Welcome March! This month we will be exploring and defining the idea of balance. It can be a fine line to navigate in our busy lives. This is why Rituals became so important to me. Finding the time for art is a big part of my own balance. Our technique this month might push some of you out of your comfort zone but I promise that the reward is worth it: this month we are diving into intuitive painting.
For this lesson, we really are going back to kindergarten. Colouring in is one of life’s simplest joys. It is remarkable for calming your nerves as well as creating bold and fun pages.
Blended acrylics, smoosh pages, gelli printing, inky drips, abstract stripes,
Women’s lives and stories have been interpreted through the masculine lens for a long time. The idea of the witch came out of men being afraid of the knowledge that certain women had. They wanted to control women and so invented this idea of witchcraft as something to be afraid of and repress. And I would like this lesson to be about not being embarrassed to tap into that shared knowledge and history. To acknowledge that we are women and that we participate in society and matter just as much as anyone else. I want women to be proud of this and to be intentional in our art and lives.
Totems > Part 2 From Vocabulary.com: “In the psychology of Carl Jung, an archetype is an inherited pattern of thought derived from the past experience of the whole race...
Thank you for allowing me to show you a little bit of my world and my artistic landscape. It has been a privilege for me to do so. I hope that you feel inspired to search for your personal symbols and to invite them into your heart and your art. I would love to see your pages, please post them in the forums and anywhere else on social media where you lurk.
Totems is the course that will walk you through finding your personal symbols and translating them into your art journal pages.
Humans are in and of this world, we interact with it; there is an exchange of energy. This is one of the first principles we learn in Anthropology and we sometimes forget this. We are the product of our environment, we are linked to it. Elemental magic encompasses those symbols, seen and unseen, that surround us.
Why do you need a Spirit Animal? What is the point? Why can’t a quiz on Buzzfeed tell you the answer? A Spirit Animal embodies a trait or a quality that you have in your personality or that you would like to invite into your art journal. Take the time to meditate on this, try to focus on a part of you that you like – or something that you lack – and that you would want to symbolise through an animal. You give the meaning to that animal because it is your Spirit Animal.
The theme we will be exploring, which will come as no surprise, is love. But our approach to the theme of love is – in total Rituals fashion – a very personal and different one.
Guess what? In this lesson I’ll be showing you how to sketch a face from start to finish! You can sketch faces at many different angles, but the angle I’ve always found easiest was just a front view, which means the girl is facing directly towards you.
To wrap up this course, I’m going to give you a little tour of some of my past art journals to show you a few examples of how I’ve used my girl sketches in my page spreads.
Hey everyone, Welcome to lesson 2! In this lesson I will be showing y’all how I sketch different facial features, such as eyes, mouths, etc. The important features that will make up your characters!
Okay, in this lesson I am going to teach y’all how to sketch a face from a profile / side view. I used to be pretty intimidated by drawing a profile and every time I did it it would look wayyy weird. Like my girls would have a big forehead, or tiny nose, etc. How did I get better? Practice. I was determined I wanted to learn how to draw a girl in profile, so I started sketching girls in profile… a LOT.
This lesson is broken up into three parts: acrylic backgrounds, watercolour backgrounds and collaged backgrounds. I will very quickly take you through a selection of techniques using each medium/technique. At the end of the lesson you will have a vast array of tricks up your sleeve to make fast, abstract backgrounds for your art journal spreads.
Welcome to the class!
In this lesson I’m going to show you how to draw a variety of different hairstyles you can use on your faces! In the video I show some different ways to draw both straight and curly hair, and how to use the lesson printable.
It’s time for my absolute favorite lesson of this class! I really enjoy coloring in my sketched faces and I think it’s what really brings these drawings to life. So, in this lesson I’m spilling my watercolor secrets and I’m going to show you how I do it.
Let’s start by going over the supplies I will be using in these lessons! I will tell you what brands I use and prefer, but feel free to use whatever supplies you have on hand!
In this lesson, we are using magazine pages instead of our art journal. Try and gather 5-6 different pages to try out these techniques. I always gravitate towards black and white imagery – or pages with a lot of blank space on them. This way, your felt tip marks are the star of the show with their bright colours and the images don’t steal focus.
A new year, a fresh start. We are at the beginning of the wheel of the year, before us is a clean slate.
