My Art Journal - Me and Landscape

Hey Friends! Happy Friday!! I've been wanting to create an art journal for a while now but had put off making one. I tried the scrapbooking journal route initially but that didn't work out so I decided to start an art journal instead.

This is my first art journal and above is my first page. I thought the subject "me" was a good one for the very first page. It's interesting to do an art journal. A lot of art journals I've seen literally is only about their art work. I want mine to be somewhat to be a "real" personal journal with some of my thoughts written down somewhere although the art work is the primary focus.

If you're interested in trying it out, there are a TON of video tutorials on YouTube to help you out. I viewed a few of them and from there just did my own thing. I don't want to grab too much of other people's ideas mainly because then it'll sort of feel that it's not my own expression but it's good to find ideas if you are stumped.

With this first page, I basically used every stamping and coloring medium I had! LOL!! I used SU ink, Making Memories acrylic paint, Twinkling H2O, SU Watercolor Crayons, SU Markers, Scribbles Paint and I even used my SU stamps to stamp the flower and the butterfly. I didn't draw them.

Because the subject of my page was "Me". . I wrote a little something about me. . .LOL! Just to let you know. . .my journal is just a regular sketch book that you can find at the art store. Actually, you can find them at any store that sell art products like Walmart and Borders.

I prepared the page for painting using gesso. The paper is too thin for watercoloring and painting so the gesso provides a layer of prime to allow you to paint and water color on the paper without breaking down the integrity of the paper. I read that some people use watercolor paper for their art journal and other thicker paper. I may try it in the future but a lot of artist use regular sketchbooks.


Do you have to be a paint artist to make an art journal? From what I saw of other people's work, the answer is no. Some people collage and cut up scraps of paper, many stamp their design and color in the stamped images or just doodle their design. Do you see the "me"? Well, I used my Cricut to cut out a stencil and colored it in. I used the negative part of the cut. I didn't want to mess up my writing so I used a stencil.


I decided to add my photo to identify the book as mine. . . LOL!! I created the word art on my computer and changed the hue of the photo and just printed it on regular computer paper. I didn't want to use photo paper because I wanted to decoupage it on to the page so it lays flat. I then used Mod Podge to adhere it to the page and seal it. I then painted the edge to create a frame.


This is the second page of my journal. I actually started out with a "my favorite things" theme, and started coloring the background. I noticed that what I painted could make for a nice landscape so I went in a different direction and painted a landscape instead. The funny thing is I used "Making Memories" acrylic paint which isn't necessarily used for painting but more for scrapbooking so it wasn't the best acrylic to use. I also had a limited amount of colors so I did my best mixing the colors.


Painting this landscape was pretty easy. . .it was just mainly stippling the trees and foliage and adding tree trunks. That's about it.

Anyway. . .sorry for the long post! If you like to doodle, I say try creating an art journal. Again, if you need help starting out, there are a lot of video tutorials on YouTube showing you different art journal techniques!!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!