Select Page

art journal blog

BLOG

Get Messy is an online art journaling school that teaches you to cultivate your creativity. Without perfection.

We’d love for you to join us. 

Blog Categories

Inspir-action
Artist Spotlights
Free art lessons
How to Photograph Your Journal

How to Photograph Your Journal

,

Hello, lovely Messians! Sasha (@sasha_zeen) here! Many of you might know me as a fellow Messian and the Get Messy Instagram Community Manager. I am so excited to be here to share a quick photo tutorial with you. Whether you are only starting out your creative or...

Dig in
Non creative books that help your art

Non creative books that help your art

We all love to read about creativity, fill our homes with beautiful giant books with art photos, patterns, and photography in them. These books are as beautiful as they are educational. But living a creative life as an artist begs for more depth and inner exploration,...

Dig in
How to use oil and chalk pastels

How to use oil and chalk pastels

This post is concentrating on both oil and chalk pastels, as well as other medias. Pastels are a great way to add texture, depth and variety into your art. The colour pay off and resistance you get from oils is fun and powerful whilst chalks can be soft, beautifully...

Dig in
Connection, Structure and Silliness with Sandra Busby and Tara Roskell

Connection, Structure and Silliness with Sandra Busby and Tara Roskell

You are going to love this episode. I’m chatting with Tara and Sandra from Kick in the Creatives. And if you don’t know them yet, by the end of this episode, you’re going to fall just as in love with them as I have. And good news for you because they’ve got their own podcast and you can binge listen to them and just take in everything that they have.

Dig in
Don’t Compromise with Barbara J Graham

Don’t Compromise with Barbara J Graham

Today I chatted with the incredible Barbara J Graham. She is the guest artist for Get Messy’s Season of Less. We spoke a lot about how she creates, how she puts her emotions into her paintings, and how she is able to express the intangible in something tangible. Barbara has a beautiful story about how she came to art and how art was there all along. How art kept knocking at the door no matter how many times she tried to ignore it.

I think that you’ll find that the summary is this episode’s title: don’t compromise. Don’t compromise on your art. Tell the stories of your soul, tell your life, tell your life through moments and moments with art and just show up to the page. Even if you think that it’s not your time, I mean, Barbara was 37 when she went to art school, and that is incredible. That’s an incredible story of resilience and strength and courage. Her art is beautiful and expressive and if Barbara can can do it, you can too. I hope that’s what you take from this episode.

Dig in
Art for Excitement and Yumminess with Connie Solera

Art for Excitement and Yumminess with Connie Solera

Today’s episode is a good one. You’re gonna love it. I know you’re gonna love it because it has Connie Solera in it. And Connie has a heart of gold. She’s a great teacher. She’s an incredible artist and I feel like she was put on this earth just to make everyone else better artists – she’s wonderful. Connie is also the guest artist for the season at Get Messy. And if you’re a Messian, and you’ve watched her workshop, you’ll know what I’m talking about. She’s amazing. She’ll make you amazing. Just listen to this chat that I have with her and I dare you to not run to your art journal.

Dig in
How to Find Your Style with Meg Journals

How to Find Your Style with Meg Journals

Today I am chatting with the beautiful, the kind, the lovely Megan McCaskill. She has a beautiful accent, a beautiful heart and beautiful journals to match. It was a completely spontaneous interview chat thing just as I was heading off to the train station for my mom but I hope that you create as we chat. I love Meg, I know that you are going to love her.

Dig in
Real life is what makes art with Johanna Clough

Real life is what makes art with Johanna Clough

You’re putting your life into it so that’s what makes it something special. That’s what makes you appreciate it and other people as well. It really doesn’t matter what you use and it’s funny to say that because I make journals and I’m very passionate about it because...

Dig in
Your Truth is Enough with Mou Saha

Your Truth is Enough with Mou Saha

Mou is the guest artist for Get Messy’s Season of Belonging and she is an absolute zen queen. We talk about her journey, how she created belonging within her art, how she tells her truth, and her journey to realising that she is enough.

Dig in
Be Intentional About your Artist Journey with Cindy Jay and Debbie Bamberger

Be Intentional About your Artist Journey with Cindy Jay and Debbie Bamberger

Every year, Get Messy hosts a workshop on reflecting back on the year, and creating intentions for the year ahead. This year we have two very special guests. Print out the workbook, grab a pen and watch the video below where Debbie, Cindy, and Caylee walk you through reflecting on 2019 and planning for 2020.

Cindy Jay and Debbie Bamberger are prolific artists with big hearts. I sat down with them to reflect on our 2019 years in art, and to create intentions for 2020. This is an informal episode where friends chat and laugh, but one with so many takeaways from these wise women.

Join us to reflect on your year and plan for (another) creatively fueled year.

Dig in
How to Art with Intention with Amy Maricle

How to Art with Intention with Amy Maricle

In this podcast, I chat to Amy Maricle about art with intention. Amy shares some of her most profound views on how to become more aware and intentional in your art practice. We discuss:

what it means to be mindful,
how mindfulness changes your art,
being zen about thinking big and letting go,
the inner critic,
Amy’s weaknesses,
and how to be an artist
As always, Amy is just bursting with insane wisdom.