Gesso: A white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these. It is used in artwork as a preparation for any number of substrates such as wood panels, canvas and sculpture as a base for paint and other materials that are applied over it.
Taking what we have learned from our first lesson, we are repeating some of the same layering techniques but this time, adding water. The inclusion of water changes the aspect of felt tips so much and there is a lot of different ways to approach this method. Grab your supplies and let’s make a splash.
Welcome to the class!
We will be learning how to layer felt tips on a page. Using multiple colours to create new blends for backgrounds and patterns. Playing with warm colours, cool colours, light and dark colours together.
Remember, there are no rules with art journaling, especially with supplies, so make the most of what you already have. A good understanding of what products are will help you make a more informed decision when you are standing in the craft aisle and feeling overwhelmed, so at least give each material a read through to better understand its function.
The wheel of the year is an eight-segment pie chart which represents the seasons and festivals that people in the past used to mark the passing of time.
How to assemble your own chosen papers into a simple art journal.
How and why we should incorporate interaction into our journal pages.
An introduction into the focus points we will be learning, and have a look at the worksheets and printables provided for the remainder of the course.
Incorporating real life pieces into our journal pages – the things that accumulate in your life on their own accord; little mementos that come from events you attend, people you meet or places you visit.
Welcome to the class!
Three focus points we can utilize for a more meaningful and eclectic journal and incorporating symbolism into our journal pages.
Welcome to the class!
We’ve already made it to lesson 5 and in this lesson I am going to show you how I paint a galaxy using acrylic paint! This is a totally different medium than watercolors, and while watercolors are my personal favorite (I love how the flow and blend!), acrylics paint can make some really cool galaxies and they are often more vibrant and richer colors than watercolor paints
Welcome to the class!
What goes well with galaxies? The moon! I love anything that has the moon on it, If I see a collage with the moon, I will instantly love it, or if I see any sort of moon accessory- it’s mine!
To start off this first lesson, we are going to gather our supplies so we are ready for a stellar time creating beautiful galaxies in your art journals.
Yay, welcome to lesson four! In this lesson I am showing you how to paint your very own Milky Way galaxy with watercolors! My process for this is pretty much the same as lesson 1, the abstract galaxy, however I work off of a reference photo so that it ends up looking like the Milky Way!
In this lesson I am going to show you how to paint the easiest of watercolor galaxies! We won’t be using reference photos or anything, we’ll just be splashing watercolors around and experimenting to create a gorgeous, abstract starry scene.
Tthoughts about the idea of inner peace and how we seek it.
I’ve gotten a bit of a reputation for including watercolor galaxies in my work, but I just can’t help it. I love painting galaxies and starry scenes, so now I am thrilled to be sharing my techniques with you.
Thank you so much for taking this class with me! I hope I have been able to spread a bit of the galaxy love and you have learned how to create your own starry scenes!
Wonder isn’t something that necessarily springs to mind when we’re thinking about all the different emotions we experience, but it’s a unique one, and really worth spending some time with.
Allowing yourself the space to feel anger, and finding a vent for it in your art journal.
Perfect for beginning art journalers and experienced art journalers alike, Messy Pages includes 6 lessons with tips for choosing the right journal, how to choose the best supplies and mediums for you, simple explanations of art journaling terms, supplies, and how-to’s, plus examples and ideas for how to approach prompts for creating pages. Beginner art journalers will find instructor Tanylee Kahler’s overview of art journal lingo like mediums and gesso and what in the world a gelli plate is approachable and accessible. Experienced art journalers will find challenging fluid and experimental art techniques like painting galaxies, dreamy clouds, using inks, creating abstract backgrounds, and much more. Make a beautiful mess with Messy Pages.
Our art journals can be the perfect places to “art it out” when we’re feeling sad. Sadness can be a scary emotion, and one we shy away from, but if we can allow ourselves to sit with sadness from time to time, it can be good for us.
This lesson is about connecting with happiness in our art journals. In the video I’ll introduce you to this idea, and to an artist whose work inspires me to create bright, joyful pieces of my own.
3 different warm up exercises designed to help you loosen up and also connect internally with your marks.
Lines can be utilized in many different ways to create visual interest in your artwork. Lines can be used as a graphic element to create drama, help draw the viewers eye across the page to a point of interest, create backgrounds with controlled line work and more.
How to successfully layer different types of marks without causing chaos or muddying up your pages.
