As a lover of art journals I often spend my time trawling through Instagram and Pinterest in the search of new and inspiring creators. My visual taste in art journals can be quite varied and flexible, I normally fall in love with someone’s work when I can sense the care and attention they have applied during the page’s creation. Because of this I began keeping a list of my favourite art journal creators and started making notes on what I admire about their work. I started this little exercise as a way to absorb new influences and to be more self-aware of what I’m creating and sharing. In this post I will share some of my favourites and my thoughts, with the intention that you will be able to see who inspires me and who can potentially inspire you.
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5 TIPS FOR ART JOURNALING
Over the last month I have fallen completely head-over-heels in love with art journaling! It has become my go-to art practice for most evenings because I find the process super therapeutic and relaxing. I adore sitting at my desk while playing some of my favourite songs or listening to podcasts, and just prepping the background of a spread, or cutting out the elements I would like to use. It almost becomes meditative. Of course there are moments that are less than sweet, like the colours in a spread not working together or making a mistake with the paint and ink! I don't shy away from these moments though, because the reason I started art journaling in the first place was as a way to practice my creative thinking! When things go wrong then it is a perfect time for the creative brain to kick into action and start thinking how I can fix the problem or work around the problem. By practicing I can already see how it has effected the rest of my art & design work. My work looks and feels more cohesive, and I am able to think of creative solutions a lot faster. Needless to say, art journaling has really helped me in developing my creative practice and I would like to offer you five tips that I have learnt the hard way, so you can get a head start in art journaling if you desire!
Read MoreThe Path of Progress : Blending Art Styles
If you've been following my art journey for a while you may have witnessed the many changes and transformations that my art has gone through. I've gone from celestial watercolour paintings, to intricate ink illustrations, to digital collage, to abstract paintings! I find it hard to stay with one style when there are so many exciting ways to play around with art and expression, and through all these changes I have given myself a hard time for not being able to keep true to one medium or style.
Maybe I just haven't found my soul style yet (if there even is such a thing) or maybe I was never meant to confine myself to one style. I'm trying to be more forgiving and accepting of how my creativity manifests nowadays and the main trigger for this realisation is an inspiring conversation I had with Jessica Andersdotter & Lianne Williams. These wonderful ladies are amazingly talented artists and I have the great honour of being able to call them my friends too! I was musing on Twitter about not having a one "true" style, umming and aahing over whether I wished to pursue my abstract paintings or detailed ink illustrations as my main focus when Jessica and Lianne came up with the most brilliant idea of combining the two into a signature style! Why it had not occurred to me before I will never know, but in that moment I was so inspired and excited to try it that I went ahead and created my first piece, a bumblebee illustration. I was instantly enamoured with it, and I think a large reason for this is that it reminds me of the work of Kim Krans, the artist and creatrix behind The Wild Unknown Tarot & The Animal Spirit Oracle, my two favourite decks! Feeling elated with how the first piece went, I set about creating the next, featuring the skull of a cat! Although I didn't like it quite as much as the first (which is usually the case for me when I'm experimenting) I still really liked how it turned out and the magical/whimsical feelings that I got from it!
Although I do not wish to confine myself into just one style anymore, I can't help but feel content and satisfied in taking the first steps towards developing a signature style of my own. I'm very much excited to develop these further and I can't wait to see how it progresses and inevitably transforms!
My bumblebee illustration is available to purchase as a print here!
My cat skull illustration will be available to purchase soon!