Intro to Art Journaling with Nikalola

1. Hello!: Hey, guys, My name is Nikki GOP, and here I am in my studio and Mary in Montana, where I do all things creative and crafty. I like knitting and sewing. I like painting and drawing pretty much anything artsy. I'm into it and I've been created most of my life, although I did put it on the back burner for a while. When I first became a mom, I was kind of had a sketchbook, but I was kind of felt a little bit imposter syndrome about it. Like, am I really even an artist? But one thing I noticed is that if I got a book intending effort to be a journal where right deep thoughts I don't have doodling of edges and drying ideas for new projects. And if I bought a sketchbook thinking, Well, this is where the art will be made. I would end of writing things that were going on in my life feelings. I was experiencing old memories. I didn't really know what to call it. I didn't really know what my deal waas. But a couple years ago, when I got on Instagram to promote my Etsy shop, which is called Nikola that's a childhood nickname of mine. I started noticing these accounts that were posting these beautiful art journal spreads just multimedia collage painting, just incredible artwork. And I was intrigued and inspired, and I wish I could do something like that to, And then one day it kind of struck me that you know what? This is my version of it. It's a simple style. It's just a mash up of found objects taped in there and then also some pages of journaling and some pages of are all mixed together. And I've gotten a lot of really good feedback when I posted a page of a place I ve en or when I've done a little doodle on a trip. I've got a lot of good feedback from people. They really seem to like the personal feel of it. And so I decided to teach my first skill share class. We're gonna call this one intro to our journaling. It's absolutely good for anyone that's ever had an interest in the subject. Anyone that's creative or not encourage you to dive on in and come along for the ride. I'm going to talk about the supplies you need to get started the first steps to break in those pages and get past, you know, that kind of scary feelings of a brand new book. And then we're gonna end with a really cool project that I think is gonna be so fine to see everyone's different styles in the Project gallery later. So come along, let's get started. 2. Art journal?: all right. For starters, I'm going to talk to you about the who. What, when? Where, Why of are generally I think you might have more questions right now about, for example, who who is a good candidate for journaling? Well, in my mind, anyone should. Director, you don't have to even consider yourself a creative person at all. I think if you have an interest in getting your thoughts out and maybe even keeping a book of inspiration that you found in the world, you can cultivate this side of your personality and may be surprised that you, in fact, are creative person. Even if you've never been before. What is our journaling on? My simplest definition is just a mash up of art internally. So some people will tell probably more their sketchbooks or more art related. And some people perhaps will end up keeping this more as a journal with just art sprinkled . And no matter how you do it, I think there's no went wrong way to do this. In fact, that is gonna be the model of this class. It's gonna come up again and again. There is no wrong way to do this. If you're doing it at all, you're doing it right. So I want you to really take that to her now. When would a person are journal? I want to encourage you that any time is a good time. Morning, noon or night, like whatever works in your schedule. Most of the pages that I will show in the next video, where we take a look into my our journals that I have more done in 10 minutes or less. It's not something that's unattainable. I think most people would agree that it's part of good self care routine to make time for creative pursuits. And I feel like we want to be at a place where we can snatch 10 minutes at a time to do something creative, even if it doesn't have any right away application. If it if you can't think of any use for it, feels kind of pointless, that's all OK as Faras, where I have a kit that I like to bring to go, but honestly, it's good to have that kid ready so I can do it in my living room, in my bedroom, in my kitchen, while I'm eating at the park with my kids. I like to have my supplies in kind of a portable set up so that no matter what, I can make time for it. If it's at the time, I have Mr Fernie. Having said that, if your supplies are more set location and you haven't made yourself to go kit, it's just glad to go toe one set place every day and do your journaling all in one place, that if that works for you, you should go for it. Why should one are journal? And for that question, there's many answers. I have discovered that sometimes putting my thoughts on the paper help me see them like better. I can understand myself better, so a commute means of self discovery. I found that sometimes just doing little doodles and not being something later I could turn into a greeting card or fabric design, or I can use it elsewhere in my artwork because I've been so loose and uninhibited in my heart. There's also times when it's good for memory keeping when you're on a trip or at the lake with your kids and you take the time to do some marginally while you're there and you flip back at that page, it really brings it to mind what that day was like. And it really just helps hold down memory in your mind. I think it's really cool to look back through old books and kind of remember where you're at in your life at that point. So that's definitely another reason why. But you might have your own reason, and everyone can have their own reasons again. There's no wrong way to do this. And how will discuss in other videos will go into more into supplies, will go in more into inspiration, and then we'll get into the class project. So I hope that answers from your beginning questions and let's get going to supplies. 3. Supplies: okay, We're gonna talk supplies. I'm gonna show you what I have in my little kit. But remember that the best supplies are the ones you're gonna use. Whatever you like to use at home is probably fine. First of all, you need a book. I like these mixed media books because they hold wet, medium as well as dry medium, which would be like pencils for a traditional sketchbook. This is the seven by 10 size. I like the spiral bound e biting because it lays flat. But this book is only about $7 on Amazon, so won't set you back too much. But honestly, anything without lines works Next. I have a superpower that's very similar size, and I like it because it keeps everything together Well, and on the go I have a set of pains in here that are may bad company called prima marketing . And they have a couple different sets of come in different colors and what you need to do this on the go is a piece of paper and you need this water brush pen. These air made by Penn tell and you just squeeze it to get a little bit of the collar in here, and then you can God. Very easy. Really cool water color effects, right to your are journal very, very quickly and easily. And it's just a really fun technique for travel, sketching honestly at home, too. Okay, there's another wire pin. This is, uh I like to