Among the chatter on twitter, the dreaded blank page topic popped up. I get questions a lot about how to avoid it and what I do when I'm faced with one. My art journal is a "refurbished" spiral notebook with a hard cover. {Do you want to see how I make it? Leave a comment!} The spiral has about 200 pages in it. I'm using it over the whole year, so it's not necessarily one page every day. STILL, that's 200 BLANK pages!
So... how do I get over the "oh my gosh what do I do?" or the "I'm gonna mess it up and then hate it"... or "I don't know where to start..." issue? I get inspired. There's a few fail-safes I have for inspiration.
- Pinterest. If you don't know what pinterest is, you're missing out!!! Search Pinterest for "art journals" and feast your eyes on creative endeavors from the journalers of the world. It's really amazing for ideas!!
- Play copycat. Take someone's journal page--this includes mine!-- and copy it. Obviously it doesn't have to be the same, but use it as inspiration. I'm a big fan of using TAZO tea bag wrappers. Maybe incorporate them in your next page somehow?
- Get outside! Sit on your front steps/porch. Write down or make a mental note of five things you see. Incorporate those in some way in your page. It could be the orange of fall leaves, the smoke from a truck's exhaust, the garbage can that fell over in a windstorm once.... How would the sound of a car's engine look if you drew it on paper?
- Raid your junk drawer. Everyone has one. Go find five things and use them in your page. The first five you see! Don't worry about whether or not they make sense. Art journaling is about silencing your inner critic. You don't have to care what is pretty, what goes together, what makes sense to OTHER people-- art journaling is for YOU. Do what YOU like, what YOU feel, what YOU want!
These are my main go-tos for some inspiration! I'll be delivering an art journal prompt this week, as usual, via my newsletter-- if you'd like to participate, please sign up on the left hand side of this page, where it says "follow by email, too!". :] There's a little space for you to enter your email address, and then you'll get some FUN prompts from me each week!
And without further ado, my pages from this week! If you'd like to see any of them in more depth, leave a comment and I'll post an in-depth of the pages you'd like to see!
{inspired by the Lifehouse quote "This is your life; are you who you want to be?"}
{media: acrylic, Crayola Slick Stick in Green, Sharpie, Pen}
{This page is inspired by a really hard letter I had to write to family. I printed ONE copy of it and ended up using it in my journal. I pasted it, then painted over it and finally wrote on top of the paint. Talk about therapeutic!}
Media: Paper, acrylic, crayola slick sticks in blue, green and yellow, Sharpie.
This is a sneak peek of something that's not quite finished yet. Something I love doing is playing with mixing paint right on the page. This started as blue, white and red... and developed into this gorgeous plum color. I used tissue on top and a card on top of that. Love.
Media: Cardstock, tissue paper, acrylic, tape.
Another shot of the page!
You might recognize this vintage seashell graphic from another page I did. I loved it so much, I got another one and put it in my big journal! Adore.
Media: acrylic, paper, sharpie, Gelly Roll med White Pen
The companion side to the page above.
Media: acrylic, book scraps, cardstock, sharpie, pen.
I was busy painting a mural and had some paint left over. Guess where it went? :D
I love seeing these colors together. I happened to have some junk mail from Anthro, so I threw that card on the page as well. It is the PERFECT color to match, don't you think?! :]
Media: acrylic, junk mail, Gelly Roll med White pen!
I hope you guys are having fun creating! Let me know via email or twitter if you're using these tips, and I'll respond! :] Can't wait to see what you come up with!
And don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter if you want to receive my prompts!
Happy Creating!
xoxo,
C















