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Art Journaling 101

Art journaling is, at its simplest, creating visual art in a book. Also called an artist sketchbook, visual diary, or art diary, art journals have been used by artists for centuries for a variety of purposes. Leonardo da Vinci, Joan Mitchell, and Frida Kahlo all kept visual diaries over the course of their lives.

I’ve been working as an art journaler since 2009 after finding iHanna’s beautiful and inspirational blog. Over the course of the years, I’ve experimented with a range of book sizes, mediums, and processes.

But art journaling is accessible, easy — there are, really, no rules — and anyone can do it. All you need to do is choose a book, get inspired, and make some art.

Choose a book

There are so many options when choosing what to use as your art journal: teeny books, big books, different page thicknesses, colored pages, books with different bindings, etc. You may go through several types of book before finding the one that works best for you.

I use (currently, anyway) books that I’ve handbound with watercolor paper. My last few art journals have been about 5×7 inches (about 13×18 cm), which I’ve really loved. I also really enjoy working in thrifted books: you aren’t starting with a blank page, and any pages that you tear out can then be used as collage material.

Anything that sparks your interest will do: spiral-bound journals, notebooks made for multi-media, composition notebooks, thrifted books, and so on. You could also use loose-leaf pages and sew or staple them together later. Depending on quality of the paper, you may want to glue several pages together (say, three pages at a time throughout the book) to create a sturdier surface for your media.

Whatever you choose, I’d suggest starting out with books with fewer pages at first: you’ll be able to test out how the paper takes your medium without a lot of pressure. You may get discouraged if you have another 300 pages to fill of a book that isn’t working for you.

Get Inspired

Find and follow artists whose work you like — the #artjournal and #artjournaling hashtags on Instagram are a great way to look through lots of different kinds of books and discover new artists that you otherwise might not come across.

Check out books about art journaling. The 1000 Artist Journal Pages (please find it at your library or buy from your local indie book store if you can!) in particular is a huge compilation of artist pages with a variety of styles. Stampington’s Art Journal Magazine is also a great resource.

Go to your local art store, dollar store, or craft store and see what supplies pique your interest. I’ve used a range of cheap and unusual supplies in my art journals, including sticky notes, highlighters, staples, ballpoint pens, and crayons. Thrift stores also have a ton of used books and magazines that are great for collage. Art journaling doesn’t have to be expensive!

Make some art

There are no rules about what you add to your book: there is no one way to art journal. But it can be intimidating to start, so here’s a list of materials you could experiment with:

Collage materials: lined or graph paper, thrifted book pages, maps or pages from an atlas, tissue paper, security envelopes, images cut out of magazines, photographs, found lists, ticket stubs, cards, wrapping paper, newspaper, etc.
Paint: acrylic paint, tempera paint sticks, watercolor, gouache, India ink. You can use water to thin or mix colors, or lay it on thick, or let it drip or splash on the pages.
Glue: matte medium, gel medium, a glue stick, hot glue, rubber cement, tape, glue dots — experiment and see what you like working with best! Keep in mind that some adhesives will hold up better than others in the long term, and only some are archival (ie., will not yellow over time). Be sure to read the label to see what each product offers.
Other mark-making tools: oil or chalk pastels, water-based markers, paint markers, charcoal, ballpoint pen, colored pencil, graphite, stamps, crayon, etc.

My favorite mixed media tools right now are book pages, acrylic ink, oil pastel, and pencils.

The biggest takeaway

But above all, the most important piece about art journaling is have fun. Create for yourself — there’s no need to share with others (in person or online) if you don’t want to. Your art is for YOU. Make mistakes. Be messy. Make ugly art. Enjoy the process!

And if you have any questions about art journaling, need some encouragement, or want to share what you’re working on, I’d love to hear from you.

Bird by Bird

I just finished reading Anne Lamott’s insightful (and wickedly funny) Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. I hadn’t actually heard of her before picking up the book in a little library in my neighborhood — but her words found me at the right time.

I’m deeply curious about other creatives’ practices, and the writing process is still somewhat of a mystery to me. How can anyone take a feeling or experience, something so big and complex and nuanced, and capture it in something as limited as language?

