There’s something really satisfying about messing around with paints, paper scraps, or a glue stick. Not necessarily to make something impressive, just to see what happens.
Disclosure: If you purchase anything from links in this post or any other, I may receive some kind of affiliate commission. However, I only ever mention products I love and would recommend regardless of commission.
Disclosure: I’m not a mental-health or medical expert, I just share what I’ve learned through my own research and experience. The ideas and prompts here are meant to help you reflect and grow, but they’re not a replacement for professional advice. You can read my full disclaimers here.
That’s the spirit behind art journaling. You don’t need to be good at drawing, and you definitely don’t need a plan. It’s just a way to get what’s in your head out onto a page, with whatever materials you’ve got lying around.
In this post, I’ll walk you through what art journaling actually is (beyond the Pinterest-perfect version), the supplies that are actually useful, and a bunch of ways you can start, even if the idea of a blank page makes you want to run for the hills.
What Is Art Journaling and Why Should You Try It?
Art journaling, also known as visual journaling, combines the creativity of sketchbooks with traditional journaling by incorporating both visual and written elements to express thoughts, feelings, emotions, or even set intentions. You can also use them as a creative escape.
And anything goes. You can include doodles, collages, paint, poetry, quotes, sketches, photos, and more. But the emphasis always remains the same: process over perfection. So, don’t worry about finished pages, entries that tell a story or come to some kind of conclusion. It’s about being in the moment.
Getting lost in your art can be a very mindful experience, almost like therapy. And you don’t have to look far to find a vast community of online art journalers. Just type ‘art journal’ into Pinterest, Google, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube.
What if you don’t feel artistically gifted? Don’t worry! First of all, no one needs to see what you produce; it’s not about that. It’s about developing a new hobby that brings you joy.
How to Use Your Art Journal to Reflect on What’s Happening for You
If you’ve been reading my blog recently, you’ll know I have been exploring different types of journaling (from bullet journaling to wellness journaling). The aim of my guide to journaling is to provide you with as many reference points as possible to explore the type of journaling that might work for what you want from your experience.
To me, the biggest attraction to journaling is how it can help you reflect on what’s happening in your life, set intentions (or goals) and personally grow from the process. Art journaling is no different in that respect.
When you use an art journal regularly, you can start to spot patterns over time. If you are journaling to improve your watercolour skills, your entries will reflect a progression through your exploration (or maybe where you need to put in more work).
If you are journaling to express your feelings, you can start to see where feelings match events, which might be quite telling.
If you are journaling to manifest the things you want or need, you can begin to see where intention-setting aligns with your work towards a goal (or where you need to spend more time on that aspect).
Creating art journal pages is so much more than just making something beautiful to look at. And that’s why it differs from keeping a traditional sketch book.
Art Journaling Formats: Examples and Discussion on If You Really Need One
The idea that we need to pigeonhole ourselves into a specific format for each page defeats the object of art journaling, in my opinion. Why not mix it up based on how you feel, the materials you have at hand and where you find yourself?
Art journaling techniques to try:
- Mixed media journal pages where you explore texture and surface pattern
- Junk journal pages where you use everyday packaging or items that you turn into art
- Medium-specific journal pages where you explore using one medium (like watercolour or collage)
- Emphemera-filled journal pages where you use found, created and/or bought ephemera
- Sketched or illustrated journal pages where you explore urban sketching or people and object sketching
- Altered books, where you take an old book and manipulate or create additional pages for it (I love books, so this option is WAY outside my comfort zone, but it does sound fun!)
There’s so much to try; why not try it all?
There’s another thought: whether you need to work on your art journal page by page, as you would in a diary. Personally, I don’t think you need to. If you’re being creative with page layouts and material exploration, then why not just open any page and get started?
You can even have more than one art journal going at a time. Is that helpful for reflection? Perhaps or perhaps not, but there are ways to work around that. Including elements like date stamps can help. As can page tabs.
Essential Art Journaling Tools And Materials
If anything goes for how you decorate and use your art journal, then why not consider the journal itself as something you can decorate, manipulate or even make from scratch. Buying traditional art journaling supplies suddenly gets turned on its head!
