So if you are into your art journaling I hope that some of these ideas will inspire you for the New Year and if you are new to art journaling then it is never too late to give it a go!
[I do use affiliate links and there are some in this blog post.]
1. Don't Resist The Urge To Resist!
Resists are great! Everyone loves a good resist and there are so many different ways to make a resist. Looking back through my 2016 art journals I have found that I use resist techniques quite a lot this year! I definitely wasn't resisting the urge.
A basic resist is about adding a layer to your surface that will resist whatever you put on top of it. In art you have lots of different ways you can do this so try these:
a) The Gel Medium Resist:
b) The Embossing Powder Resist:
Use stamping and heat emboss with embossing powder to make a resist for paint. Again I have a full step by step tutorial for this project over on the 'How To Get A Faux-Print Look With Paint And Embossing Powder' post on the Blitsy post.
c) China Markers On Yupo
China markers, or chinagraph pencils, are a wax pencil that writes on all sort of surfaces including shiney paper like Yupo! So it is great for drawing a resist pattern and you can even use it as a resist for alchol inks. You can find them in art shops and some stationery shops. If you want to see how I made the project above, there is a tutorial on the Blitsy blog in my 'How To Get A Resist Pattern On Yupo' blog post.
2. Make The Most Of Leftover Paint
It gets said a lot in art journaling circles but it is always worth repeating - don't waste any paint! Whatever project I am doing, whether it is in an art journal or another surface I always clean tools on spare pages in my junk and art journals.
It is a great way to get rid of clean page fear, you know, when your mind goes blank when faced with a clean page and you don't want to 'ruin' it! It is also a great way to hook yourself in to your next journal page as flicking through a book of colourful pages inspires you to get stuck in.
Here are a couple of examples of projects made on leftover paint pages, the first one builds on the leftover paint, using it as a background and in the second one I drew and stamped around the leftover paint and incorporated it as part of the image.
3. Doodle-Fill That Page!
Pattern is one of the things I have been getting into big time this year and I've been having fun filling pages of my journals with random collections of patterns and motifs. This is also a great project for doing over those leftover paint pages too!
Art journal pages don't have to always be a rounded piece of art work they can just be places to play and experiment and filling a page with shapes and mark making is a perfect for an art journal and a great way to build up some of your pattern making skills for other projects.
4. Use Your Ink Refills
So you refill your ink pads with those little bottles of refill ink right? Well you know you can use them as they are as well don't you? Of course you do! And if you didn't, you do now!
It's the often forgotten colouring material, you do not need a lot of the ink as a drop can go a long way.
If you want to see how then guess what? I have a tutorial using refill ink to make this page below, it is in a blog post handily called 'How To Make an Art Journal Page With Refill Inks'!
5. The Humble Biro
Well actually the humble any ballpoint pen! I love drawing with ballpoint pens, some of you might have noticed! Find a nice ballpoint pen that has a good flow of ink and doesn't splodge ink everywhere and you have a fabulous drawing tool. And it doesn't have to break the bank either, you can get some really good ballpoint pens for practically pennies and it lots of different colours too, so they are well worth adding to your art tool box if you do not use them already.
I use them for all sorts of projects and they work on a lot of surfaces including paint, like this leftover paint page in my junk journal.
So that is it for now, five ideas to get you jumping and hopefully inspire your Art Journaling for 2017. They are great ones to revisit and build upon so have fun and if you have any of your favourites you would like to share then feel free to leave me a comments below.
Kim
To find my other 2016 Round-Up Posts click the pictures below or follow the links listed:
My 5 Favourite Art Videos of 2016
6 Card Ideas To Revisit For 2017
My 6 Favourite Drawings And Paintings For 2016
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I'm paying a long due visit to your site. Thank you for all the wonderful inspiration and tutorials!
ReplyDeleteWishing a fantastic and successful year of 2017!
Thanks Cris G, thanks for popping in and I hope you have a wonderful 2017 too!
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