by Amy Grennell

Created on: March 10, 2009

Keeping an art journal is not just for artists. Anyone and everyone can benefit from this form of visual recordkeeping. As with regular written journaling, an art journal chronicles the user's life through images more than just text alone. This can be a therapeutic form of expression for everyone.

For artists this is often a place to play and experiment with ideas for larger works. For everyone an art journal is a place to document how you feel via colors and symbols as well as words. You can keep track of your days and use drawings, quotes, images from magazines, answers to prompts or questions, keep lists and more.

An art journal can be just like a normal written diary except it can contain the same amount of text or none at all. The text itself can be an art form on the page or you can add labels, scrap booking items and anything else you can imagine.
By letting your emotions out onto a page you can reduce stress, clarify decisions you may need to make, come up with new creative project ideas, and have a memento from those moments in your life.

Art journaling supplies

Cardstock or plain unlined journal such as a Moleskine
Acrylic or any other kind of paints (just don't load up a puddle of watercolors)
Black Sharpie (I like the CD writer ones) and/or black Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen
Some images from magazines or just your own sketches
Stickers or rubber stamps if desired
Glue stick
Scissors
Any other pens or colored pencils or mark making tools
If you are using cardstock -Cardboard for front and back cover (cereal boxes painted work well) and rings (I use 7 Gypsies available at the craft store with scrap booking stuff)

Tips to Keep in Mind

You don't need to create a work of art on a page, just capture your day or feelings as best you can.

Come up with a feeling from the day and maybe an image or two to represent that on your journal page. Write out as much or as little as you like. Sometimes even one image, a quote and a few words will do it.

Don't try to figure out the correct way or incorrect way to do an art journal page. There isn't one!

If you don't like your handwriting then use stencils or print out something from the computer, cut it up and glue it on the page.

Don't get worried about having the right supplies or finding enough papers or tools to use. Sometimes too many options overwhelm you and you can't get things done because there are too many choices.

Do backgrounds ahead of time on some cardstock and then pull one that you like for that day. This cuts down on the time waiting for a background to dry before putting things down. I usually do a background painting session of sorts once every month or so. I make one big mess and have a lot of dried backgrounds that I punch holes in and have ready to go.

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