Art Journal Catalysts

Watercolour

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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Part 4 – Claiming the Female

Part 4 – Claiming the Female

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.

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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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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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Art journal your spirit animal

Art journal your spirit animal

Art 101 Hi guys, it’s Riet here. Today I want to show you my Raven Nest Journal. It’s about my spirit animal that I discovered last year. I dedicated a whole journal...

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How to create a collage of hands

How to create a collage of hands

Hey Messians. It's Nina here with a fun and simple idea for your next art journal spread. Since we're in the season of Gifts I thought it only appropriate to make this piece about...

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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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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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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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Easy watercolor tiny book

Easy watercolor tiny book

Hey messy people! Nina here. When you’re taking on a huge project – like a daily challenge or a 30 lists album – it can prove quite necessary to take a shortcut on some things. Like the...

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Bonus – The Witch’s Garden

Bonus – The Witch’s Garden

Welcome to the bonus lesson where we will stretch and blend and reimagine the symbols and techniques we have created so far. The idea for this bonus spread is to use all of the elements of the first four lessons to create an all-encompassing art journal spread. This is how I usually work: my art process is all about seeing and showing connections. The theme for these pages is the witch’s garden where all sorts of amazing things flourish. What would you like to have in your garden? What will you feed and nourish and what weeds will you take out? This is your chance to work intuitively and tie together all the totems that you have identified throughout this class.

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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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Lesson 5 – Wonder and Surprise

Lesson 5 – Wonder and Surprise

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.

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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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Expressing yourself through colour

Expressing yourself through colour

Colour Welcome to the Season of Colour! Vanessa here to usher you in to this Season. As is always the case when we start a new theme, I need to find a way in. I need to figure...

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Creating expressive pages without looking

Creating expressive pages without looking

Hello, Julia here again to share a new type of creative practice with you... This past year, I have started to create in a new way (for me, at least). It’s something I have started to...

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Embodying the Fool: How to feel the fear and take the leap anyway

Embodying the Fool: How to feel the fear and take the leap anyway

Starting can be difficult. The way ahead is obscure, we are afraid of failing or of getting lost on our journey. So how can we set off boldly, how can we be daring? We must embody the Fool. The Fool is an archetype that allows us to take a leap of faith, to go ahead even if we are fearful. When we are able to look ahead with enthusiasm and energy and when we know that whatever lies ahead is part of our journey and will support us, we are embodying the Fool archetype. This allows us to feel free as well as (perhaps paradoxically) in control of our own destiny. That is when we are happy to start. We will use water soluble media to create an inspiration wave to encourage us to start. Let’s gather this wave of positive energy and let’s be intentional in finding the mantras that carry us forward and let’s take that leap! Let’s start in this creative journey together.

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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 – Simple Shapes

Lesson 5 – Simple Shapes

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.

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A guide to continuous line drawing

A guide to continuous line drawing

Connections Hello, messy tribe!Sasha here again for the Season of Connections. This Season seems so intimate and deep to me, so I wanted to come up with a tutorial that...

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A guide to mixing your own colours

A guide to mixing your own colours

Colour Hi, lovely Messians! Sasha here today! It's our favorite time again, isn't it? The start of a new Get Messy season always feels magical and special. This is the time, when...

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The Mailable Art Journal

The Mailable Art Journal

Hello, splendid Messians! I'm jazzed as hell to be back sharing another post here on the blog with you. Especially one that's about giving! Most of the people I've met through Get Messy...

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Painting Water Colour Portraits

Painting Water Colour Portraits

Hi Everyone, it's Tanyalee back with another tutorial for the Season of Music. This season I decided to show you all how I make water colour portraits. They aren't your standard...

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How to Paint a Watercolor Galaxy

How to Paint a Watercolor Galaxy

Hey everyone, Katie here today with the long awaited galaxy tutorial! You may or may not know, but I'm basically obsessed with space related things, so I often paint moons of galaxies in...

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Paper Aging & Distressing Techniques

Paper Aging & Distressing Techniques

Hello lovely Get Messians! It's Zinia here to share with you some fun techniques to create aged and distressed look on your pages. When I think about music, one of the first thing that...