Dig in
How to maintain a creative habit with Anika Lacerte

How to maintain a creative habit with Anika Lacerte

In this podcast, I chat to Anika Lacerte about creative habit. As someone who is currently on her 9th 100 day project, Anika is kind of an expert at it. She shares her top 16 ways for fitting art into your life every single freaking day. Scroll down to download the PDF and keep it with you to refer back to.

Dig in
The Get Messy Podcast

The Get Messy Podcast

Making art should be easy. Turn up the music, select your arty weapons of choice, crack your knuckles and then, well, make art. But let’s be honest: Art is messy. (Heck, life is messy!) So even though it’s so important to you to be an artist and create art regularly …...

Dig in
How art journaling saved Debbie Bamberger

How art journaling saved Debbie Bamberger

Artist SpotlightDebbie Bamberger is a nurse practitioner in California. She has been caring for women and providing sexual and reproductive health care for over 25 years, hence her obsession with all things vaginal. She lives with her husband and two...

Dig in
Ep 011: Just start

Ep 011: Just start

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...

Dig in
Ep 009: Commit to the Garbage

Ep 009: Commit to the Garbage

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...

Dig in
9 ways to add text to your art journal

9 ways to add text to your art journal

For many of us, images come most easily when we’re art journaling, and for others working with text feels more natural. Being a wordy, languagey, writer-type, I am definitely one of the latter. That being the case, I want to show you some of the different techniques I...

Dig in
How to find your own mini community

How to find your own mini community

Not convinced that you need a community? Read why community is powerful. Hi, Messians! It’s Misty and I’m here to help you find ways to connect in the Get Messy community. If you are a New Member, let this serve as a primer for you as you find ways to join the flow....

Dig in
Finding Joy and Flow in Your Creativity with Hannah Fitzgibbon

Finding Joy and Flow in Your Creativity with Hannah Fitzgibbon

Oh, Messy artist, I have a treat for you this week on the podcast. Today I spoke with Hannah Fitzgibbon, and let me tell you… I feel like my whole world has changed. My creativity has been rocked, everything… You are going to love Hannah as much as I love her because she is amazing, articulate, and wise. The stuff that we spoke about today has revolutionised everything I know about creativity. All I’ve been doing for the past 6 years is creating, listening to people talk about creating, listening to people’s views on creating, helping others create, helping myself create more. And this is the first time that I’ve heard someone speak about creativity in this way.

In our episode, we talk about joy and flow in our creativity. There’s just so much more to it, and so much more depth to this conversation. We speak about a lot, we cover a lot, and a lot of new ideas or different ways of thinking, but I hope you spend time meditating on each point.

Play us, listen to us while you’re creating, but also write down Hannah’s words and spend some time reflecting on the way she sees things and the way she can help you things. I don’t know exactly what kind of creating you do but I know that Hannah is going to be great for it.

Dig in
If you’re feeling frozen and overwhelmed

If you’re feeling frozen and overwhelmed

I recently received an email from Kate, who had a problem. I could relate and wanted to help. Maybe you need to hear this too.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with how many options you have, if you’re feeling stuck creatively, or if you’re a perfectionist and you’re super hard on yourself…. this episode is my letter to you. Here’s what to do.

And of course it’s actionable.

Dig in
The life changing magic of morning pages

The life changing magic of morning pages

Morning pages are going to change your life. Morning pages are going to give you better art, better relationships, better mental health and a clear head. In this episode, I’m going to chat about how I make them work for me and give you an exact to do list on how you can make them work for you, how you can rock them, how you can make your life rock… all due to morning pages.

Dig in
The Magic of a Sketchbook with Karen Abend

The Magic of a Sketchbook with Karen Abend

Once again I am freaking excited about this week’s guest on the podcast. This week it’s the beautiful Karen Abend. She has a heart of gold and I’m really excited about our chat today.

In this episode we discuss the absolute magic of sketchbooks. We discuss how sketchbooks are the root of everything creative, no matter what you call them – sketchbook, art journal, notebook, junk journal… all of those good things.

I hope you play this while you are creating in your sketchbook, your art journal, whatever you call it. Let’s all create together.

Dig in
Walking the 5 Paths of Journaling with Rebecca Kochenderfer

Walking the 5 Paths of Journaling with Rebecca Kochenderfer

In this episode, I chat to Rebecca Kochenderfer, the founder of Journaling.com and a lifetime journaler. Rebecca shares her experiences, approach, and tips surrounding the practise for both business and personal life. She walks us through the five paths of journaling, effects on our well-being and methods of journaling.

Dig in
Inspiration is not real

Inspiration is not real

Inspiration does not exist. It’s a lie. Inspiration is not real. True inspiration is the kind that leads to immediate action. Inspiration that leads to nothing tangible is… nothing.

There’s something tangible standing between an idea and something being realised.
That something is YOU.

Dig in
Creating Art Beyond Yourself with Morgan Harper Nichols

Creating Art Beyond Yourself with Morgan Harper Nichols

In this episode of the podcast, I was awed by Morgan Harper Nichols. Yup, that’s right. *The* Morgan Harper Nichols. MHN and I talk about how selflessness is important to her artistic process. How she finds purpose in her art by creating beyond herself. As someone who created an entire life and business around creative community, this chat rocked my world.

Dig in