5 Really Good Reasons to Start an Art Journal

Well you may have noticed by now that I have started my new blog on the topic of art journaling. So I figured I would give you my top five reasons why keeping an art journal, scrap book, sketch book, visual diary or whatever you want to call it is a pretty neat idea. So here are my top five benefits of art journaling:

#1) It’s fun, easy and anyone can do it! By using your imagination and looking at everyday items through the eyes of an artist, you will find all kinds of interesting stuff that can be used to make patterns, designs, textures and more. Keep your peepers peeled and have fun finding and collecting different types of supplies and things that can be used on your pages or in your art. It’s like being on a full time scavenger hunt! Invite your friends over and have an art party. Stay up all night trading and creating stuff with your friends and family. Scribble, doodle, draw and trace just like you did when you were a kid. It was fun then and still is now!

#2) Get in touch with your creative side. Keeping an art journal is an awesome way to let your imagination off the leash so it can run wild and sniff around. Creating art pages allows you the opportunity to let go, cut loose, follow a thought and play with an idea. Let your mind wander around in the playground of your mind who knows what you will find or come up with!

#3) Document your now! By using some of the neat little every day things that you come across in your life, You can capture those good feelings they have for you. When added to your artwork you are able to look back in later years and fondly remember the feelings they elicit. You can draw and cut out your own pictures, paste photos and images that you find and attach meaningful labels, tickets stubs, ribbons and scrap papers that you have gathered into your art book pages. The list for things to use is endless and all these lil bits and bobs can help to make up a snapshots of the time you spend here in the milky way.

#4) Relieve stress!
Working in an art journal can help to dislodge the negative thoughts and anxieties of the day. It can help your mind unwind and can free your thoughts from the grindy mindset that your head may have been chewing on all day long. Making art can deliver an inner calm and peacefulness and that can allow you some time for self introspection and meditation. It’s has been proven by really smart scientists types that the process of creating art can help relax the mind and get it to take a break from all the thinking that it does.

#5) Be your own Inexpensive entertainment! Enjoy and if you like share the original content that comes from the depths of your creative mind. Create your own characters, write your own story and design custom worlds where the critters that live in your imagination can call home. Television can not compete with the one of a kind stories and ideas that come from inside you!

So there are my top five reasons for keeping record of my creativity. What are yours? Please be sure to share them with me below!

Entry Details: This entry was posted on Monday, September 26th, 2011 at 4:39 am, by chongolio, and is filed under art, art journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site. Print This!

http://badjonesrising.tumblr.com Roni

These are great reasons. I usually use my art journal most of the time to relieve stress. It is a sure way to calm my nerves. When I am sick, angry, sad, bored or frustrated my sketchbook/notebook/artjournal keeps me sane. This is a good list. We should swap some art journal prompts/ideas!
- chongolio
  
  Thanks for the comment Roni. I too treat my art journal as my personal escape pod where I can go and just decompress and escape into the moment and leave all the other distractions behind and forgotten for a little while.
  
  I like your idea of an art prompt. We will have put that in motion soon. Would like to hear more about it as I am not all that familiar with the process or “rules.”
http://www.sylviamaguina.com Sylvia

Very interesting! You changed my perspective on what an art journal really is about, Randy. Instead of seeing it as a book with drawings and ideas, it can be a healthy way to relieve stress and free your imagination to make it come to life on paper.
- chongolio
  
  Glad to hear my message is coming through Sylvia. Art is what you make of it and can be an awesome way to just unwind and let go of any pre conceived notions of what it “should” be. Just let it come out and enjoy the creative process. Thanks so much for the comment!