Art journal, visual journal, mixed media journal, art diary, sketchbook, scrapbook…

While the term may vary, the concept is generally the same—a book containing blank pages of art-quality paper wherein one can express themselves freely using a variety of media, colours, images, marks, collage materials, and other embellishments.

It’s a place where you, the artist—yes, you—can let your creative energy flow without reservation or hesitation, where leftover paint can be smeared and spattered, where tools and techniques can be tested, where experiences can be captured and emotions can be processed.

Art journaling offers a myriad benefits that extend well beyond creative exploration…

• A hidden little place for you to gently release your words, feelings, thoughts using colours, doodles, marks + media. Once you’re done, you can close the journal and tuck it away for next time.
• A few minutes—or hours—of quiet time enjoying the flow state of creative play. This is when your nervous system can truly rest and heal, and you experience a deep connection to self.
• Reduces stress, which in turn decreases cortisol in your body, improving your immune system, ability to sleep, and overall wellness.
• Freeform play. Nobody is looking over your shoulder. You aren’t creating for anyone, or for any reason other than to release.
• Creative practice. Use your journal to experiment with colour mixing and matching.

The beauty of art journaling is that there are no rules. You can create an art journal out of a spiral bound lined notebook for school, a big ol’ floppy scrapbook from the dollar store, a musty old hardcover romance novel from the thrift shop, or a collection of art papers you stitch/staple/glue together yourself. You can choose to use one type of media for each journal, or mix ‘em all up in one!

I currently have two* journals on the go. One is a 7 x 10″ Canson mixed-media journal used for just about all media—pencil sketches, pen and marker, watercolour, gouache, acrylics, and collage. It’s a great catch-all for just about anything I want to explore. The other is a slightly smaller 8.3 x 5.8″ Talens Art Creation sketchbook, reserved for acrylic paint and acrylic gouache. While it is designed for various media, I like that I only use paints in this one, and am excited to fill all 80 pages with thick, colourful paint so that when the book is closed, the edges of the pages tell a magical story of their own.

What else might you need?

• Dry mark-making media like pencils, charcoal, crayons, pastels, chalk
• Pens and markers
• Watercolour paints, pencils, brushes
• Water-soluble crayons
• Stamps and stencils
• Collage papers and paste
• Acrylic paints, paint pens, brushes
• Old book pages
• White and/or clear Gesso
• Sponges, spatulas, palette knives
• …pretty much anything your magical imagination can come up with!

Some fun things to try in your art journal…

• Fill a page with circles, and use your imagination to turn those circles into other objects.
• Choose something in your home and experiment mixing + matching the colour.
• Doodle the day’s weather and describe how it makes you feel.
• Need to get something out of your head? Left to right, fill a page with stream of consciousness writing. Turn the page 90-degrees and fill the page again (what was bottom to top is now left to right). The words will be illegible when you are done, and make a cool background for more creative play.
• Following your breath, use any of your mark-making tools to draw lines from the top of the page to the bottom. Inhale on the way up the page, exhale on the way down. Explore different media to see how the exercise changes.
• With a black mark-making tool, scribble all over a page. Big, loose, open, scribbles. Fill all the spaces with colour. Try different colour palettes depending on your mood and energy.
• Cut and paste different papers all over a page. When dry, use the pages as a background for your imagination.
• Fill a page with random block letters. It should look like a word search puzzle when you are done. Using colour, highlight certain letters to make words. Hint: you can reverse engineer this too, to deliberately create words of your choice amidst a sea of random letters.
• Write out the lyrics of your favourite song, and use illustrations to replace some of the words, like a heart for love, and so on.
• Draw or paint a mandala.
• Use your fingers!
• Write a letter to your 6-year old self, or yourself 10 years from now.
• …Let yourself be free and wild and whimsical!

While art journaling can be a very private, personal activity, it’s also a lovely way to spend time and connect with friends and family. Set aside regular time each week or month to tap into your creative energy and fill a fresh page with colour, whimsy, emotion, curiosity + wonder!

Would you love a little guidance? If you are in Ottawa, I offer a five-week Joyful Journaling evening class. If you aren’t in Ottawa, send me a note and we can chat about setting up an online series for you!

* Who am I kidding? I easily have over a dozen of these journals stashed in drawers, boxes + bins, some full, some with pages yet to be touched. Some were created and reserved for travel memories from Thailand and Cuba, and others used in the development of my courses and classes.