Ah, scribbles, the most instinctive of all the marks to make! I use scribbling heavily in my work because to me it’s an open ended expression and can easily be modified to reflect my emotions. You can use scribbles in so many ways to build backgrounds, create color blocks and add more expressive details.
Often we see shapes as separate from the idea of mark making, but shapes are comprised of marks to create them. We use marks to build the shapes we want to see. Shapes can be used to portray all kinds of expression and emotion to a page.
Welcome to the class!
In this bonus lesson, we will create an art journal page transforming a found image with marks! This is a great technique to practice creating marks but also makes for a really lovely art journal page!
Creating organic patterns with dots and dashes, altering images, and sippling.
Some of my favourite unconventional mark making tools I use in my journals.
This course is about accessing your emotional self through your art journal. In it, we are going to spend time meditating on different aspects of our emotional selves, and find ways of expressing them through our art.
Botanicals in art journaling > ConclusionCLOSING tHOUGHTSBefore the class ends, I want to share with you some of my favorite botanical resources and inspirations!Favourite Resources...
Botanicals in art journaling > Lesson 1 BLIND CONTOUR BOTANICALSWhat is Blind Contour Drawing? Blind Contour drawing is drawing without looking at your drawing as you make it! In...
Botanicals in art journaling > Lesson 4Collage Images of BotanicalsI often use images of botanicals in my art journal to add more layer, depth and variety. In this lesson, I want to...
Botanicals in art journaling > Lesson 2Ink Drawings with a Pointed Nib and Paint BrushUsing ink to draw botanicals is a favorite of mine. I often use one of two tools to get the ink...
Botanicals in art journaling > Lesson 5Line Drawings to use as collage ephemeraIn the last lesson, we explored resources for finding botanical images and collected some images to use...
Welcome to the class!
Botanicals in art journaling > Lesson 3Painted BotanicalsIn this lesson, we are going to be painting botanicals in a more abstract way. Painting abstract rather than realistic allows...
Mark making can be an instinctive and natural way to add more layers and interest to your art. In Messy Marks, you’ll learn how to create interesting and vibrant marks in your art journal with a variety of tools and techniques. Instructor Torrie Lynn will show you how to expand your idea of mark making and rely on your intuition to create them. She will overview different types of marks, how to embrace your intuition, and how to layer marks in a cohesive way. You will create beautiful layers of details with various supplies such as paint, markers, pens, and unconventional supplies. Elevate your art journaling to the next level with details, layers, and marks with your intuition as a guide in Messy Marks.
Dive into the world of portraiture with Sketching Faces. Experienced illustrator, Katie Smith, will teach you her method for drawing beautiful faces no matter your skill level. This class starts at the very beginning with supplies, then walks you through, step-by-step, in easy-to-follow videos, drawing a variety of facial features, different profile views, and hairstyles. You will also learn Katie’s secrets for coloring in sketched faces with watercolor paint. The class includes multiple printable templates to help you practice and grow your skills, as well as guides, video tutorials, and ideas and challenges for using your new artwork in your art journal. Take your artwork to the next level with the ability to draw lifelike faces with Sketching Faces.
With this class, you will fulfil all your creative needs and desires to create the perfect custom books and journals to hold all your beautiful art and precious thoughts in. Led by Vanessa Oliver-Llyod, Basic Bookbinding includes four tutorials and one bonus tutorial. With step-by-step photos and written instructions, Vanessa explains what tools you need to get started, plus options for using what you likely already have on hand. The lessons in this class are suitable for beginners and experienced art journalers who want to stop buying run-of-the-mill journals and start creating one-of-a-kind books. The books you will create with these techniques are perfect for art journaling, writing, list-making, idea-catching, collaging, cutting, pasting, and anything else you can imagine doing in a journal.
Rituals is about more intention, thoughtfulness, and awareness in your year and in your art. With Rituals, you can finally take action to focus on your art, be intentional about it, and ground yourself in time. Each month, Vanessa Oliver-Llyod leads you through a different art technique and/or medium that will help you meditate on the month’s themes and immerse yourself in time and place. When you enroll, you will receive immediate access to the 12 months of content. You can start at the beginning, start in the current month, or work at your own pace. With Rituals, you can create an art practice filled with depth and intention that only you can create.
