A GUIDE TO ART JOURNALING TO SUPPORT WELL BEING & how to get started in easy steps.

welcome to this week's video this is a video I'm really excited to make to be honest because I love art journaling and as you can tell from the title this video is all about art journaling which is something I'm really passionate about and I do regularly so I thought I'd make a video about it because I talk about it all the time if you liked the video don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe because I'll be making videos every week I will also be sharing what kind of journals I like and which ones I use which is mainly to be honest the Moleskine sketchbook this one which is quite expensive for me anyway it's about 18 pounds in England so that's quite a lot of money but the thing about it is for me it does last a long time obviously there's no right and wrong way to journal so if you leave me a comment below let me know how you do it I'll be most interested and also whether you find it like I do a therapeutic tool in my toolbox to look after my mental health and my well-being that's a really big part of why I journal the other reason as an artist of why our journal is I do practice my sketching and drawing as well as part of that so that's really useful for me and I also like including writing and text within my artwork so the combination of doing art and writing in one little place to warm up and combine ideas gives me lots of inspiration for my paintings as well so that's a another bonus I get as an artist I also think it's really important to use it as a regular practice so I like to do it everyday if possible even if it's only for five or ten minutes it really makes a difference to my day and I feel like I have it's really hard to explain but I almost feel like I have got something out it helps me release emotions and it helps me make decision it helps me feel joyful and happy I also find it really relaxing and meditative because I can get myself into a really calm state just by making art creating using colors etc it also helps me make decisions as well so it gives my subconscious brain a chance to take over from all my thinking head and often I come out of a journaling session and I have made a decision about something that's been at the back of my mind so that's really helpful as well I am new to youtube so please excuse if my sound isn't very good I don't have a very good microphone but I am gonna rectify that soon so sometimes my sound sounds my sound sound my sound is a bit funny I don't know how to describe it because I'm not technical at all this is the first day that I am actually alone in my house because my partner has gone back to his office today for the first time so it feels really really weird to be here on my own so I'm gonna get into my journaling anyway and I thought I might as well bring you with me and if this inspires you to get started on journaling for the first time or back into it after a break or just you like watching someone else journal because it's quite relaxing to watch people creating in fact it's been scientifically proven that even just watching somebody creating and painting or sticking and collaging and things like that is actually really good for your mental health as well so it's a win-win on all aspects I think I always remember when I was a school teacher and doing the peer massage in class and anyone in the room could opt out but they would still get the oxytocin benefits just by being in the environment suits I think it kind of works a little bit like that although I don't know the science behind it I know that everybody art journals differently there's no right or wrong way of doing it so all I can do is show how I art journal and my main go to art supplies as well how I set up my space how I get inspired I think that's a really important part for me is actually getting inspired where am i go to places for inspiration what kind of sensory things I set up as well so for example I like some natural light I like my greenery I have things like crystals that I love to have near me as well sometimes I burn incense and I've got some orange flower water that I've talked about before which smells absolutely amazing it's from a local shop in Glastonbury and they make beautiful natural things I'll link the website below because they do have a website and they'll send that to you but I just kind of put a little bit on my hands is that aromatherapy benefit so it makes me feel bright and it makes me feel inspired and fresh ready to start journaling what else do I do I love incorporating collage I love incorporating text and as I said a minute ago I love to incorporate my drawing practice in that as well I love playing with color and color combinations and I also have a little play with my color wheel to see which colors I like so if I'm about to do a painting I can warm up and do some initial ideas that are part of my art journaling and also part of my sketchbook if you like more of an artist sketchbook in combination with a journal I often include quotes parts of songs my favorite poem phrases things like that for some parts of my own art journaling so for example I will tear pages out of a journal that I have been writing in and use that within my pages I like working in journals with different sizes my partner's just giving me this one which is a moleskin and it's the one with squared paper and that's quite big for me so that's the Moleskine sketchbook and then I've got a few other different sizes as well I'll show you those in a minute though when we look at my desk if you have any questions about anything in this video please leave me a comment and I will do my best to come back to you as quickly as possible so let's get started [Music] the most important thing about choosing a journal is definitely to find one that you absolutely love so it's really important that you find one that's the right size it's really important that you like the paper the amount of pages it's got whether or not it's got a pocket what size is your bag that you normally take around with you will it fit in there those kind of questions what supplies do you like using and