What Is an Art Journal? (And Why It's the Easiest Way Back Into Art)
An art journal is a book you make art in. That is the whole definition, and also not nearly the whole story.
An art journal can hold painting, drawing, collage, writing, mixed media...or all of them at once, on the same page. Some people fill theirs with words and a little color. Others never write a single word. There are no rules about what goes in, which is exactly why it is the easiest way back into making art after a long time away.
Why it's the easiest way in
Here is the part nobody tells you. With most art, you have to decide what to make before you can start, and that decision often creates its own artist block. Deciding to make an art journal removes that block, almost instantly. The topics and journal makeup write themselves.
What did you have for dinner. What did you buy this week. Who did you see. How did you feel. Pick two colors that compliment this paper you want to use. You are never staring at a blank page wondering what it is for.
The one thing that makes it click
I have to be honest about my first attempt, years ago. I was drawn in by photos of gorgeous, curated pages, so I sat down, made a few with no direction, hated them, and quit. I did not work through the ugly.
What I was missing was a theme.
That is the one thing good journals have in common. They don't require much talent or expensive supplies. A journal requires (loosely) a theme, something that bridges the pages together. It can be a subject, a word, or it can be purely visual: a color, a shape, a repeating motif. This time I picked a color theme, and I pulled it straight from an old gift bag someone had given me, so the colors chose themselves. Once I started with that, I was able to easily choose what else I wanted the journal to contained based on those colors.
You can theme the whole book, or theme it page by page. Either works. And here is the counterintuitive part: the limit is what frees you. When I tried to use every color on every page, it turned to mud. The constraint of a color or theme is not a cage. It is the thing that makes starting easy.
It is wildly forgiving
Art journaling is all about layering, and layers forgive you by nature. My thick papers peeled up at the edges, which was not a failure, just the next thing to solve. A page got too loud, so I softened it with a white paint pen and art crayon. The pages keep evolving as you go. Nothing is precious. Nothing is final.
If you do not like where a page is headed, you keep going, or you set it aside and come back to it later with fresh eyes. Setting it down and returning is part of the rhythm, not a stall.
Real permission to make art just for you
Here is what I love most, and it is the whole point.
An art journal is permission to make art purely for yourself. Nothing about it whispers "make this to sell." I have sold my work (over five hundred tiny paintings, once upon a time), so I know the pull to make art that performs. "Will they like this?" Art jounraling is the opposite of that, and the relief is enormous.
Mine started as a grocery bag and a piece of string from a friend's homemade bread. My favorite part was cutting up old greeting cards I had been given, so other people's handwriting and their words to me are layered right into the pages. You cannot buy that. It is about as personal as art gets.
And unlike most creative work, an art journal has a defined beginning and an end. Then end is the last page you make. You decide. You get closure, which the rest of your creative life rarely bothers to hand you.
How it's different from other art
Worth naming: an art journal is not made to hang on a wall. It is private in a way a framed painting is not. Words tend to matter more here than in other art, where words are optional. But even here, they are optional to the viewer. You can bury them under layers, keep them for yourself, and no one ever has to read a line.
When you finish, I recommend you date it, the way you would a sketchbook. It is lovely to have a point of reference for where you were and when and what you were thinking at that time in your life.
A few ideas to start
Journal on literal junk mail. Make a page on it, out of it, or with it.
Run two themes in one book: start one from the front, flip the book over, and start the other from the back, so each reads right-side up.
Try pockets, silhouettes, or writing buried under layers.
Photocopy old sketches or paintings, or use old art, cut them up, and collage them back in.
And if you want to see how far this can go, borrow a journaling magazine from the library. I did, an old issue, for exactly this. The range of styles is its own permission slip. So yummy to look at.
What an art journal really is
When I decided not to gesso the backs of my pages, it was partly laziness and partly that I liked the rough look. It reminded me that you can make something beautiful out of something else. Much like life.
That is what an art journal is. A low-stakes, deeply personal place to make art again. You can start one right now, out of what you already have. I did. It's no masterpiece, but it has beauty and meaning to me.
If you have been circling your creative practice and want a real way back in, start with the free 5-Day Creative Comeback Challenge. Five small steps, no masterpiece required. Sign up right here:
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