Art Journaling 101

I know there is a lot of mystery surrounding the whole idea of art journaling. What is it? Who does it? Why would I want to do it?

*Disclaimer* As an overview, this is kind of a long post... I promise the rest won't be like this.

This is going to be a little intro to some basics (as I see it) of art journaling. There is always room for discussion and other ideas/philosophies we can add to the mix. :) I'd love to hear about your experiences with it and/or if you've just heard about it and want to learn more. I figure this is a journey we will be undertaking together.

My idea of art journaling is... there is no specific *right way* to do it. I've seen art journaling pages that are more like traditional scrapbook pages, and then I've seen the pages that bear no resemblance to a scrap page. They are all good and they all have merit. Some people will do them digitally, and others will actually make a physical journal full of paint, markers and found objects. I've seen teeny tiny journals, and large ones that have big fat fold-out pages that are thick with embellishments.

There are a couple of things that most art journalers agree on, and the first one is that art journaling is a method of self-exploration and self-expression. The next is that art journaling is a way to creatively share things, and above all else, it is supposed to be fun. Also, you don't have to be "artistic" or consider yourself "artsy" to do art journaling. I think sometimes the name scares people off. :)

It may just seem a little intimidating to get started, and that is where it is really similar to scrapbooking. Just think back on your first pages and how you might look back on them now and blush at your first attempts. I remember my first days of digital scrapping when everything was blocks of paper and no shadows.

We need to let go of the idea of perfection. That is one area that art journaling seems to have the slight edge over scrapping; you can be a little messy and get away with it because it is almost expected when you are creating an art journal page. Of course you don't have to be messy, but if you are worried about creating a perfect page, you might want to throw a little mess out on the page to push yourself out of your comfort zone.

1. Supplies... the great thing about art journaling is that you don't have to have any special supplies to get started. For digital journalers, you can use what you have in your digi stash and add to it as you go along. Some of the things that might be useful are masks, arrows, brushes, alphas, elements, shapes, tape and stitches. OSD has a great group of designers that are already generating fun art journaling goodies, and you can find some of those specific things here. If you are going to do a physical journal, you can use anything you have on hand. Found objects are great. Scraps of fabric, wires, fibers, brushes, stencils, gesso, paints, markers, stamps, ephemera, adhesives and even scrapbook paper. There really isn't much of a limit as to what you can use.
2. Size... there really is no set size for art journal pages. Some people prefer to create playing card sized pages (Artist Trading Cards) and others do 8 1/2 x 11 or 12 x 12 or larger. Some people create their own physical journals, some use old books, and some use index cards or other small pieces (even books that are called "inchies" with pages that are 1" x 1". If you are struggling with ideas and/or time, you may want to start out with a smaller sized page just so you aren't faced with a huge page that will keep you from moving forward.
3. Themes/topics... since art journaling is a method of self-exploration and expression, topics and themes are going to be as personal and unique as each individual creating pages. We will throw out some prompts each month, but they are by no means "required" topics. They are suggestions or ideas, but you are the one who needs to come up with something that has meaning for you. If none of the suggestions speak to you, ignore them all and do something you want to do. I'd hate to have someone think, geez... those suggestions are lame so I'm just not going to do anything. I've taken workshops before where I don't end up doing anything because I'm not feeling the love for the assignment. This should not be one of those experiences, and hopefully if we share ideas and pages, there will be enough inspiration and you feel that you have something to contribute.
4. Paper vs. Digi... obviously this is a digital site, but that definitely should not restrict your creativity to only doing things digitally. We'll try to provide techniques and information that applies to paper/physical journaling as well as digital (and hybrid).
   
5. Process... we'll post some prompts/themes/topics on the 10th of the month. We'll also be sharing some inspiration from art journalers all over the world. On the 25th of the month, there'll be information about techniques (and hopefully some tutorials). There will also be a monthly blog post about what is going on in the workshop, and hopefully we'll be highlighting some amazing pages that are created by you guys! It would be great to have some ongoing discussion and/or questions/answers if you guys want to talk about what you are working on, etc.
   
6. Share your work! Be sure to upload in the gallery and you can also post it to our Flickr group. There are also other Flickr groups out there that are art-journaling specific. I think this is a very supportive place and we'd love to see what you are doing and how your pages are turning out. Of course if there are some you don't want to share, don't feel pressured to, but know that you are always welcome. And if you don't really feel like posting in the gallery, you can always upload to a photobucket account and post an image in the art journaling forum thread.

And that is the overview. I'm sure there are tons of things I missed, but it is a start. Let me know if you have any questions!!

This is a fabulous overview Kimberlee and I know I was certainly intimidated when I first tried art journalling. I had no idea what I was going to do/write/create and coming from a scrapbooking background, it was weird not to be using a photo I'd taken. But once I got going and got things off my chest, it was overwhelming and I just wanted to keep going and create without any rules and boundaries. I just love playing and do not consider myself arty at all. I can't draw to save me but the whole process is for me and me alone and my journal pages only need to make sense to me and don't need to be the most amazing work of art ever. I do love that there are so many talented artists out there who can draw and create jaw-dropping works of art and I use them to take major inspiration from. It's all good!

Awesome intro Kimberlee...I think you got a lot covered there and I can't wait... this is so exciting.

this was so wonderful to read! thank you for the overview Kimberlee!