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How to make Watercolour Collage Paper

How to make Watercolour Collage Paper

Hi lovely Messians! It's Essie again, here to share a video tutorial (ooh, faaaance!) of how I make watercolour collaging paper. I love to go through magazines to find...

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Six fun watercolour techniques

Six fun watercolour techniques

Hey friends, it is Katie from the Creative Team here again! Watercolors are my favorite medium at the moment. I discovered them early last year and just fell in love with how they flow...

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Movable Idea Catchers by Kiala Givehand

Movable Idea Catchers by Kiala Givehand

IdeasYour challenge, should you choose to accept it: Create an interactive way to explore and discover the ideas that live inside you. Part 1Bonus Save this file to your computer, print it out, and...

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Step 4 – Eff comparison

Step 4 – Eff comparison

Failure Comparing ourselves to others is one of the most debilitating ways we stop ourselves from creating. We create our own idea of perfectionism from others....

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Turn Your Inspiration into Art

Turn Your Inspiration into Art

Creativity You are an artist. You have harnessed the world around you and have turned it into your own creation. Now, let's put it all together and make some art with it.  I...

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Lesson 6 – Watercolouring a Face

Lesson 6 – Watercolouring a Face

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.

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Lesson 4 – Watercolor Milky Way

Lesson 4 – Watercolor Milky Way

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!

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Lesson 2 – Abstract Galaxy

Lesson 2 – Abstract Galaxy

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.

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Lesson 3 – Watercolor Moon

Lesson 3 – Watercolor Moon

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!

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Three watercolour background techniques

Three watercolour background techniques

Nature Hi friends. In this tutorial, I will show you three of my favourite watercolour background techniques that I do over and over in my journals. LINA Lina is a dreamy nineteen...

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Painting dreamy watercolour backgrounds

Painting dreamy watercolour backgrounds

Art 101 Hello, beautiful creative Messians! Sasha here today. This is my first time posting here as a member of Creative Team. So, I am a little nervous, but also very excited...

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Color Theory

Color Theory

This week we have the amazing Sarah Fuchs here with us to teach us all about color theory, what it is and how to use it to improve your art journal pages. I remember clearly when my mum...

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Transformational Tea

Transformational Tea

Reflection In this tutorial, watercolor pens and a squirt bottle magically transform paper towels, as the process of appreciation changes your reflections about yourself....

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04 – Visual Gratitude Pages

04 – Visual Gratitude Pages

While I love writing in my journal, there are also times where I just want to get my paints out and play. This lesson focuses on just that. We will still be documenting things we are...

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Our Archaeological Dig by Lisa Goddard

Our Archaeological Dig by Lisa Goddard

VulnerabilityYour challenge, should you choose to accept it: Work in layers to express different aspects of yourself and your life. Imagine an archaeologist peeling back each layer in 200...

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The Recovering Perfectionist’s Guide to Making Art

The Recovering Perfectionist’s Guide to Making Art

Download Save this mini workbook to your computer, print it out, and let it accompany you on your artistic journey this season.  Your guide Caylee Grey Hyperbolic journaler and imperfect artist, Caylee Grey is also a wife and mother from South Africa. Caylee is the...

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06 – Into the Woods

06 – Into the Woods

This lesson will further explore collaged landscapes. We will build on this collage process by creating a forest landscape and adding a figure and a guide animal to explore that...

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Gather, Spark, Create by Felicitas Mayer

Gather, Spark, Create by Felicitas Mayer

IdeasYour challenge, should you choose to accept it: Use your old paper scraps and other crafty left-overs to find new creative ideas for art journaling. Action Steps create something based on this...

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04 – Stitch a Meadow

04 – Stitch a Meadow

In this lesson, we begin working in our journals by creating a collaged meadow landscape and adding stitched flowers. I’ll take you through my collage process and how I would build...

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Color

Color

Color is an element consisting of hues, of which there are three properties: hue, chroma or intensity, and value. Color is present when light strikes an object and it is reflected back into the eye, a reaction to a hue arising in the optic nerve. The...

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Wild Abandon

Wild Abandon

Moments#gmseasonofmomentsYour challenge, should you choose to accept it: Create with wild abandon. Let go of perfection and expectations and gather things that you love. Art...

