacher round paintbrushes
• Heat tool

Looking for the Light

Finally, after years of being curious about gouache paints, I have finally decided to buy myself a set! After testing them out in a sketchbook, I jumped straight in to try out my new paints on a weekly bullet journal set up.

Considering that this week is the first week of September, I knew I had to lean into those witchy autumn feels. I picked a color palette of yellows, oranges, reds, and warm purples to really invoke a fall look.

Laying Down the Base of Autumn Light

First, I lightly sketched out the figure of the witch and her lantern. I knew I wanted the color coming from the lantern to wave out from the lightest yellow to the deepest violet. So I started first by blocking out the witch’s silhouette with purple.

Then I painted large blocks of color in rings around the lamp — first the light yellow, then the deeper yellow, and so on until I reached the darkest ring. I dried those layers quickly with my heat tool before taking my smaller paintbrush for the detail work.

The Devil’s in the Details

I took a single color from the palette and painted a few curved strips of light around the lantern. Then I switched to a different color, moving around the page and adding more strips of color. I continued adding strips, layering them over each other, until they dominated the page of the Autumn Light weekly set up. With gouache being so opaque, I was able to layer lighter colors onto darker colors pretty well!

Finally, I went with my finest paintbrush and painted the details on the witch’s lantern and clothes.

After I was done with the witch illustration, I painted a few blocks overlapping each other for each header of my weekly. Once that was all dry, I used my finest paintbrush to attempt lettering with the gouache. The results were okay, but I definitely need some more practice with this medium!

Ushering In Autumn with Autumn Light

I am so excited to jump into my favorite time of year and pull out all the stops on fall bullet journal setups! The colors, the holidays, the weather… all of autumn has me feeling creative and inspired. We’ll see what other fun fall bullet journal themes come out of this season!