Art Journaling???

Years ago...5 to be exact, Tangie Baxter started this Art Journaling Caravan....I kept seeing pages that were art! Not scrapbooking memories, but using their programs for emotions or journaling. Like a diary with images, a notebook of thoughts that was digital. I am not an artist, but I know what I like to look at...and these pages drew me.
I joined this caravan of Tangie's because her CT so intrigued me. I had never ever done a journal page or an art journaling page. I would open her kits and sometimes the pages would make themselves...other times, I had to relax and enjoy the PROCESS of making the page...sometimes WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaay more than I liked the final page.
It was therapeutic to me, relaxing. No thirds, or shadows just right, but trying new ideas...blending, layering and playing around.
I began with pages I would print...and then glue into a book...just pages
I did challenges, and now I will art journal to get my mojo back....
Here is a fun page I did years ago...and i like the sentiment:

 

Karen, pages can be as busy/complex or simple as you'd like. You can use photos, or not use photos. You can use symbols that mean something to you that speak to you or explain how you feel or describe whatever you're thinking/feeling/loving/hating/dreaming/yearning/wanting. It's whatever you make it. For a long while, Art Journaling was a dirty word, and was looked down on in scrapbooking circles... because it isn't a standard photo/story scenario. It can be, but it doesn't have to be. Don't be overwhelmed. Have a look at some of the other pages, and then find something that works for you. Anne's page is great, it may not be what you would be comfortable doing. It's about playing and not being afraid of having a go... dabbling a little or a lot. Sometimes it helps to have a theme or concept in mind when you start, or like Anne said, just enjoy playing around and let it evolve.

Here are some mine to show you the variety you can achieve all under the art journaling umbrella:

 

Art Journaling is what drew me into the digi world 4 short years ago I had never used photo shop or PSE until I stumbled across Tangie's Art caravan by accident. It changed my life and actually led me to the Lilypad. I get to be an artist without making a mess and undo a mistake with a simple control z! I usually don't have a plan when starting an art journaling it page. An idea can be sparked by a challenge (just like MOC), a quote or a simple color which leads me to poking around for kits. I especially love blending, layers and last year started using shadowing- what a difference it makes on a page. My favorite thing about art journaling is there are no rules. I make AJ pages when my mojo is just no where to be found.


a page from last year's MOC

 

Karen, you can DO it! Just relax and have fun. Start with a quote if you wish... illustrate it the way you want - grungy, clean and simple, artsy, altered, play with fonts, play with paint, play with brushes... it will come to you!

 

what naughtncrosses said...just jump in and have a go. Be busy- simple plain, uses brushes, glitterfly and most of all have fun.

 

Karen,
Think of it like a diary, where you only get to share what YOU want to share and WHEN you want to share it. Sometimes I start with a quote I see or a color or sometimes I am restless and my head is buzzing and I just sit and start LITERALLY adding all the elements in a kit into a background. Then I click the little visibility button (the little eye in PS or CS) and start making one by one appear and see if it "talks" to me. If that element has any relevance to what I am feeling right now. Sometimes just one single element can make my entire disposition change and my page take a new route. I know this is all very HOCUS POCUS talk, but it really is about putting in "paper" how you feel about anything, or anyone.

Maybe start with a quote that means a lot to you right now, let your feelings grab colors that you think translate that quote and brings it to LIFE!

PLUS, HAVE FUN! There are NO RULES in AJ. AJs can be simple or complex, messy or clean, it is whatever makes your comfortable.

 

My thought process usually starts something like, "ooo, that paper's pretty. hey, I like that quote. What if I throw this flower on?" I'm playing. Fingerpainting. Seeing where it takes me. At some point, it starts to take shape and feel more purposeful. I don't usually have a message when I start, but I create one as I go. It's like I didn't know I had anything to say until it starting pouring out.

 

Thanks for asking this question. I have been intriqued by AJ and even did Tangie's AJ Caravan one year without producing a page. To me her kits were overwhelming (could have been where I was at during that time as well). I've been thinking of taking the challenge this year myself.

 

I really credit our own Lynne-Marie with planting the seed. I was dabbling away with capturing digital memories, but with grown children and no grandchildren yet, I found my pages were only about holidays and vacations, which was fine but didn't actually get my mojo going. After being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in February, I joined the love yourself challenge as a positive step words better wellbeing. That is when the flood gates opened.

I was so inspired and enjoyed the challenge so much. Like Anne I found Tangies Art Journal Caravan and completed every page last year. I also found and still find much of Tangie's work a little overwhelming, and probably will do my own thing rather than join her emporium this year, but I found the discipline of completing the pages each week really improved my technique.

A really huge help in learning the process was a challenge I loved from two curly headed monsters for a weekly step by step page. By focusing on only one part of the page at a time I could play around more with technique and experimenting.

 

Hi Karen, I was reading your post and guess what I decided to try and help you and others who might be reading your thread and thinking along the same lines. So I made an entire new thread with some information about how I get started with some videos and images. I hope this helps you "wrap your head around it" because you will be surprised at how simple it can be...just step a little to the side of your comfort zone and ignore your inner critic. EVERYONE can create an art journal page.

Here is the link.

An Art Journaling Process

 

Absolutely! Off to see the other thread...

 

For me AJ is how I express myself and process what I am dealing with. I shared on another site that i think and react in colors and images. So when I am asked "how was your day" I will often answer in my head with a color or picture, but I have learned to translate that into words for whoever asked the question.

SOO, for me when doing AJ for me I start there. If I am in a pink funk (feeling feisty and upbeat) I will go look for things that follow that.

Other times, like with challenges or prompts, I start with the 'requirements' and then see where it takes me. Of like Lorry said - if I see something I like, a picture, a quote, whatever, I will start there and just let it fly.

Now I used to be a highly controlled person - my house was immaculate, my family followed a schedule, and everything was just right - or else! In those days I scrapped the same way - just right and perfect and aligned.

Then my world feel apart and I had to learn that I really never had any control - so AJ fit right into that (and that was the year I joined the Caravan) - because for me it just flows with the moment. It is very much a letting go and allowing things to shape itself around me. So I guess it has become therapeutic. It is about imperfection and lack of control all coming together to make something beautiful and meaningful to me.

 

Loved reading all the tips on this thread. I like AJ and enjoyed hearing the other takes on it. My new thing is Bible AJ.

 

this + mostly I artjournal for the sake of art Not to share my deepest feelings, I mean..just to do some cool (for me) page to look. I use often Lyrics from my favorite songs or quote from book or whatever I like it messy, however as plenty of people wrote, it doesn't *need* to be messy.

If you a little scaried about the process, you can try the little book of.. by sissy sparrow. It's cool because it's like create ATC and then you print them. I find it very easy to do and, as the theme is already there (little book of..happiness, sisters..) you can focus on the process.

hope it helps