Intuitive Art Journaling
Art is more than re-coloring what we already see. This week, I talk about intuitive art journaling and inspire you to follow your spirit and create more freely.
Even if we continuously grow our skills as artists, the joy of art-making disappears if we use too much reasoning. It’s good to practice the technical skills, but it’s also important to arrange time for the intuitive ideas to emerge.
Two Words – “Intuitive Power”
“Intuitive power” – these words suddenly came to mind when I looked at my colored pencils recently. I have been painting a lot, and it has made me miss my colored pencils, those powerful helpers! So, while working on the last pages of my Dylusions Creative Journal, I have been spending some quality time with them.
I started with a house, but then moved on to color more freely. I wanted to catch the atmosphere of that place rather than stay in the material level, drawing windows and such.
The longer I have been an artist, the more I have wanted to work with invisible things. More than tangible things, I want to express the spirit and the complexity of the world that can’t be photographed. I want to create images that are more like keys to many questions rather than direct answers to one.
Intuitive Artist
Even if I have embraced and used the word “intuitive” for over ten years, I have now realized that it’s not just one word of the many, it’s “the word” for me. And I don’t mean to narrow myself with the word, but to expand my thinking and creating in the direction that feels natural to me.
More than a building, I want to visualize the spirit of the place – the sensations that it causes in me.
More than a face, I want to visualize the spirit of the person.
Art Journaling Without Words
Rather than words, intuitive insights can come up as pictures. So, intuitive art journaling can be as simple as creating a series of drawings. The connection with a certain color can be enough to get started.
Color is a hole, and if you jump in, you enter the immaterial world. Colored pencils are the easiest tools for breaking the ice between the inner and outer.
“Intuitive power” – what do these words evoke in you?
Making The Art Journal More Magical
I have been working on my square-sized art journal again. This week, I share a couple of magical art journal projects that include hand-drawn collage pieces.
My journal is Dylusions Creative Journal. The first project is the decoration of the pocket envelope that’s on the backside of the front cover.
The Magical Mindset for Art Journaling
My journal is almost full, but I have decided not to hurry with the last pages. Recently, I have started to think that using what I have is better for me. That if I rush with the last pages and buy a new journal, it’s not as good as if I slow down and fully honor those few blank pages. You could call this a magical mindset because it makes you appreciate what you already have: skills, little drawings, time, blank paper.
With the magical mindset, you don’t just look forward and think what you could have. Instead, you look back and focus on how you can take the old to the next level.
So, I went to my boxes of joy – the boxes that store my handdrawn collage pieces – and picked a set of leaves from a few years ago and glued it on the envelope. The leaves are a print and smaller than the original drawing. I love some of my handdrawn pieces so much that I have scanned and made prints of them.
I drew some more leaves and then glued the tassel which is an original drawing too. The tassel divides the image in two parts. I drew and colored a seascape on the right side of the tassel.
I love the oldfashioned and luxurious look of the envelope now. The inside cover was made earlier with markers.
I had two tassels to choose from. I love them both.
Magical Stripes on Art Journal Page
The second project is a page with hand-drawn collage pieces. The idea here is to draw stripes and then decorate them. I made my page so that some of the decorations extend over the stripes.
The teacups, the heads of the cats, monkeys and rabbits are prints made from bigger hand-drawn pieces. The rest is drawn with a black drawing pen and colored with colored pencils.
Here you can see the print sheets that I have made for myself and the original drawings. These are all drawn for the courses Magical Inkdom and Animal Inkdom. I had so much fun making these courses. The details are magical and I think the stripy page became magical too.
The rabbit and the teacup are two separate pieces.
I have randomly created on the pages over the years. The page on the right is painted and very different in style, but I think these are just layers of time. Like home, an art journal can have some old pieces, some newer ones, and some that connect all the years. I started my journal in 2020.
The abstract house could be the place where this magical tea party happens.
Magical Letters
In the previous blog post “Mini Drawings on Art Journal Pages“, I showed a spread that was still in progress. That’s finished now. I think letters on the black background with some leaves and flowers look magical too.
I hope these projects inspired you to make your art journal more magical!
Mini Drawings on Art Journal Pages
In August, I blogged about the half-empty art journals I should fill up. I had a mini art journal with only a few filled pages. They were mini drawings that I had made quickly a few years ago. I decided to tear the pages out of it and re-use them on my other journals. It has been more fun than I expected!
This is how small the journal was.
First I thought I just glue the pages on my other journals, like my Dylusions Creative Journal Square, but then got the idea to use the pages as collage pieces.
Art Journal Collage Idea – Cubism
Cubism is about breaking things in pieces and having many perspectives in one drawing. Some of the mini drawings had many angular shapes and that fits well with the idea of using them as a part of cubistic art journal page.
I continued the shapes in the mini-drawings by coloring and also colored new shapes.
I am really interested in architecture and interiors nowadays so I added some architectural details, a carpet, and such.
The floral page was made in February, and you can see process-pic of it here: Why Draw in The Ready-Made World?
Mini Drawings in a Hand-Drawn Collage
Over the years, I have drawn many collage pieces – boxes of them! The courses Animal Inkdom, Magical Inkdom, Doll World, and Decodashery has directions for them. I have throughly enjoyed making those courses, and I have also used many hand-drawn pieces on my art journal pages.
Now I used a mini page as a part of a handmade collage. I also picked some pieces from my boxes, and then combined all together by coloring and journaling around them.
The drawing on the right was made in July 2021, see the bigger picture here: Coloring with the Inner Child.
