Art Journal Catalysts

Acrylic

Lesson 4 – Layering Image Transfers

Lesson 4 – Layering Image Transfers

For this final lesson, I will demonstrate how you can create a really cool art journal spread by layering multiple image transfers on top of one another. This particular process does take time to complete, only because you have to wait until each transfer is completely dry before you add another transfer over it. But the outcome is so worth the time and wait.

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How to make an envelope journal

How to make an envelope journal

Connections Hey y'all! It's Katie here with my tutorial for the Season of Connections! Have you ever had a penpal? I used to have half a dozen of them when I was a...

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It’s Happening Now: Making Art Fast and Slow to Create a Page of Opposites

It’s Happening Now: Making Art Fast and Slow to Create a Page of Opposites

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.

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Creating a mixed media self portrait

Creating a mixed media self portrait

Connections "A portrait affirms; it gives the gift of self to its subject. It says, 'Yes, you are worth spending this time over, your story deserves to be told, you should...

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How to combine contrasting media

How to combine contrasting media

Contrast Hi again messians!In this post, I will share with you quick tutorials on contrasting mediums. These are the tools and products you wouldn't necessarily think about...

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Textured Backgrounds for Journal Pages

Textured Backgrounds for Journal Pages

Hello again Get Messians, Tanyalee here with another tutorial post. This week I am going to show you how to use household items to create texture on your pages. I wouldn't normally use...

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Lesson 4 – Lines, Lines, Lines

Lesson 4 – Lines, Lines, Lines

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.

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Flowers of Freedom with the Gelli Plate

Flowers of Freedom with the Gelli Plate

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...

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The paintbrush of power: Using comics and cartoons to turn yourself into a superhero

The paintbrush of power: Using comics and cartoons to turn yourself into a superhero

When I read all our posts and conversations on the Facebook group or on the forums, I am continually blown away by the incredible human beings that make up this community. I see courage, creativity, friendliness, and love. I see artists making the world a better place each and every day. Lets play at being superheroes, celebrating these incredible qualities and bringing them to life in our art.

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How to paint intuitively

How to paint intuitively

Contrast "The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.” – Elizabeth GilbertHello my favorite artists! It’s Riet here...

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Lesson 5 – Prompts

Lesson 5 – Prompts

How I interpret prompts and how I utilise the techniques I have demonstrated so far to make my pages. The goal is to give you a starting point for using prompts in your own pages. It will include a run-through of my interpretation of four prompts, with hopefully four very different spreads at the end.

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Lesson 8 – Resisting Ink

Lesson 8 – Resisting Ink

In this lesson, we are looking at how to resist ink. Since ink is such a fluid and water like medium, it can be fun and interesting to pair it with something opposite. We will work with elements that are basic for any artist – nothing fancy, not even masking fluid!

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Lesson 2 – Intricate Backgrounds

Lesson 2 – Intricate Backgrounds

In this lesson, I will show you how to create intricate backgrounds using paints, inks, and a series of image transfers. This is an easy way to make your pages pop and look like they took a great deal of work to create.

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Creating a Seasonal Mood Board

Creating a Seasonal Mood Board

We all have favorite seasonal activities and traditions. By using old calendar pages, and creating a mood board, we are celebrating these unique parts of the current and upcoming seasons.

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Storyboard Sunday: Using comic book panels to tell your tale

Storyboard Sunday: Using comic book panels to tell your tale

Comic book panels are a great way to focus in on the small moments while, at the same time, building up a bigger picture of the story we want to tell. In this tutorial, we’re going to be telling our stories by combining a comic book page layout with a mixed media, art journaling style.

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Scavenger Hunt: Get inspired by your neighborhood

Scavenger Hunt: Get inspired by your neighborhood

Today I invite you to explore your neighborhood or maybe even a new city as a child would, curious about everything and wanting to find all the answers! Use the scavenger hunt guide to collect inspiration for your art journal and let your inner child play.

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Seeing patterns: Carve your own rotating stamp

Seeing patterns: Carve your own rotating stamp

Using a square eraser you will learn to easily design and carve a stamp that creates a rotating pattern. Create your own designs or be inspired by your personal symbols or images you find in a book. Using a stamp to create patterns, is a quick way to add a layer of interest to your spreads.

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Knitted with love: Using yarn to create pattern and texture

Knitted with love: Using yarn to create pattern and texture

When I was thinking about the theme of kindness, I thought about how much love and care gets poured into making things by hand for the people we love – baking a cake, sewing a dress, knitting a sweater. The end result is a form of kindness that you can feel, that has been brought to life through the process of making something by hand.

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Translating Music to Paper

Translating Music to Paper

Nature Hey friends. For todays post I wanted to show you something that I absolutely love doing in my journal. And that is, making playlists or working with lyrics of songs that...

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How to journal with leaves

How to journal with leaves

Nature Hi Messians! Today I am going to share with you some ideas on how to get nature directly into our art journals. I have used different types of leaves for all of my...

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How to give your figures colourful hair

How to give your figures colourful hair

Colour Hey Y'all, Katie here today to share a tutorial with you! As you know I love drawing and painting, and with it being the Season of Color, I wanted to share with you how I...

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How to work with negative space

How to work with negative space

Contrast Hello dear Messians! Vanessa here, I am thrilled to welcome you to the Season of Contrasts. I am feeling very inspired by this theme. When I was thinking of how to...

