Kick-Start Your Art Journal (Part I)
Tue, January 27, 2009 at 05:00AM 
This is not a test. There are no grades. You can start a page anywhere, with any concept, any idea, any word, any image, any photograph, any paint, any quote, any shape, any color, any direction.The benefit to art journaling is in the act of creating art, not the finished page.
So pick one of these ideas at random, work through them in order, in reverse, use them however you'd like. More ideas in Part 2!
<One Sentence Journaling> At Creative Liberty, Liz discusses the concept of one sentence journaling. One sentence per day. I like the idea of taking the entire day to give that one sentence a chance to develop into something that helps you focus and document your thoughts, your day, as you choose. You can play around with the words as you go about your day. You could build a page around a week or month of "sentences" or build a page around one sentence or the key words.
<Theme> Build a page around a theme, such as a shape. Vickie uses tissue paper as the base for a funky blue page entitled Circles. The graphics are embellished with words and doodles in Sakura Micron pen as described at Vickie's blog, In My Head Studios. {Used with permission from the artist.}
<Write a List> From your favorite drinks to books you plan to read to ideas for other journal pages. Explore the idea in Lists: Journal Triggers.
<Photographic Ideas> Think of photographs as "collections." Take photographs of specific items and tag or group them together. While most of your photos may be filed by date, these photos could be filed by tag, i.e. all "orange" photos, all "fence" photos.
<A Photograph> Do a photo transfer on a page, and build your colors and thoughts around that photograph. I like to use copies of vintage photos, as in Art Journal: Childhood. You can transfer photos using Mod Podge or packing tape.
<Start a Series> The series could be based on some element of time ~ at 365 Days of Being 30, Erin shares a new art journal page each day; soft, elegantly composed pieces of art. Or a series based on color ~ Georgina Ferrans works through the rainbow in her altered journal, including Yellow Green and Red Orange.
Theoretically Related Posts:
- Check out the entire series of prompts to Kick-Start Your Art Journal!
- Art Journaling 101: Some Ideas to Get Started
- Top Picks: Art Materials for Art Journaling, Doodling & Beyond
Reader Comments (5)
Thanks for featuring my "Circles" art journal page! This is a really good post about getting a journal going. Nice work!
Vickie, Thanks for sharing your work. I love your journaling and this is one of my favorites!
I've always wanted to try an art journal, but never thought I could manage - the art or the journalling, lol.
I'm already starting work on backgrounds, using your background posts, and now I have one-sentence journalling to try.
There's hope for me yet. Thanks :-)
Thank you so much for the inspiration on getting started on art journaling! I have kept written journals for many years and do a lot of different artistic things, but I want to try new things and wasn't sure where to start on this. This seems to be about loosening up and letting go, something I need to do. Your blog is wonderful!
Hi, I just wanted to let you know how amazing all these prompts are and that I have gone through every page of them and have a whole lot of projects to start tomorrow :) Thanks for putting all the effort in and please keep going, they are so helpful!
Thanks, Posy