Art Journaling: Translating Experiences into Creative Expression

I've been hiking a lot more lately. My art journal reflects that with the scribbles and earthy colors. Like the page I'm looking back at now... There's a path made of watercolor. There are oranges, browns, and grays, swirling and pooling as watercolor likes to do. I doodled rough reflections of rocks to line either side of the path, a layout that I see often along my hikes. The black pen marks show through the brown and slightly orange circles of paint that I selected to create the stones. Most of the stones I walk past are more of a gray color, but the darker brown is what came to mind at the time, so I let myself run with it. As I look at this now, I'm reminded of this morning, which featured a beautifully orange sky that shone through the orange leaves that are still hanging on to the oak trees' branches. Perhaps that will come to my page next?

That's the beauty of art and especially art journaling. It's not about accuracy or achievement. It's about taking something that's on your mind or something you've been experiencing and seeing how it spills out onto the page. There is absolutely no accuracy necessary in my art journal. Anything goes. How often do you get to do that in life? Sounds amazing, right?

I wonder, if you pick something that's been on your mind, positive, negative, or neutral, and make some marks on a page with whatever you like... what might come out? How about this: let's try a little experiment.

• Grab your art journal or just some paper if you don't have one.

• Gather some things you can use to make marks on the page, a pen is totally an option.

• Now, select something that's on your mind. Maybe close your eyes if that helps. Really visualize it as best you can.

• Now, open your eyes and try clearing all of that out of your mind (trust me).

• Pick up something in front of you to draw, doodle, or paint with and make some marks.

• Anything. Really. It could be a line going across the page. And then, another line, and another...

• Just keep going until you feel like you're ready to stop or change it up by selecting another color, pen, pencil, whatever.

The key here is to let go of the thinking, be free, and just do.

I'd love to know if you try this and how it goes. Let me know in the comments!

If you're intrigued but don't know where to start, I have two easy ways to try it!

• My FREE 14 Days of Prompts is a great, low-commitment way to start.

• And this January, I'm launching New Year, New Layers: A 30-Day Art Journaling Journey for Beginners (or seasoned art journalers)