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Art Journaling with Children

Art Journaling with Children

Hey, it's Sarah here. „Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.“ - Pablo Picasso. Every child is born with an unbroken will to discover the world...

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Drawing inspiration from Andy Warhol

Drawing inspiration from Andy Warhol

Hi Get Messians, it's Karen here. I don't know about you but it can be really hard to come up with ideas sometimes for your journal. It's annoying to feel "stuck" when all you...

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Creating and filling an accordion album

Creating and filling an accordion album

Hi everyone, Tanyalee here from the Creative Team. I'm going to give you an insight into my process for a journal page. Not just any journal page though, an accordion album using...

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Art with gelli plates

Art with gelli plates

Hello Get Messsians! It’s Karen here with my first Creative Team post and I am really excited to show you what I’ve been up to. I don’t know about you but I’m always a little sad that...

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Bonus: Going large in an A3 sketchbook

Bonus: Going large in an A3 sketchbook

Less#gmseasonoflessTaking everything we've learned in the first tutorial, we are now going to take the same colours and techniques and go large. When you open up an A3 sketchbook...

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Colour Mixing

Colour Mixing

Season#gmseasonoflessIn this tutorial learn how to explore the full possible range of a limited colour palette, and experiment with mark making. In the next lesson, we'll pull it...

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Documenting the Roller Coaster

Documenting the Roller Coaster

Documenting DEBBIE BAMBERGER Debbie is a sexual and reproductive health nurse practitioner in Berkeley, California. She began art journaling in 2016 with no prior art...

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Lesson 3 – Abstract Backgrounds

Lesson 3 – Abstract Backgrounds

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.

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How to Paint a Geometric Galaxy

How to Paint a Geometric Galaxy

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.

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Bonus – Marks Imitate Art

Bonus – Marks Imitate Art

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!

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Mindful Art with Amy

Mindful Art with Amy

Amy from Mindful Art Studio demonstrates using art for mindfulness in order to find beauty and relaxation.

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2.1 Quiet Backgrounds

2.1 Quiet Backgrounds

how to quieten a background with gesso
how to quieten a background with vellum
how to quieten a background with tissue paper
how to quieten a background with white out text
the glory of the blank page
inherently quiet backgrounds

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Playful Printmaking

Playful Printmaking

Kindness Hello Get Messy Family! I am thrilled to share one of my favorite art journaling techniques with you. This is one that I find easy to do, inexpensive, great for all...

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Journaling in monochrome

Journaling in monochrome

Colour Hello all, it's EmK again, and I'm here to talk to you about using color! I know that you’re probably not surprised that I'm talking to you about color this season, but...

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How to use scale to create contrast

How to use scale to create contrast

Contrast Hi, friends! It's Misty here to talk a bit about using size to create contrast and interest in your journals. I've got a short video to go over a few basics. I'll be...

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How to paint faces in your art journal

How to paint faces in your art journal

Contrast Hi you, beautiful creative souls! I am so happy to be back with another tutorial for a brand new Get Messy Season of Contrast. Can I just start by saying that I feel...

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How to produce detailed layers

How to produce detailed layers

Art 101 This technique is an art journaling step by step that anyone can do, whether following the steps as I have done, or adding your own unique spin to the steps. There are...

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Hiding your journaling on your pages

Hiding your journaling on your pages

Hello! It's Anika Lacerte with some tips on hiding your journaling on your pages. Hidden journaling makes it possible to write your thoughts down without sharing them with others. For...

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Creating pages inspired by cover art

Creating pages inspired by cover art

Hello messy dearest. I have a really fun challenge for you today. This one hits me right in the (good) feels and I hope you’ll love it too.We’re gonna go way back and pick a favorite...

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10 Minute Art Journal Pages

10 Minute Art Journal Pages

Hi there everyone, Tanyalee back with another tutorial. As it is the Season of Introspection, I thought it would be a fun idea to do a tutorial on making 10 minute art journal...

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Making and Using Gelli Print Backgrounds

Making and Using Gelli Print Backgrounds

Hey there Messians,  Katie here with my first post as a part of the Get Messy Creative Team! I am super excited to be here and be able to share a peek into my art journaling with you....

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Make Your Own Paper Embellishments

Make Your Own Paper Embellishments

Supplies old book paper ballpoint pen paintbrush acrylic paint sealant scissors 1. Draw shapes onto the paper Three simple ones for me, on two types of paper. The hearts and stars were on...

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Lettering

Lettering

Belonging#gmseasonofbelongingTurn your monoprinted pages into lettering with Mou's technique.Transcript (this transcript is automatically generated and is sure to contain...

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Floral Junk Journaling

Floral Junk Journaling

Documenting In this lesson, you'll learn what junk journaling is and see examples of Meg's own junk journals. She'll show you how you can create your own floral inspired junk...

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Part 1 – Spirit Animals

Part 1 – Spirit Animals

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.

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Lesson 5 – Real Life Pieces

Lesson 5 – Real Life Pieces

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.

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Hand Lettering Bold Statements

Hand Lettering Bold Statements

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...

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Liven Up Your Creative Palette!

Liven Up Your Creative Palette!

Seasons In this video, I explain three simple principles of color to liven up your creative palettes: color value, temperature and intensity. Use these tips to make your...

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Acrylic Painting Techniques Tutorial

Acrylic Painting Techniques Tutorial

Seasons In this video, I share three fun acrylic painting techniques to create painted patterns in your journal. We’ll walk through dry brush stripes, rose florals, and an ombre...

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