Yesterday I ran a free art journaling lesson online! We had 30+ participants and some zoomed in from out of province and country! It is so great to see that there are many of us who love art and want to incorporate it into their lives! So Thank YOU to those who participated, it is so much fun to create with company:)
For those who couldn’t make it, I wanted to give a recap of the lesson on my blog. So here goes!
We started out with a basic introduction on how my free art lessons started (you can read about that here if you like!) and what art journaling means to me. Basically, it is all about different ways of Expression. It can be very similar to a traditional journal, but it contains some or a lot of visual elements, with or without text. This could be photos, clippings from magazines, scribbles, drawings, paintings, ephemera etc. It is a place to chronicle ANYTHING (current, past, present events, memories, thoughts, or experiments.)
Most importantly…It is a NO PRESSURE creative activity. I have three rules:
- Try not to go for perfection
- Try not to second guess.
- Be judgement free!
There are so many ways to fill your art journal. So in my classes I give ideas or jumping off points for art journalists to try! In this lesson we did the:
Simple shapes to animals journal entry!
Art journal prompt #1: Fill your page with simple round shapes. Make them small, big, long, wide, anything! Get comfortable with your pencil. This acts a warm-up and a journal entry in it self. Then play around and see what kind of animals or characters you can create with simple facial features. Notice that if you just make small changes, like the mouth shape or eye location you can change the emotion and personality of your character:
See how many different animals/characters you can come up with! Most of mine are cat like, and I snuck in a bear and rabbit in there too! I invited participants to add extra details if they wished, such as fur patterns, black outlines, etc.
Art journal prompt #2: Drawing animal (cat) postures. Using round shapes, simplify different postures. Tip: Always start simple!
Participants followed along as I demonstrated how I start with simple shapes first, and then add details and final touches. Example journal spreads below:
And with some added colour (I used watercolour):
As usual this is just a starting point. I hope you find inspiration to start with just random shapes and see where your creativity takes you! Adapt these ideas however you like! If you want guidance on other ways to fill your journal, I am often teaching Art journaling as a full course. Please check my teaching page here! Have a great summer everyone!
Maya Hum 