Visual Journal Ideas| Artist Journals| and More!

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Visual Journaling Is For Everyone

Do you think you are creative enough to make a Visual Journal?

It's amazing how many people say they dont have a creative bone in their body. Cracks me up really, its just not true.
Fantastic Visual Journals

Everyone is born creative.
If would like to, please visit my Art Blog

Astarte's Mega-Zine for Lovers of Art and Craft 

Here is the latest issue of this fun zine
Issue #6 "Interior Journey"

This issue offers 21 articles from international artists, coaches and experts such as Dan Goodwin, Laurie Mika, Robyn Steel-Stickland, Rachel Greig, Lee Silber and Mary Sullivan Holdgrafer.

Bonus: Quote cards and a Clare Goodwin mandala to color.

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If you would like more information about the zine please clickArts and Crafts

We Are All Born Creative! 

We create all the time in everyday life. We change a recipe around. We help our kids with their fancy dress costumes ,we work out ways to hide veges in our kids food.

Fantastic Visual Journals

These are all ways of being creative.

We all have it, its just some of us practise and get better at it and others dont!



Making a Visual Journal is so easy, kids stuff really.

If you enjoy cutting or ripping out pictures from a magazine and glueing them into a book.

If you can write a sentence or two about how you are feeling, and if you can play with paint and abstract squiggles with a crayon or pastel then you can create a visual journal.

This lens will give you lots of journal ideas.

 

The pictures on this page are from my own Visual Journals and I hold the copyright for them. I hope you enjoy them.

This Is A LOvely Journal to Use For Visual Journaling! 

FIORE - Flower Italian Leather Diary

Amazon Price: (as of 11/25/2009)Buy Now

This stylish leather diary comes with a convenient rubber-band closure to keep itself tightly closed when not in use. It will also help protect your deepest thoughts from nosy prying eyes when you're not around! The flower-accent adds a lot of charm and personality to this diary. Make writing fun again with this flower diary!

First 3 Steps To Make A Visual Journal 

1: Most of the time I buy cheap unlined journals with a heavier paper. They also have spirals and black front pages. I leave the covers till last, but there are no rules here and you can do what you like. This article is to give you ideas and get you started on one of the most enjoyable creative pursuits I know:-) If you are more inclined you can make your own journal or buy a handmade one. In the past I have found that I dont do a HUGE amount of writing in each page. I tend to use the pictures to convey to me what I am thinking about at the time and just make a statement of some type with writing or blocks of text.

2: The first thing I do is sit at a desk and colour about 10 pages. If you have the backgrounds already coloured it seems a lot easier to get going. There is something sort of scarey about plain white pages. I adore the look that watercolours give, so mostly I use them for the backgrounds of the pages. Sometimes I use acrylic paints.I like to pre scribble on the pages with crayons or oil pastels which acts as a sort of a resist under the paint.

3: I then wet the whole page then swish watercolor paints all over. I tend to stop with two colors, maybe add more water and tip the pages so the paint runs together. I am always in a hurry so the heat gun is a wonderous tool to get the papers dried quickly. I use silicone paper between the pages until everything is really dry.
Art Journals

Handmade Paper Journals 

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Check Out this Fabulous Visual Journal and How to make The Art 

Art Journal Workshop: Layers

A video essay to help art journalers learn and become comfortable with using multiple layers!

Runtime: 264
51609 views
97 Comments:

curated content from YouTube

What Is Your Favorite Book About Visual Journaling? 

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3 More Steps ( Just Start With Baby Steps) To Visual Journaling 

4: It really is up to you what you use and how you decorate the background.If you draw then you will know just how much of the background you want to colour. Some people want to do a lot of writing in the journal, then I would suggest that you colour around the top and edges and leave the inside of the page blank or you may find one of those wonderful pens that write over the top of the paint. I think its lovely to find "your own unique style" so you have your own "look".!