The Heart Journal will get you connecting with your emotional self and exploring her in your art journal. Essie Ruth will lead you through exploring joy and happiness, sadness and grief, anger and rage, wonder and surprise, and peace. Alongside Essie, you will look at how great artists have conveyed emotion in their own work and draw inspiration from them. You’ll consider how artistic media can best communicate certain feelings. You’ll contemplate your relationships with different emotions and what you think about them. And most importantly, you’ll take everything you’ve learned and use it to create expressive, satisfying, and rewarding works of art. If you’d like to start putting your heart into your art journal, then this class will help you find ways to do just that.
Find and integrate your personal symbols into your art journal with Totems. Instructor and archeologist Vanessa Oliver-Llyod will introduce you to four different sources of symbolism: spirit animals, archetypes, elementals, and claiming the feminine. You do not need any prior knowledge of personal symbols to take this class as Vanessa will walk you through each step of understanding, researching, seeking, identifying, and incorporating unique symbols in your work and life. She will then teach you interactive and intuitive art techniques that will allow you to incorporate each symbol into your artwork. With this class, you will go on a deeply personal journey to identify the symbols that represent your personality and life to return to again and again.
Get started becoming a Get Messian with Messy Orientation! Messy Orientation will show you how to get the most out of the Get Messy website, connect with your art tribe, and build and maintain your creative practice. Learn all the ways Get Messy can get you making right away with Get Messy Seasons and website resources such as the Choose Your Own Adventure Library. Then see how the Get Messy forums can help you connect and collaborate with other members and make new art friends. Finally, learn about setting art goals and creating art making habits that get you making daily or as often as you need. Messy Orientation is your resource for all things Get Messy.
Make grown up art with your favorite childhood supplies. Pen & Ink is a class that is about 3 simple tools: water, pens, and inks. The class teaches you over 40 techniques using these tools, but these techniques are not for the perfectionist. They are for the child and the wild artist inside of you who longs to splatter, pour, and fling paint into this world. If you are ready to let that child out, follow your teacher Julia Cusworth as she shows you how to use these simple products to build background pages, simply play, or finish pages in your art journal. This class is perfect for anyone who is ready to let their inner artist child take the reins and Get Messy.
Infuse your art with nature’s most lovely masterpieces. Flowers and plants provide an endless amount of inspiration for creatives all around the world. Through this floral focused art journaling class, Alicia Schultz will guide you through a multitude of different ways to use botanical beauty and inspiration in your art journal. You will learn six new ways to incorporate flowers and plants in your art journaling with various techniques like drawing, collage, painting, and more. Through these lessons, you will create art journal spreads that are blooming with beauty. If you love blooms and are awed by their beauty, then this is the perfect class for you.
In Transference, Tiffany Julia will show you how to create image transfers using acrylic mediums and combine them with other mediums like paints, inks, and different types of papers to create beautifully intricate pages and spreads in your art journals. Image transfers are a simple art technique that create soft layers and the dreamy appearance of hand painted art. Following the lessons in this class, you will learn how to create art journal pages that pull viewers in to take a closer look at the layers and details that lie just beneath the surface. This class is perfect for anyone looking to expand their creative toolkit and work slowly and methodically in their art
What’s the secret to art journaling? Okay, here it is: it’s the starting, the making, and the keeping on making. In this free class, Fairy Artmother and Get Messy founder, Caylee Grey, archeologist and founder of Art Witch Academy, Vanessa Oliver-Llyod, and art therapist and mentor at Mindful Art Studio, Amy Maricle share their perspective on the starting and making part of art journaling. First, they share a peek inside their art journals to answer the question: what in the Frida Kahlo is art journaling? and gush over their favorite supplies. Then, they show you how art journal recipes and prompts can take the overthinking and overwhelm out of starting as they each tackle the same recipe and share their differing results. Finally, learn tips for translating inspiration into action and how to hold yourself accountable by making and connecting with art friends. If you are ready to kickstart your creative practice, then dive in with this class.
Learn how to think like a junk journaler – becoming more mindful and creative with what is available around you and enjoying and embracing imperfection. In Pieces, Johanna Clough will show you how to repurpose bits and pieces you have collected and put them to use in your art journal. You will start by creating a simple no-sew art journal in a junk journal style. In each lesson, you will experiment with creating pages with items that you have collected and repurposed from your life and use symbolism and interaction to give your pages depth. This class is perfect for anyone who enjoys creating pages based on found elements or anyone who struggles with allowing themselves to let go of perfection.
