Art Journaling for Beginners: How to Start

Hey friends,

Today we're talking about art journaling and specifically art journaling for beginners.

Because if you're somebody who is interested in having an art journaling practice but doesn't know where to start or just hasn't started yet,

This is for you.

I believe everyone can benefit from this practice.

It's fun.

It's creative.

Introspective,

It can be practical,

It can also be deeply healing.

It can be just a really wonderful way to keep a record of our lives in an interesting,

Creative space that's entirely yours.

I only have one rule for art journaling,

And that is you make the rules.

You know if you're a person who needs more structure.

You know if you need to be like totally creatively free without any structure.

And that's it.

So what is art journaling?

Art journaling is basically a visual form of written journaling and for it you'll need a sketchbook.

This is a hardbound sketchbook with watercolor paper in it.

And this is my preferred type of art journal.

There's all sorts of different options out there that you can explore.

But for me,

I like a hardbound journal.

I just really like the the way they feel and the way they create really nice volumes over the years.

And I like my journals to be relatively small.

This is an 8 by 8.

But in the past.

I've been really in love with the five by seven size.

There's just a lot of.

Ways to use a smaller art journal.

You can have it with you and doodle in it.

Instead of using your phone when you're waiting for things.

And then having the watercolor paper or a thicker paper means that you can paint in it and do things like that.

You can also collage in it a lot easier with a heavier weight paper.

So.

Yeah,

I like the smaller journals because I like to carry them with me everywhere I go.

If you are Someone who likes the spiral bound style though,

These are great too.

Mainly because you can put them totally flat.

Of a flat working surface.

And then a lot of these If you get a style like this,

Make sure it's perforated on the edges just in case you want to take the pages out.

You can do that cleanly.

You really can't take the pages out of a hardbound journal.

It won't be pretty if you do.

So you have your fresh,

Beautiful life.

Watercolor paper sketchbook.

Now what?

You open it up and there's a big blank page looking at you.

What do you do?

Well,

You start with the materials you have.

You have probably pens and pencils,

Maybe some markers and highlighters.

Maybe some tape and glue at home.

That's good enough to get started.

You don't need to go to the art supply store and buy a whole bunch of things unless you want to.

You're welcome to do that.

But start with what you have.

Start with a pencil or pen and just make a mark.

And then make another mark.

And then make another mark and see what happens.

Maybe write a quote.

But the rule of thumb that I always give people is one decision at a time.

Just one decision at a time.

You don't have to take your blank page and have a fully baked plan right off the bat.

In fact,

That's really not the point.

The point is to be in the moment,

Involved in the process of creating something you've never seen before.

So all you need to do is make one decision.

Which leads to the next.

Which leads to the next and before you know it.

You are off and running.

So one decision at a time,

Using what you have on hand.

This is a wonderful tool.

For art therapy practices,

For learning how to draw,

For writing what you need to write,

Stream of consciousness,

For taking notes,

For writing down things that inspire you.

I also like to use it as a scrapbook.

There's a lot of little things we collect.

That you don't have any other need for like a ticket stub or a receipt to something and you might just tape it or glue it into your art journal and now you have a memory that you've collected and maybe you start to draw around it or write around it and now you have like this kind of interesting expression of that moment of your life that you can look back on.

It's really cool once you have a bunch of different volumes.

This is like 15 or 20 years of art journals for me.

When you have all these different volumes,

You can look back and see.

Who you were and how you were.

And I can look in my art journals.

And Remember.

Exactly how I felt.

At a time in my life,

Like this is 2011.

I can look through this art journal and remember exactly what I was thinking and feeling.

So just another reason why art journals can be a really cool.

Part of your life.