Art Journaling

ART JOURNAL TO EXERCISE YOUR CREATIVE MUSCLES I believe anyone who wants to exercise their creativity muscles can benefit from keeping an art journal. Just like any other muscle, if you don’t use it often, it will get weak.  If you don’t have time to work on your normal project, you can whip up a quick art journal page just for the fun of it to keep your creative juices flowing. If you have been scared to try a new technique, an art journal is  the place to do it.

2. ART JOURNAL TO GIVE YOURSELF A VOICE Some people like to write in their art journals as a diary and add illustrations to it. Some like to use their art journal for their favorite affirmations or quotations.  Some like to use their art journal for cathartic emotional healing.  (See this Flickr group: Healing thru Art Journaling) It would be up to you whether to keep these pages private or to share them with others. Sometimes the sharing of the page is what is more helpful when you get positive feedback from an online community of other art journalers, whether a Flickr group or Art Journal Caravaners like the group at Scrapbookgraphics.com

3. ART JOURNAL TO PLAY If I haven’t convinced you so far, then perhaps just the sheer joy of  “PLAY!” is a good reason to crack open an art journal, and just have at it. Do you have scheduled “Me” time? Is your scrapbooking or other craft-time really “Me” time or are you doing it for others, are the pages about you or about the ones you love? Is it really “PLAY”? When was the last time you totally lost track of time in free play?

4. ART JOURNAL TO LEARN Study and record new information about artist, techniques, and more. Visuals and written text, when combined, can help you retain information better.