THURSDAY TIPS | Kickass Ways to fill an Art Journal #1

THE ARTIST'S BLOCK HITS TOO HARD SOMETIMES

It's been two years since I've started art journaling and now, I'm a certified art journal freak. Usually, it doesn't get to my head but there at times (too often) when I just stare at the next few blank pages of my text block and face-palm because ideas seemed to have shied away and hid at the back of my subconscious.

Since then, I kept a list of art journal ideas in my bullet journal so I can run to it whenever an artist's block hits me.

MY THURSDAY ART JOURNAL TIPS

Here's to Thursday for being such an awesome day and here's to you for sharing that artist's block with me:

1. Personal Cipher

You've heard this quite a few times in the movies and probably in real life too. But even though this sounds a little too cliche, I'm here to tell you that it's fun having a personal cipher.

Coding and decoding is fun. This was proved by my favourite artist, Leonardo Da Vinci. It doesn't even need to be that far from your writing system, it doesn't have to have that much complicated rules behind writing it, it just has to mean a lot to you.

From there, you're going to realise that art journaling is much secured and private. You'll never know how much words you actually want to write down using your personal cipher.

...and sometimes, it gets a little too personal (if you know what I mean).

2. Stamps can fill the whole page too

Last year's christmas, my sister gave me and my two other siblings some round flower-patterned stamps. I remember being so excited in using them and being so frustrated in figuring out where to use them. Now, I've found a way.

The page from the picture was a ripped front page of my last year's bullet journal. And the page next to it—gets me to my next idea:

3. Creative Envelopes

Let's use the same page, shall we?

In this page, a transparent page with a picture of the Salt Lake Temple in Utah was acting as the envelope. It held a photograph of Jesus Christ with the letter from a past missionary friend showing in the front.

You can use photographs, magazine cut-outs, book tear-outs or anything you think can hold an attachment as well. The key is to make sure it is appropriate with the attachment.

If the paper you used as the envelope is a see-through like the one I've used, you can be creative as well by writing something beneath the envelope.

Here's another example:

This one contained a bucket list I made two years ago. It's cringy reading it now...

4. Some Sketching or any Art Notes

This spread contains some pointers I've learned from master Leonardo Da Vinci with illustrations I have sketched with it. It doesn't matter if it looks messy. Artists before became assistants of famous artists and they took notes as they did their job respectively. Leonardo Da Vinci's journals were filled up with complete pointers he has learned from anatomy and symmertry and many more things.

The key here is to make the page useful by genuinely treating it as your pointers notebook.

Here's another example:

5. Negative Art

Negative Art is an art sketched backwards in terms of the background-subject indication. This can be done in various ways but one way is to use a black colored paper and use a white gel pen for the line art.

In this page, I drew the Bug Safe in the left through painting and drawing while on the right page, I mirrored the Bug Safe through negative art.

Here's another example:

At this point, it's good to keep a stock of black colored paper in my art supplies as I am addicted in creating Negative Art.

6. Magazine Cut-outs

Magazines are known to have beautiful hd images between entertaining articles. Pick some old-issued magazines in your bookshelf and look for meaningful images of street photography or landscape and people photography. These images are easily relatable to your current mood or feelings.

In the page is a silhouette image of two ladies. I wrote down some feelings I have related to the picture IN the picture using white gel pen.

Here's another one:

7. Book Tear-outs

In this page, I have a page torn out from a very, very old poetry assisting book. I thought the picture was brilliant so I took it (from the school library) and wrote down some thoughts I have that time.

Getting articles or cartoons from newspapers are excellent ideas too. You can tear out from the feature section or the opinion page. Articles there are always personalized and relatable.

I HAD TO STOP AT SEVEN

To be honest, I don't why seven but I just had to stop somewhere. This is the first Thursday Tip which I hope I'll be able to consistently do every Thursday since I don't have the motivation to post daily. (I run out of ideas easily lol)

I hope, somehow, this post was helpful in kicking that frigging artist's block. Don't worry, we all have those days and I got your back!

CREATING A LIST FOR ART JOURNAL IDEAS

I think I've mentioned this one on my previous post. Creating a list for art journal ideas kicks that frigging artist's block. Start brainstorming for background ideas or drawing subjects or paintings or some attachments that mean a lot to you. Just write it down until your system's drained out. You can also look for ideas on Pinterest or Instagram or Tumblr. Just make sure that you don't copy straight away. You'll realise you're more proud to create something that you originally thought of.

CATCH MY LATEST POSTS HERE

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OCTOBER ART JOURNAL REVEAL (A Depression Therapy)
UNIPIN STORIES (The UniPin Addiction and awkward confessions)
DESATURATING MY LIFE (IntroduceYourself and My Lifetime Oath)

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See you next Thursday! Cheers!