Creative Art Journals: The What and Why?

Art Journaling has always been an unusual art form. It takes many different avenues, all depending on the creative person. You can find several hashtags for it: #artjournal at 4 million, and #artjournaling at 1.2 million posts. There are many different communities that create art journals on Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. Strawberry Moon is a new magazine that premiered Winter 2022. This magazine is all about art journaling and the artists who create it. 

What Are Art Journals?

Art journals are similar to regular written journals except that you include colors, images, pictures, patterns and other media. It is writing without words, as a picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes. Some journals are filled with pictures, sketches and doodles, while others use colored pens, stamps, stencils, washi and bits of paper with writing. 

Some would also call them art diaries. Some could say that art journaling came from scrapbooking, which is a newer form of keepsakes in a book. Naturalists use sketchbooks and journals for watching nature outdoors, and Audubon’s books and paintings are well-known. Leonardo da Vinci is probably the best known for his sketchbooks while Frida Kahlo is known for her art journals. 

Why Would I Want to Create an Art Journal?

The answers are as varied as the artists who create them. And you do not have to be an artist to create an art journal. According to Karen Dawn, “If you can rip pages from of magazines and use a glue stick, you can definitely start art journaling.”

• If you enjoy creating art but do not have a bunch of time, art journaling is one of the best ways to create. 
• You do not need expensive supplies and you can start immediately.
• For many, it is a calming mechanism to free you from your thoughts. 
• For writers, it is a way to create writing prompts. 
• You can be as creative or uncreative as you want. Some diaries use dates and numbers before they started adding feelings. Many naturalists started that way before sketching nature. 
• It helps with stress. Slapping down some paint, washi tape or coloring in a stencil gives you purpose.
• It does not have to be shared with anyone but yourself. 
• It is just paper. If you do not like what you created, you can throw it out, or repurpose it in another page by ripping it up and making it into your mixed media collage. 

Stay tuned for more information about creating art journals in the News Section and make sure to subscribe to my newsletter. I am creating an online course where you can take 15 minutes a day for creating an art journal.