Here's a collection of posts that focus on the nuts and bolts of art journaling: supplies, techniques, processes, and tutorials too.
Have you tried image transfers in your art journal? An image transfer is basically a process of lifting the toner of a printed image—the ink—and applying it to another surface. The image itself gets transferred—but it's usually a more transparent image than the original, which makes for great layering.
Read MoreYou turn the page, grab some color...begin to splash it around a bit...and you are there.
No where else. In the moment, fully engaged, focused...
content.
Not every time, though.
Read MoreOne of the reasons we art journal is because it's a safe place to be creative. At least theoretically. This blank book is our and ours alone. We're not making pages for others, but only ourselves. We can play and take risks creatively—"fail" as often as we "succeed"—on the page and it's okay. No one to judge us here.
Read MoreWe art journalers love our hand lettering. Whether headlines, statements, song lyrics, quotes, or even paragraphs, we want to include fun and beautiful words in our art journals. After all, we're about art AND journal, image AND text. We're all about the power of full visual expression.
Read MoreYou've given yourself the inner space you need for your art journaling practice. You are committed. Now, let's find some actual time and space, shall we?
Read MoreYour art journal is a great place for the intuitive power of collage. While you can build and arrange a collaged page according to a plan, it's really fun and often powerful to give your creative self free reign. To let your mind release control and let your intuition guide you as you choose your images (shapes, color, line, pattern...), combine and alter them. Just play.
Read MoreAn art journal is simply a private and safe place to be creative. Often a book (but not always), it can be of any size or dimension. It doesn't have to be a place to create "art" (though it may), and you definitely don't need to be an artist to work in an art journal (although you most certainly can be)...
Read MoreWith a little exploring you soon discover that hand lettering words and phrases in your art journal (or on anything else) is really about drawing letters, not writing them. And just like drawing anything else, we can all learn to draw if we're willing to learn some techniques—and of course, put in some practice.
Read MoreThe market is infused with all kinds of inks, which can be confusing. But I have good news for you. There really aren't that many kinds after all! In fact, there are just two kinds.
Only two!
We all have our own lurking Inner Critic.
Some are louder and meaner than others, some sound a lot like other voices from our lives, and some are quieter and less overt but just as critical. You are probably intimately familiar with your Inner Critic when you begin to create something new—whether it's a page in your art journal or anything else.
Read MoreChances are, one or both of these statements have come out of your mouth:
"I want to art journal, but I don't have time.
or
I want to art journal, but I don't have the space in my house."
Read MoreMy secret dream is that everyone in the world keeps an art journal. Wouldn't that be something? A whole world of people, young and old, sick and healthy, laborers and power brokers, all who reflect, experiment, express...who witness and value their own creativity... and then go out into the world as the creative beings they are (we all are) and unleash that force into all the occupations on earth.
Read MoreYou may not like my answer to this question, but I think you'll find I'm right.
It really is up to you.
Read MoreAs the oldest of three siblings with a single mother, I carried responsibility from an early age. I took care of my brother and sister, household chores and dinners, and somewhere along the way I also made it my job to keep everyone happy. (Ahem, I'm working on that). I learned that play came after work—if at all.
Read MoreSometimes we'd like to include faces or figures in our art journals, but we don't because we think we can't draw. Many of us harbor a misconception that drawing is a matter of talent, when in fact like handwriting or reading, everyone can learn to draw.
Read MoreArt journaling is a kind of magic. I mean, until you create an art journal page, it doesn't exist. You create it. You bring it into existence.
Read MoreAlthough there are other reasons to art journal—as you'll see below—the main reason to art journal is to be creative without worrying about anything else.
Read MoreArt Journaling is a hobby that can include as many or as few supplies as you want. If you find yourself with just paper and a ballpoint pen—you can art journal. In fact, with a little imagination you could rock that art journal.
Read MoreIf you are just starting out with art journaling, don’t over-purchase supplies. Don't be like that new photography student who buys an expensive camera, 20 different lens, tripods, lights, backdrops and everything else related to cameras…and then starts on lesson one: how to focus.
Read MoreLet me tell you a secret: Art journaling doesn’t have to be art. And you don’t have to “be” an artist (although you can be). An art journal is simply a private and safe place for anyone—anyone—to be creative.
Read MoreWhere I spill my heART and share my obsessions: art journaling, mixed media, and my creative life.