will the paper withstand the layering or they say if you're using some alcohol markers and it bleeds over to the other side and you might not want that so just think about as well what kind of supplies you use mostly and what kind of paper you've got and that will really help you make your decision so I really like using the moleskin moleskin journals and these are my favorite ones I love the size I love the paper and I love the fact that they last me a good few years when they get really really fat so those are the ones for me but you might prefer to use a bigger one or a smaller one you might like ones with lines or squares or dots and things like that and it really doesn't matter there aren't any rules so these are my journals of choice for my writing and I do my morning pages my written work my planning all sorts of things in here that are for my writing and I really like the size of both so I've got a little one which I can just take with me everywhere and also a bigger one which I like to keep at home which is just full of all everything that's in my head basically and you can see here I really like pockets as well because I seem to choose ones with pockets and I like the elastic so if things get a bit fat it keeps it all together these two are my sketchbooks and I have got this one which is the Paper Chase one and it came in a pack of three it's got nice paper but it is a much more economy cheaper notepad so I'm not precious in there I just sketch doodle draw and enjoy the pages this is another little sketchbook that I've recently started it was a present and I don't know the make of it I can't even read it on the back so but it's a nice small little square size and I'm enjoying working in this one this is a moleskin notebook with the squared pages I haven't started this one yet so I'm probably going to use this one for planning and bullet journaling and that kind of thing I really like the paper in this one and I like the fact it's got a soft flexible cover as well I really like the feel of it it is bigger than I would normally use but I do find it useful to have some bigger paper as well this is another paper chase one and I like it cuz it's got brown craft paper and a little ribbon and I can do little separate projects in there this is a little travel journal that I actually bought from China and I went last year and I loved the little double pockets it's got and then it's got some pages that don't have pockets that I've been slowly drawing in there's some drawings from inktober there's some journaling I did while I was away in China and it's just not finished or put together in any shape or form I really like the fact that I got it from China I like the size of it and I like the color of the paper and the feel of the paper so it's quite sentimental [Music] so I'll list my pens and pencils in the description box below I have got my favorite faber-castell pencils I've got some micron pens some zig pens and I really like the dual tip of those we've got brush on one end and then a more precise nib on the other that's a cheap watercolor pen in black again dual tipped those are some pens I got from China when I went last year there's my microns I think that's the point three and a point four then I've pulled out a few other things to use today I love these inktense pencils and I've also got some watercolor crayons that's a jelly roll white gel pen and there's also a tube of white gouache so I've just picked out a few extra colors in the gouache and some of my liquitex inks which I may or may not dip into later I'm gonna make my pages washi tape some miscellaneous items I've pulled out some collage a bit there I've got some dried pressed flower petals and leaves in there which I may use on these pages later it's a little card I collected when I was in China when we went to had to eat and again a little bag oh I saved so I think I might use those in today's pages as well I've also pulled out some pages from magazines with color schemes that I liked this some computer printouts as well that's a postcard from China and I've also got some tissue paper in there too so we'll see what happens with the first layers as I put them down so now we've talked about choosing a journal and our art supplies the next part for me is always getting inspired so I thought I'd talk a little bit about where I get my inspiration from I don't actually own many books these days I got rid of them all when we sold our house ran away and moved into a little fan and I haven't read many books so this is one of my few it's actually an art nouveau book which I bought for the art class project which was due to start just after lockdown began but unfortunately I had to close our class and so I never got chance to actually do that project but yeah I love dipping into this book for some wonderful inspiration so the other places I like to dip into for my inspiration stage while I'm having my morning coffee as well usually is the internet and I have a wide range of things stored in my Pinterest I sometimes look at Google Images if there's something that I don't usually look at and I think about whether I need royalty-free images whether it's going to be for something more commercial or whether it's just for personal use and I use a couple of different sites this pixabay for example so think about always needing to credit the artist and things like that when you are using other people's images the other place I like to save images is from my Instagram so I go into my saved folder on my Instagram and as I'm scrolling through Instagram if I see certain things that I think I'd like to draw that later on I save that into a particular folder and I also search Instagram hashtags so I look up maybe figure drawing or portraits or something like that and then I will save those in my saved files and one other place that I like to look at for inspiration is my own journal so just flicking through my old sketchbooks and journals and seeing maybe a color combination or a layout that I really like that I'd like to sort of work at again and often I have unfinished pages in my journals as well so I might come across a page that I want to