Art Journal Idea: Creative Lettering on Black Background
I had three mini drawings that were very illustrational, and I wanted to expand their graphic style with creative lettering to the rest of the pages.
The black background makes the shapes really stand out. This spread is still in progress. I am going to finish the left page in the same style as the right one.
I hope this blog post inspired you to create, and start making mini-drawings you can then re-use!
Half-Empty Art Journals I Should Fill Up
Last month, I went through my art supplies and wrote a post about the supplies I shouldn’t use anymore. After the post, I gave most of those useless-to-me supplies away. Now I have reviewed my art journals and have come to the conclusion that I have too many half-empty ones. I should fill these up and at the same time, end one era in my artistic journey.
I don’t mean I shouldn’t have any art journals or sketchbooks anymore, but I think I could do well with only one or two. I have grown my skills by drawing a lot, but now I feel I am more of a painter. Most of my creative energy nowadays goes into painting, and I mostly make either watercolor or canvas paintings. So, the books don’t serve me as much as they have in the early years.
Ten of my art journals are half-empty. I don’t think it’s realistic to fill them in a short time. On the other hand, I have small pieces and hand-drawn motifs that I could attach to the pages and make collage art. Anyway, I wanted to share my inventory. Time will tell how quickly these will be filled!
Art Journal #1 – Smash Book
Who remembers the Smash Books by K&Company? I have several, but only one of them is unfinished. This one has the best cover as I have attached my fabric drawing to it.
This journal has all kinds of pages, but I want to show you the spread that has slow stitching. I have just glued the hand-embroidered fabrics on the pages.
Maybe I could continue this journal with the fabric theme and search for other hand-embroidered pieces from my needlework stash?
Art Journal #2 – Accordion Book
This art journal is really fancy. It’s an accordion book with a separate casing. The paper holds watercolor well but it’s smooth enough for drawing and coloring too. I have got this as a gift from a student of my courses.
This journal has quite a many filled pages, but as it’s an accordion book, I could fill the rest of the pages with a watercolor painting that would continue from one page to another.
Art Journal #3 – Spiral Bound Sketchbook
I shared the process of making the collage cover in this blog post from 2020.
When I start making a new course, I often buy a new sketchbook, and that’s what happened here too. This book has mostly portrait drawings. They were drawn when practicing and gathering ideas for the course Innovative Portraits. Some portraits are very abstract like the one below.
This book has still many empty pages. Here, I could gather other face drawings that I have made over the years. I think that at some point, every artist wants to draw faces.
Art Journal #4 – Small Sketchbook
Most of my art journals are filled with colorful art and contain fairly little writing or black-and-white sketches. This little sketchbook has some interesting ideas and it’s more like a notebook about art-making.
This sketchbook is almost full, and could be filled very quickly with the ideas for the upcoming paintings and courses.
Art Journal #5 – Colored Pencil Diary
This journal is an Archer & Olive Notebook that I call my colored pencil diary. I have filled many pages already. For example, see the blog post about coloring without limits!
My favorite part of the book is the chapter that has fun plant-themed pages. I made them for the course Fun Botanicum.
Even if this journal has many filled pages, it still has a lot of blank pages. However, I feel the journal is ready to be called finished. Should I remove the blank pages? What do you suggest?
Art Journal #6 – Bullet Journal
I love bullet journals but don’t usually draw in them. However, in 2018-2019 I bought a dot-grid journal just for small drawings. These became inspiration pieces for the course Animal Inkdom.
The drawings leave room for writing, and there are many empty pages left. I think I should remove this journal from my art journal shelf and use it for bullet journaling once my current bullet journal gets full.
Art Journal # 7 – Tiny Sketchbook
My smallest art journal is still quite empty. It has some lovely drawings, though!
Should I continue this, or just take out the pages and glue them on another art journal? When I carry a journal with me, I prefer a bigger one.
Art Journal #8 – Dylusions Creative Journal Square with Black Pages
Dylusions Creative Journals are sturdy and their paper is quite thick. I like to practice painting by filling their page. Black is a nice background, especially when I use leftover paints from the palette.
This is the kind of journal I still want and need. It will get filled over the years and there’s no pressure to do it right away.
Art Journal #9 – Moleskine Watercolor Notebook
Moleskine watercolor notebook is a small journal, but it has lovely panorama spreads and nice paper. See this blog post for more inspiration!
I am going to continue this one, for sure!
Art Journal #10 – Dylusions Creative Journal Square with Cream Pages
Dylusions Creative Journal with cream-colored pages is my favorite art journal. This journal works well with colored pencils, for example, see this drawing tutorial of Vermeer Girl!
The inside cover is colored freely with felt-tipped pens. I used thin marker paper for the drawing and then glued the paper on the cover.
I started this journal about five years ago, and have almost filled it. But I like to keep working on the older pages, making them more beautiful. Like with the black journal, leftover paints find their way here.
The paper holds water fairly well, and I use watercolors, acrylics, and oils there. I only wish that the paper would be bright white, not cream-colored. When the journal is full, I will record a flip-through video of it.
Half-Empty Art Journals – Question!
I have a shelf that has many full art journals. I have now put the half-empty ones on the right, so that they don’t get mixed with the full ones.
How many half-empty art journals do you have? Leave a comment!
Wild Garden – Paint with Me!
In the upcoming course Wild Garden we will paint flowers freely, intuitively, and expressively in watercolor. Watch the video and sign up now!
Wild Garden will begin on September 22, 2025. Sign up here!