We've all been there - stuck in a bit of a creative rut, journal in front of us but no 'mojo', a blank page and no ideas on what to create or where to start, or maybe your journal is even stacked neatly away on a shelf because it's been that long since you opened it to create. This blog post is about to help you change that! Let's get that creative fire going and get you inspired to pick up your art journal for some play with these 3 prompts...
On the topic of art journaling prompts...
We've just opened the enrolments for Care December!
Join us for 21 days of FREE mindful, intuitive art journaling & self-care prompts
to guide you through the busy month of December.
Ok, let's get to it!
Prompt 1: Natural elements
Go for a walk in nature (or a trip to your garden). Pick up 3 things - a flower, twig, feather, leaf, any natural element where the shape or textures catch your eye. Use ink, paint, or anything else you have to hand - spread some on a palette or gelli plate, and press your elements into it. Now, let's bust that blank page - press and print the elements onto your spread. You can keep this minimalistic, and simply free-write on top, or you can go for more, with different printing substrates, loosely drawing them, or maybe even by pressing the elements into some gel medium to create beautiful 3D texture directly on your journal pages! Follow your intuition and see what happens...
Prompt 2: Quickfire inspiration
Pick up a magazine that you have lying around, set a 2 minute timer (I don't want you to spend too long on this step) and pull out 3 pages or pictures where the colours really appeal to you. This could be anything - a beautiful sunset scene from a national geographic, an outfit from a fashion magazine, a room from a home magazine - you get the idea. Once the timer is up, put the pictures in front of you, alongside a blank journal spread, then gather some supplies to pick out those colours that are really appealing to you (maximum 3). Choose one pattern or texture that you like best from your images, and create a spread with the three colours and one pattern/ texture as your inspiration!
Prompt 3: Leave it up to fate
Put an array of 6 of your favourite different craft materials in a basket. (Tip: choose supplies in colours that work well together). Close your eyes (make sure you do!) and pick out one. This is your starting point - whatever it is, use your non dominant hand to make some marks with it across the page. Then, close your eyes and pick another supply out. This will be your second layer - find a way to apply or use this material that's different to how you would usually use it - e.g. if it's a paint, try applying with a sponge or fingertip rather than a paintbrush, if it's a pastel, try applying it mixed with water on a paintbrush, or crumbled into a wet layer of gesso, etc. Keep going one by one until you have found a way to use each material on your spread (or stop sooner if you feel happy with where it's at before you use all 6 materials!)
Enjoy these prompts, and if you fancy it, snap a picture of your journal pages inspired by the prompts and tag us @everythingartuk on Instagram so we can see what you get up to!
Have a gorgeous day,