Fifty Two Portraits is a photography class in self-discovery; a way to document your life right now and uncover your creative self using self-portraiture and reflection. Inspired by a year-long creative project she embarked upon when she turned 40, Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd leads you on a path of self-discovery towards better knowledge of yourself as a person and as an artist. The class includes 52 prompts, 1 for each week of the year, centered on 1 of 7 themes: you, places, family, style, work, life, and friends, plus Vanessa’s photos for reference and inspiration. With Vanessa as your guide, embark on a journey in using photography and words to reflect inward and capture who you are at this phase in your life.
Wouldn’t you love the ability to create beautiful, vast starry night skies in your art journal? Resident galaxy painting expert, Katie Smith, shows you how in this guide to painting the cosmos. In this technique based class, you will learn how to create stunning starry scenes using watercolours and acrylic paints. If you’re new to working with these mediums, Katie will guide you through learning and mastering these tools, including turning household items like a toothbrush into a star wand! Following Katie’s simple teaching style will have your pages shining like the Milky Way in no time. This class is designed for anyone who has looked up into the night sky in awe and longs to translate that beauty into their artwork.
CultivateGet Messy SeasonsCreate what you need more ofFor new seasons, upgrade to the new site. Why Seasons? "Some people practice a custom of naming the volumes of their diaries in advance.The title of the book seems to prophesy what I learn and experience during the...
Expert Classes Taught by skilled artists in their speciality Dashboard Resources Prompt GeneratorSeasons Classes Library
I really hope you enjoyed Transference! I know image transfers may seem a bit daunting at first, but once you’ve learned all the steps and have created a process that works for you, they become simple and easy to do. I really hope this class helps to clear up the process and leaves you inspired to create more image transfer spreads in your journals!
A walk through of my (almost!) completed art journal.
Freedom Hello everyone! It’s TC here, with my final tutorial as part of the 2018 Creative Team. I can hardly tell you what a great year it’s been and how grateful I am to you for...
Freedom Ali Ali Brown is a wife, mother, teacher, intercessor, singer, musician, photographer, filmographer and artist. She is a life scribe who has kept a journal for as...
Freedom Hi, it’s Moriah here and this is sadly my last tutorial for you all as a member of the Get Messy creative team. It’s been such a joy to serve on the team this year and I...
Welcome to the class!
First we will work as fast as we possibly can, going wild on the page without stopping to think about what we are doing. Next, we will move to the opposite extreme and work incredibly slow, slower than we might have imagined possible. Lastly, we will bring these two extremes together to create a page of opposites, inspired by the principles of yin and yang.
Freedom
Freedom Happy Wednesday Messians! Tiffany here with an interesting way to play with your acrylic paints and inks. In this tutorial I'll show you a few ways to play around with...
Kind wordsTestimonialsHere's what our beautiful Messy Artists are saying about Get MessyWe show up in the mess. As our imperfect selves. Because it enables others to do the same.When I considered joining Get Messy Art, I was worried that I was going to buy another...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoY16ouEtKU
Freedom Hi Messians, this is Clare with my final tutorial as a Get Messy creative team member and what an amazing year it has been! It has been so great to be able to work with...
Artist SpotlightAli Brown is a wife, mother, teacher, intercessor, singer, musician, photographer, filmographer and artist. She is a life scribe who has kept a journal for as long as she can remember. Ali’s passion is to encourage people to see the...
Freedom Hi! Sarah here, and today we’re going to be making collographs. Collography is a printmaking process in which materials are glued to a rigid substrate. When printed, the...
Messy ConversationsMessy Conversations is a series of interviews with amazing art journalers who share their favorite tools, tips and why they art journal. You’ll get an exclusive peek into their art journal pages and their process. We have a...
Freedom Hello! Alicia here from Vine & Thistle. In my last tutorial as a part of the Get Messy Creative Team, I am going to be showing you how to create a bright and bold...
Freedom Prompts Download the prompts for the season Save this file to your computer, print it out, and keep it inside your journal to spark journal ideas. Inspiration
Ubuntu Elly here, adding my thoughts to the Season of Ubuntu. We have all had weeks now to wrap our minds around the concept of Ubuntu and part of my thought process has been...