Art Journal can mean so many different things. It can be a scrapbook of memories, it can be a sketchbook of ideas. It can be a place to try new techniques or styles worked privately with no judgement. It can be a diary of feelings and thoughts mingles with drawings or collage. AND…it can be all of these things at once. It can also shift purpose over time.

Art Journaling can be such a powerful tool to harness inspirations, and ideas for any artist. It is what we learned on the very first day of art school…how to keep a sketchbook to work out our ideas and inspirations. Mixed media artists often find the art journal itself becomes a work of art. I have found combining both sketchbooks pages with art play of mixed media artists where I feel free to explore colors, composition, textures, and techniques is my sweet spot. Pages become inspirations for future work. 

How to art journal? There are no hard fast rules. Try new things, don’t be afraid to make ugly pages, you can always cover them up or tear them out altogether. Make more of what you love, gather little treasures that inspire you and paste them onto your pages. Make secret pockets with love letters to yourself. Gather business cards of places and people that inspire you. Splash bold colors on your pages, or learn the simplicity of one perfect mark. Press leaves and flower petals between the pages. Use a beautiful ribbon as a bookmark. Open up some possibilities for your right brain to explore and see where it will take your art. I promise over time you will see a style emerge or even change.

Here are some pages of my old journals. I used to carry it with me always using it as my filofax with notes and calendars hand drawn inside. I made a lot of ugly pages. Ugly pages that one day I may go back and cover up. Or not…

Below is a journal flip of my three current art journals. I have 3 going at once for now, so I can switch to another journal while I wait on my pages to dry. For the most part I do not work and complete one spread at a time. I tend to jump from spread to spread randomly with what ever inspirations seem appropriate at the time until the spread feel like it may be finished.  Somedays I will spend the day making gelli plate monoprints… other days all I want to do is add strips of washi tape to random pages. 

You can see that I have become bolder with my layers and have moved my business notes and plans to a project management software leaving my art journal for strictly inspirations and sketching ideas. 

Here is just a sampling of some of the art I have made with the help of my art journals.