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Bonus Before We Say Goodbye…

Bonus Before We Say Goodbye…

A little bonus before we say goodbye, we will take a little time to flip through some of my puzzle pieced journals, taking more time with what fills the pages. I’ve also included a few files...

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The Missing Piece

The Missing Piece

So far in this course we’ve been focusing on being in conversation with the bits and pieces of life we’ve collected, and letting that tumble out onto the page. Now, we are going to shift a...

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The Edge

The Edge

When we’re putting together a jigsaw puzzle, it often helps to start with the edge or a foundation of sorts. For some of us, myself included, that means putting together all the actual edge...

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03 – Warm Up Collage + Front Cover

03 – Warm Up Collage + Front Cover

When I am feeling stuck, uninspired or unsure I love to make mini collages. Using all of my favourite scraps of paper ad small journal, I create these mini collages as a way to warm...

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Learn to Love Your Sketchbook and Create Consistently

Learn to Love Your Sketchbook and Create Consistently

Minnie Small shares the joys and benefits of sketchbooking, how to make it easier for yourself to create art regularly, and a bit about her own creative journey... all while painting.Transcript Disclaimer: This transcript was created by a machine and...

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Intuitive Collage & Paint by Tamara Egem

Intuitive Collage & Paint by Tamara Egem

Flow Your challenge, should you choose to accept it: Create your own flow moment. Action Steps Bring your imperfect, messy self, take what you need, and know that more than zero is enough. Click here...

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Floral Sister Pages by Camila Garcia

Floral Sister Pages by Camila Garcia

EnoughYour challenge, should you choose to accept it: Create a double-page spread in which one flower is explored in two different ways using the same colour pallet.  Work with your favourite media...

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MIND

MIND

Self #gmseasonofself Download the Season of Self: Mind Sidekick Save this file to your computer, print it out, and keep it inside your journal to spark journal ideas. For each...

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Warm up: Create Inviting Journal Pages

Warm up: Create Inviting Journal Pages

In this bonus lesson, I am sharing a really quick and easy way to make your journal pages inviting to write on. Once we have the pages prepared, we will start adding the wonderful...

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1.3 Background

1.3 Background

Now that we have our paper dolls ready, let's add color to our spread. We’re going to create a watercolor background with hues that best represents ourselves. Remember to skip the first 3...

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1.2 Paper Doll of Self

1.2 Paper Doll of Self

First things first, we’re going to create a paper doll that represents our wonderful selves. This doll is going to be the focal point of your spread, so don’t be shy. Give her the spotlight...

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The Big Picture

The Big Picture

One of the fun things about a puzzle is that the picture comes together as we work on it, like a journal page. We don’t always have to see the end result to begin, with a puzzle or a page, but...

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The Piles of Pieces

The Piles of Pieces

Creating the edges of our pages gives us a great place to begin, but now it’s time to fill those pages in with all our pieces. And once again, just like a jigsaw puzzle, we will turn to all...

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04 – Drawing Leaves

04 – Drawing Leaves

Let’s use repetition and re-creation in our art practice as a way to lower pressure, explore, and develop an idea. In this session, we will be drawing from observation using a fallen leaf or...

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Space

Space

Space refers to the perspective (distance between and around) and proportion (size) between shapes and objects and how their relationship with the foreground or background is perceived. There are different types of spaces an artist can achieve for different effect....

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Lovingly Stitched by Alyssa Griese

Lovingly Stitched by Alyssa Griese

HeartYour challenge, should you choose to accept it: Stitch a love note or kind word to yourself or to someone you love. Action Steps Bring your imperfect, messy self, take what you need, and know...

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Imperfect Face by Iris Fritschi-Cussens

Imperfect Face by Iris Fritschi-Cussens

OKYour challenge, should you choose to accept it: Draw and paint an imperfect face with simple raw art journaling techniques Action Steps Bring your imperfect, messy self, take what you need, and know...

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Value

Value

Value refers to the degree of perceivable lightness of tones within an image. The element of value is compatible with the term luminosity, and can be "measured in various units designating electromagnetic radiation". The difference in values is often called contrast,...

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