5: Remember to try any watercolour crayons, lumiere paints or twinking H2O paints ( I just bought some of these and am not sure I am much of a fan). Acrylics or oil paints and pastels, chalks, felt tipped pens, coloured pencils, black or coloured sharpies, Gold pens...................try them all out and see what combinations you love the most:-)

6: Once those background pages are done, you can leave the book until you are ready to decorate a page. When I feel in the mood I go to the book and choose a page that "calls to me".

A Page from One of MY Visual Journals

"Try This! Start every day with 10 minutes of Journaling. You will find that you have much more focus"

5 More Baby Steps on How To Make A Visual Journal 

7: I dont start at the front page at all..this is about creativity and intuition and learning to feel those. The one thing I ALWAYS do is Date the page. This gives me some feel for the rhythm of my life as I look through the journal later on. I think its very important.

8: Now to the collage part! I love to flick through magazines and just pull out the pages or rip out the pictures that "call to me" at the time. Often I will have no idea why I want them, but do it anyway. I use the "Oprah" magazine quite a lot and I was lucky to buy in a second hand bookstore a book of coloured photos that graphic artists use. Some of these are very weird and they are sometimes just perfect for what I want.

9: Sometimes the picture I choose doesnt convey what I want to say at all but it just "feels right", so I use it anyway. I glue the pictures in the pages and then add the text. One of my favorite ways to do this is to cut out letters from the magazine to make up the words. I try to use different colours for each letter and make sure they are all different sizes. It just adds to the page.

10: The writing that I do in the page usually comes last. If you are a busy mum or you work out of the home, it is a great idea to take your journal with you and during lunch or while waiting to pick up children , or even when travelling, you can get it out and do the writing to finish off the page.
At one time I was very disciplined and worked on my journal every morning as I was eating breakfast. Made me feel really good but I was always left with a big mess to clean up LOL LOL.

11: Sometimes I draw on the page as you can see in the above one with "inspiration" written on the top. I drew some of the face and added bits of faces I got out of a magazine.
Art Journals

Handmade Paper For Your Visual Journals 

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Visual And Art Journals 

Visual journals are tools to aid creativity. A visual journal develops the regular habit of looking at the world in a creative way.

Visual journals are one of the most popular and most accessible forms in the artist book genre.

Visual journals have a long and rich history dating as far back to the 1400's to Leonardo da Vinci who carried a journal with him at all times so that he could sketch and record ideas, impressions, and observations as they occurred.

Visual journals are also known as artist journals, visual thinking journals, artist notebooks, altered books, and a plethora of names. Basically if you keep a book of some sort that marries the image and the word, then this is a visual journal

Visual journals are generally more personal and exploratory records, while portfolios are more public and tend to be retrospective.

Both provide ongoing records of an artist's explorations and evidence of self-assessment, reflection, and further discovery.

Art journals are a form of devotion. They are experimental and a great place to explore new materials and techniques.

Art journals are incredible ways of journaling.

Explore the many types of creating journals.

Explore color, line, texture, composition, just PLAY. From playing, from creating, from finding the direction you want to take, the floodgates will open.

Exploration and free self expression are the purpose. No rules limit what you put on your page, how you place elements on the page, or if you even use a page.

Another Page From One Of My Journals

The Last Few Instructions on Making Your Own Visual Journals 

12: I use clear smelly acetone based craft glue to do the collage with.............sometimes a glue stick will be perfect and not nearly as messy.

13: The last thing I do is add 3 dimensional elements if I feel like it. I make sure I am happy with the page. Working in my visual journal is very satisfying to me and I hope you will at least "give it a go".

I have made a goal to create something in my journal every day and it feels great when I achieve it.

