Greetings! I’m trying a new thing and it’s kind of scary. I’ve created my first video of the process of creating an art journal page. The whole process is filmed, start to finish, and includes a few voice-overs (does anybody love the sound of their own voice? ‘Cause I sure don’t.).

 

The way I figure it, art journaling has become something I use every week — every day if I can — and maybe someone else will find it useful to their own journey in the world. Not all my art journaling is full of deep thoughts or mystical ah-ha! moments of illumination. Very few of them can be described that way. However, that doesn’t minimize the significance of it, nor does that mean it’s not still useful.

 

Much of my art journaling is simply appreciating things around me, or processing something that’s on my mind. There’s a quote that says writers get to taste life twice, and I believe that’s true for many art forms, including art journaling. So you can think of this as merely the process of enjoying the little details of your life, and doing so through smoothing paint on a page. I’m going to include what mine ended up looking like, but yours could look COMPLETELY different and that right there, folks, is the beauty of art journaling. You just can’t make it look wrong, and you have to love that. It’s got built-in accomplishment.

 

 

Below the video, I’ve included the main materials I use. Please do not worry about having fancy stuff or getting anything special. You might have a little container of water colors around — use that. You might have highlighters or markers — use those. One of my favorite things is to scrape paint across a page using an old gift card; completely un-fancy. Start where you are because this is intended to be freeing and fun. And if you have time to come back and tell me about your experience, I’d love it!

 

 

Materials used:

Ballpoint pen

Pitt pen

Ceramcoat acrylic craft paint

Craftsmart acrylic paint

Liquitex heavy body paint

Palette knife

Oil pastel

Pages from an old book

Super-pointy platinum pen (not its official name but that’ll have to work)

Random paint brush, old gift card

 

Thanks so much for letting me share this with you, and for being a gentle space to try new things.