But this kind of question can ensure that we never put pen to paper. Perfectionism, really, is the antithesis to play and exploration and learning. Lamott gives you permission to write badly: one of her first pieces of advice is to “write really, really shitty first drafts.”

“You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something — anything — down on paper,” she says. If you write and it turns out laughably awful, you are still doing something right. (Kind of like making ugly visual art: if you’re creating, you’re on the right path. Make ugly art, or terrible first drafts. Just don’t not create.)

The only thing to do when the sense of dread and low self-esteem tells you that you are not up to this is to wear it down by getting a little work done every day.”

Lamott also speaks about writing as a lifelong journey, with no fool-proof formula: you can only show up, pay attention, create terrible first drafts, seek feedback, learn from your mistakes, and try again. Writing, like any other kind of creating, is a process, one of self exploration and expression — and it’s the work (the verb), not the work (the noun) that is ultimately most valuable:

You’ll find yourself at work on, maybe really into, another book, and once again you figure out that the real payoff is the writing itself, that a day when you have gotten your work done is a good day, that total dedication is the point.”

(Emphasis is mine.)

Daily Practice

In June and July, I did the daily Index Card a Day (ICAD) challenge. In August, I posted here every weekday. What I found is that showing up is what leads to inspiration, not the other way around.

Here are some of my favorite posts from this month:

These wouldn’t have been written had I waited for inspiration to strike.

A daily practice is the foundation to creativity and innovation. Austin Kleon calls it “apply ass to chair“: regularly find time to sit down, and you’ll discover something to write about, or paint, or collage. Getting started is the hardest part.

Don’t wait for inspiration — just show up, and inspiration will find you, eventually.

Make Ugly Art

Ingrid Murray mixed media art journal page with collage, white, green, and blue tempera paint, and oil pastel.

For each piece of polished, finished art shared online, every artist has a whole pile of unfinished, “messed up,” or ugly pieces. And that’s exactly as it should be.

I, for example, don’t love the art journal spread above.

It started out with some collage and minimal marks with oil pastel and black India ink, but I realized that it reminded me of camouflage and hunting — not something that resonates with me. I added more colors and marks, still hated it, and then covered up most of it with white tempura paint. It’s fine. Whatever. I’ll turn the page and do something else.

For years, I’ve been telling anyone who’ll listen: make ugly art.

It’s one of the first things I recommend to emerging artists, those who are afraid of messing up (whatever that might mean) or who desperately want to be able to translate what’s in their mind onto the page but haven’t practiced long enough to know how to do that.

Purposefully making ugly art lessens the fear of creating something you dislike and is a great exploratory process.

Some ideas for making ugly art:

Use color combinations you don’t like or usually use
Scribble out or paint over sections of your work
Stick down collage any which way
Try using tools you haven’t used before
Use materials you aren’t usually interested in or aren’t special: tissue paper or wrapping paper, a receipt, a ripped ad from a magazine, etc.
Move quickly and impulsively, not thinking about what you’re going to do next

The best part about setting out to create ugly art? If you finish it and hate it, you’ve succeeded. But if you finish it and love it or love sections of it, you’ve also succeeded.

No matter the outcome, you are creating, exploring, practicing, and learning so much more about what you do and don’t like.

Detail of Ingrid Murray mixed media art journal page with collage, white, green, and blue tempera paint, and oil pastel.

Security Envelopes

I use a variety of papers in my collage foundations for my art. One of favorites is security envelopes: they’re free in abundance (hello, junk mail), come in a variety of color and pattern, and add great texture to a collage.

Generally, I balance them with warmer-toned collaged papers like vintage book pages, or papers that are darker or lighter for contrast.

This afternoon, though, I collaged an index card using only security envelopes and a glue stick. The result is interesting — it reminds me of patchwork denim.

Other artists also incorporate these papers into their work. Christine Tischio of TurnstyleART uses them to create well-known character collages. Elizabeth Duffy creates beautiful lantern-like installations. Scraps of security envelopes pop up in Austin Kleon’s collages, too.

There’s also a host of inspiration on Instagram — check out #SecurityEnvelopePatterns.