Here is my Favorite Book About Mixed Media Art 

Mixed Media Explorations: Blending Paper, Fabric and Embellishment to Create Inspired Designs

Amazon Price: $20.43 (as of 11/25/2009)Buy Now

Stunning, February 4, 2007
By L. Mallette (Florida) - See all my reviews

I own a fairly large number of books on the subjects of mixed media, collage, altered art and fabric embellishment. This is by far my favorite. Beryl's projects are gorgeous. Amazingly, she uses the simplest, least expensive and most readily available materials to create most of these masterpieces, such as brown paper bags, Tyvek envelopes, flower-shaped brads, price tags, etc. If you know someone who's about to get married, the wedding journal is a fabulous project that will blow away every other gift imaginable. If you never pick up a needle, a paintbrush or a tube of glue, this book is worth twice the price for eye candy alone.

Choose One of These Fabulous Journals 

3x4 Mini Handmade Italian Distressed Leather Journal with Unlined Classic Pages. Perfect Corporate Gift, Birthday & 1st or 3rd Anniversary Gift

3x4 Mini Handmade Italian Distressed Leather Journal with Unlined Classic Pages. Perfect Corporate Gift, Birthday & 1st or 3rd Anniversary Gift

Classic unlined writing journal with spectacular l more...0 points

NATURALS Handmade Paper Journals

NATURALS Handmade Paper Journals

A Unique Natural & Handmade Covered Journal - more...0 points

Brown Leaf Handmade Journal

Brown Leaf Handmade Journal

This journal is handmade from lokta paper. The jou more...0 points

Leather Writing Journal - Handmade in Italy

Leather Writing Journal - Handmade in Italy

Leather Writing Journal - Handmade in ItalyA gorge more...0 points

Epica's 4x6 inch Handmade Italian Leather Journal / Leatherbound Writing Diary / Notebook /Sketchbook with Smooth White Pages. Perfect notepad / corporate gift, gift for him or her, 1st or 3rd Anniversary gift.

Epica's 4x6 inch Handmade Italian Leather Journal / Leatherbound Writing Diary / Notebook /Sketchbook with Smooth White Pages. Perfect notepad / corporate gift, gift for him or her, 1st or 3rd Anniversary gift.

Classic unlined writing journal with spectacular l more...0 points

Get More Information On Arts And Crafts 

All Natural Handmade Journal 

All Natural Handmade Journal - Starfish Sand Design

Amazon Price: $21.99 (as of 11/25/2009)Buy Now
List Price:

Unique book made from a variety of natural organic and sustainable materials. Designed for everyday use, this book will let you gather your thoughts as a journal, travel log, scrapbook, sketchbook, cookbook, diary or anything you can dream of. Pen down your most creative goals, hopes, dreams and accomplishments. A long lasting keepsake to embellish with artwork, pictures, and collectibles that you can treasure forever. Perfect for yourself or as gift for family and friends.

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Interesting Visual Journaling Books 

True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling by L.K. Ludwig

True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling by L.K. Ludwig

<b>Featuring the artwork of over 25 leading more...0 points

Visual Journaling: Going Deeper Than Words by Barbara Ganim

Visual Journaling: Going Deeper Than Words by Barbara Ganim

Beautifully illustrated with black and white and c more...0 points

Disney Journaling Cards-Mickey - Hand/Shorts/Foot

Disney Journaling Cards-Mickey - Hand/Shorts/Foot

Decorative blank cards that are perfect for journa more...0 points

Now Its Your Turn To Squidoo! 

Now it's your turn....
Make your own Squidoo lens
Squidoo is a great place to create a web site (called a lens). You can share your thoughts on gadgets, crafting, arts, food or what ever's on your mind and maybe make a little $$ along the way....oh and did I mention it's FREE!
Click here to start your Lens

Do You Have Trouble Wondering What To Write In Your Visual Journals? 

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Wonderful Arty Sites For Your Enjoyment 

Di McDonald
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Di McDonald More Mixed Media Art
Posted on August 28th, 2008 by by Hi again guys,
Today I have a picture of my own work from my own book. For the background I actually used some paper towels that I had used to mop up excess paint when doing another collage.
Th

by DiMcDonald

I am a mixed media artist and teacher.

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