How To Create And Keep An Art Journal

By Jessica Gust

An art journal is literally just that – a journal of your art. You don’t have to be an accomplished artist already to have one. In fact, they are more beneficial to a novice, who can develop and train their skills through the use of a journal. This is an essential way to practice your craft, and will be hugely rewarding too.

Step 1: Choose your Journal

First of all, you have to find your journal, or in other words the collection where your work will be housed. You will notice that this is a very vague description, and that is for good reason! An art journal can be whatever you like. You could get an actual journal with blank pages and sketch on every day of the year, or you could create a scrapbook, or use a traditional sketchbook. It also doesn’t need to have a physical form. If you are a digital artist, you can create a digital journal. The important thing is that everything is kept in one place together, and that you attempt at least to add to your journal every day.

Step 2: Create a Habit

Habits are hard to form, but once you get there, it will be second nature to turn to your journal every day. But what should you keep in it, and how can you create your habit? Start by thinking about what you want to achieve. If you just want to improve your skills, try sketching one thing every day. If you want to develop an idea, you can work on a different area every time. You can even collect inspiration and write notes to yourself. It doesn’t all have to be drawn, and not even by your own hand. You can also make swatches and decide on the colour palette you might use for a particular character or design. The important thing is to keep going, so to start with, consider setting an alarm on your phone for a certain time of day. Whenever it goes off, make sure that you go to your art journal and add something to it.

Step 3: Share your Work

One of the best ways to keep up with something is to make yourself accountable. If you have lots of other people watching your journal and telling you off when you miss a day, you are more likely to consistently add to it! You could start up an Instagram account or share your designs on Facebook. You could even use an art gallery site like DeviantArt to showcase what you have been up to. The important thing is to share your work and make sure that as many people as possible keep you to the habit of posting every day. After a while you will barely even realise you are doing it, because it will be such a deeply ingrained habit!

Step 4: Preserve your Journals

Whenever you finish a journal, especially if it is a physical format, make sure to store it carefully and preserve it. it’s very important to be able to look back at your previous work, especially as a way to measure how far you have come. You can also use your notes and thoughts from the past to inform the way that you work in the future, so that you can keep growing and developing in a positive way.

An art journal can be so rewarding, and will help you to transform from an amateur to a real artist, unlocking the potential for your skill. Get into the practice as soon as possible to reap the rewards!