However, that may not be helpful if you’re unsure where to begin. To provide a starting point, I suggest purchasing a sketchbook or journal with paper weighing 120-160 gsm.
120 gsm for dry art techniques
160 gms if you want to explore wet mediums, heavy penwork or calligraphy.
Remember: the heavier the paper, the less likely you are to experience paper breaks or material bleeding from one page to another.
Here are a few supplies I recommend to get you started. You definitely do not need all of this – just pick a few bits to have a play with. I would suggest going for cheaper/smaller products to start with:
- Ranger Dylusions Creative Journal – A brilliant first journal. The thick pages can take paint, ink, glue, and whatever else you throw at them without curling up or bleeding through.
- Strathmore 400 Series Watercolour Journal – Small, sturdy, and great for anyone who likes adding a splash of watercolour or collage. It lies flat, which makes painting and glueing much less awkward.
- Canson XL Mixed Media Pad – If you want one book that can handle almost anything, this is it. It’s inexpensive, big enough to play on, and the paper copes with both wet and dry media.
- Sakura Pigma Micron Pens – These are reliable, smudge-proof fineliners. I use these for outlines, doodles, or adding text once the paint has dried.
- Tombow Dual Brush Pens – These are great for lettering or soft background colour. You can blend them with water for easy shading.
- Sakura Koi Watercolour Pocket Set – A neat little kit for anyone who wants to try watercolour without committing to tubes and palettes. The colours are bright, travel-friendly, and mix well.
- Knaid Decorative Washi Tape Set – My old favourite and an instant page-saver — perfect for borders, edges, or covering that one splodge you wish hadn’t happened.
- Tim Holtz Vintage Ephemera Pack – A mix of old-style labels, tickets, and prints that make collage pages look like they’ve lived a life.
- Uhu Glue Stick – Still unbeaten for sticking things down cleanly.
- Tombow MONO Tape Runner – My favourite for quick collage work — it’s tidy, instant, and refillable.
Can You Create A Digital Art Journal?
Yes! In fact, you’ll likely find many people online who create digitally. Software like Adobe Photoshop, Procreate, or Canva could be helpful for your art journaling pages.
Some Art Journaling Ideas for You to Try
Rather than thinking of these suggestions as strict art journaling templates, think of them as prompts or starting points to develop your own take on journal topics. Try some of these ideas:
- Self-portrait
- Emotion exploration in colour
- A collage based on found images and text from a magazine you enjoy reading
- A favourite quote
- Drawing something in the room you are sitting in
- Testing a new material
- Your favourite colour swatches
- A study of a found object from your daya
- A study of sunsets from your week
- A scrapbook page of your day
- A vision board for your goal
- Your word of the year and what it means to you
Taking Your First Steps into Art Journaling
In this post, I’ve covered a lot of ground. We’ve discussed art journaling as a concept, explored different formats and tools, and concluded with some initial prompts. But what I want to leave you with is some simple advice.
Treat your first art journal as a fun experiment.
Staring at a blank page of a new journal is mentally blocking. Overwhelming. I don’t want that for you. So, pick up a pencil and write your name on the first page. Use any font, any size, and any colour pencil. And just leave it there. No pressure to create anything else. Then close the book until tomorrow.
In your next art journal sessions. Try everything. Establish what you enjoy and what you don’t like. Don’t worry about finishing anything. Instead, enjoy the ride. Join an online community or don’t. Doodle every day or don’t. Just have fun experimenting.
Starting an art journal isn’t about finding your style or making something deep and meaningful. It’s about making a bit of a mess and seeing what sticks.
You’re allowed to try things and hate them. You’re allowed to scribble, tear pages out, change your mind, start over. That’s the whole point. The pressure comes off the moment you stop treating it like a finished project and start using it like a sketchy little playground for your brain.
And if you do start, tell me what you made in the comments. Even if it’s weird. Especially if it’s weird.
Disclosure: If you purchase anything from links in this post or any other, I may receive some kind of affiliate commission. However, I only ever mention products I love and would recommend regardless of commission.
Disclosure: I’m not a mental-health or medical expert, I just share what I’ve learned through my own research and experience. The ideas and prompts here are meant to help you reflect and grow, but they’re not a replacement for professional advice. You can read my full disclaimers here.