actually work on and change and adapt and finish off and things like that both my journals that I've been working in for years are totally unfinished I've got so many blank and unfinished pages and also pages that I don't like that I'd like to work with more layers on the top so I've got plenty of work to be doing in there [Music] so once I feel fully inspired and ready to begin I starts laying out my first layers and these pages that I'm going to be working on today I've decided to do some collage layers first and I've already picked those out with the color choices that I wanted that I did earlier when I showed you my art supplies so I'd just like to say a few other things about my journaling process and the fact that it activates my right brain so when you're creating that's much more of right brained activity and so it gives you access to you the subconscious mind you may have unexpected outcomes from making your pages and sometimes it may reveal things that surprise you this is not about the final result this is all about the process of making and the benefits of self-discovery you can receive journaling has many health benefits to it has been proven to reduce stress and even improve the immune system so it's been perfect for me to really get into my journaling over the lock down it also helps memory it brings joy and boosts your mood and it helps you process and release emotions it's also a form of meditation and mindfulness an important part of self-care self-discovery and self-improvement just like my pages I'm also a work in progress and through my journaling process I often learn things about myself and it helps me to know myself better I could reflect on my mistakes and once I know better I can do better I also like to incorporate writing and text within my journal pages it may seem like a really simple thing to paste down some tissue paper and then write over it but the actual action of doing that if you try it it makes you feel so good because you created something completely new and if I don't know what to write I might just do a couple of lines of gratitude journaling which is a fantastic way of raising your mood and lifting a depression I also love to include my favorite quotes and writes our affirmations and intentions in my journals as well and all the time I'm growing as a person my art is also improving too as I'm trying and experimenting this feeds into my paintings making them much more rich and meaningful and just three more things that I'd like to include in this video about art journaling number one most importantly don't put pressure on yourself what if you miss a day when you've promised yourself you're going to art journal every day what if you don't like your pages none of that's important this is a free safe little space for you to make terrible art if that's the case it doesn't matter you can always cover it over with layers later on secondly try to do it regularly try to have a little routine that you do and that you dip into not necessarily every day but that you come to your journal quite regularly because the more you do it the more benefits you're going to see and the third and final rule is there are no rules this is your journal your private secret sacred space and you can do whatever you want in it I often write a declaration at the beginning of starting a new journal where I just put you know this is my safe space I give myself permission to make really crap art I give myself permission to write down whatever I want and it's often really really helpful to do that little declaration in the front so maybe you could try that I've just found the declaration actually that I've put in this journal so I'll read it to you I've put I give myself absolute permission to express myself in this journal in the ways I choose to I declare this a safe place for me to create no judgement no expectations [Music] yes I can [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] make sure that should be [Music] my here it [Music] so once I've got my first layer of collage down I like to take some quiet time to write this can be anything from digging really deep and soul-searching it can be self-reflection thinking about my priorities aspects of self-discovery I might just be writing about my feelings and emotions or what happened in my day I'm writing in a separate journal here as well because I am not worried about neat handwriting or anything like that or what it looks like with regards to the aesthetics of the page this is something I'm going to go back into once I'm doing my layering process in my other journal and once I've got enough layers down and I want to then incorporate some text and some of my writing I don't have to stop the artist side of the process if you like I've already got my thoughts and feelings down and some of the writing that I want to include and make part of the pages if you want the full backstory and the step-by-step process of making these pages that will be going up soon on my patreon page or you're welcome to join my free art journaling group on Facebook I'll put a link in the description below [Music] leave me a message down below if you have any comments or questions about this video or anything else I've talked about let me know if there's any videos that you would like me to make and if you want to see more content from me you can follow me on Instagram I leave all my details in the description box below so thanks so much for watching I hope you enjoyed this video and I'll see you in the next one [Music]

Channel: The Unexpected Gypsy

Views: 186,135

Rating: 4.9661078 out of 5

Keywords: mixed media painting tutorials, mixed media art journals, mixed media art, mixed media art journal tutorials, mixedmediapainting, artstudio, artiststudio, new youtubers, new youtubers channels, new youtuber tag, newyoutuber, brandnewchannel, artist, art, arttherapy, lockdownart, lockdowntimes, new youtubers 2020, studiovlog, artistvlog, how to, art journaling, journal with me, art journal, how to make art journal pages, moleskine sketchbook

Id: 8CpuEJ6vTK0

Length: 22min 15sec (1335 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 09 2020