have black ink so that I can and to live different line drawings. Either you can do this before you're watercolor or after, but you have to make sure that it is permanent so that it does not lead all over the paper . Some people like pencil. I heard the ever use pencil heard the ever plan anything. First, I would just prefer to go for it. I have a few cat paint comes in here that are kind of fun to experiment with. I'm layering over different techniques. Here's another permanent one. You get to decide whatever materials you like to use, keep them in your kick so that you have them on board. This is a silver Margaret. It's kind of cool calling, uh, product descriptions in the class notes sections. You could look up anything that you want that I have. So I try to keep some Washington on him so that if I find something along the way that I want to add to a page, I easily can. Um I also keep, uh, either glue or a little glue roller that gives adhesive to put different things in here. Here's a ruler. I don't use it much for every now and then you want to do a straight line. Can you have that on board? And last but not least, we have a very tattered envelope of stickers and things that can make some interesting and little clippings out of magazines that can make little interesting effects. If you keep some of these on board, you can make some little captions or just embellished some of your drives if that interests you. This is not everyone else's style, but I've had a lot of fun with it. So next we're gonna take a peek in some of my our journals 4. Ideas & inspo: I'm gonna show you a few different pages from my part journals with hopes that you are inspired to do whatever strikes your fancy as your art journaling journey continues. Sometimes I do paint first, and sometimes I do black lettering. Sometimes I right lists about my day things that I did. Sometimes I keep kind of ongoing lists about happiness or thankfulness. Sometimes I collected bits out of magazines and take them in. Sometimes I draw what I'm eating that day. This is a technique of writing a $2 drives in a to do list, and sometimes it's more like a traditional journal with a few doodles on the outside. When I travel, I like to draw things that I see, and I put my tools here for the whole year. Basically, every page is different, and I want to encourage you to really just do whatever you like. 5. Let's get started: It's pretty exciting to have a brand new sketchbook, but it's also kind of intimidating. There's all these perfect blank pages that just stare at You need to break those white pages in I'm a weirdo who never starts on the first page of my sketch because that's just way too much pressure and said, I crack it open somewhere in the middle and start adding some pain. I make a random stripes and blobs, and then after some time has passed and the paint has dried, I come back in at journaling or little clippings. You could do the loose painting on one day when you want to be creative but don't know what to say. It can really get your creative juices going when you can open your journal up later on and find some pages halfway done. One way to start filling up your are journal is to start a few pages of lists. I don't know about you, but when I was younger, I had these extensive lists in my diary. Favorite foods, favorite songs, even favorite names. Fun fact actually used some of my teenage favorite names on my realized kiddos. I'll give you some ideas for your own life. Feel free to share some of your pages in the project gallery. So for most of this class, I've been joined watercolor and marker and my art journals. But here's a page where I was experimenting with acrylic. I hadn't used it much before, and I was seeing how the color is blended, and I was curious how fast it would dry. It makes a perfect backdrop for a quote that I heard from a friend recently. So once you get some of your pages broken in, meet me in the next video for the class project. 6. Class project: okay, Class project. I'm going to assume that everyone likes to eat as much as I do. I love eating food, and I really like drawing food. We're going to do a simple drawing of some food and then add a little bit of journaling. I'm gonna ask you to think of a meal you had lately, either at home or away. You can drop from memory or use a photo for reference for these videos. I started with my permanent black brush pin that I ordered from Japan. I love the irregular marks that makes, and I'll put a link in the class description because you might want to get one for yourself . I didn't plan first. I didn't sketch first. I just started drawing the simple shapes of the lunch. I had an acute local Easter with one of my friends, and then I added big blocks of color with my Prisma color markers. I'll be honest. I've had these markers for years, but I never really used number much. So in these videos you're seeing me really experiment and play with how they get darker when they're overlapped and adding shadows here and there with muted blue I ended up really liking them. But I want to emphasize that this is not a technique I had ever really done before and just be loose and experiment with your own materials. Once your turn with the drawing part, I like to add in little tidbits in the edges. What my friend and I were talking about, what emotions I have been experiencing lately, or even a little review about the flavor of the food. Some people might comment on the weather or what's going on in the world just right. Whatever flows out of your pen. I've always enjoyed looking at Children's books where everything is labeled, so I tend to label the things my pictures I get to practice my hand lettering, and it also helps identify things that might not even look like what they're trying to be. Sometimes you'll feel like you have a lot to say, and sometimes you want. Sometimes I write songs were Exeter in my head or a quote that's been helping me along. You can add as much detail as you want. So here's how this page turn now, and that meal was a little bit more special, but you can our journal about the simplest moments here. I drew my standard daily breakfast coffee with cream in a banana and peanut butter. I didn't spend as much time on this one, but I was in my studio for just a few minutes and I wanted to do a few doodles and reflect on a really nice phone call that I had with a friend from across the country. I try to always date the pages so that I can see how my life has changed throughout the years of creating, I hardly use any color for this one, and my black pen was running out of ink. But they're still a beauty in the simplicity. Every day isn't this epic experience, and every page of your are journal won't be either for this next one. I was feeling a little under the weather and I was taking on my vitamins and stuff, and I thought, Maybe this will be a fun thing to draw. Honestly, everything is cute when you draw it. My beloved French packed press, cocky pot, my pile of vitamins, even my little mocks if you take the time to notice, there's a story in everything you dio how we go about our day and what we eat and drink is really pretty different for each of us. Even the humdrum moments are filled with little things that would be interesting to document someday. Things might not be this way. I personally could watch other people create are all day. But I don't want you to get stuck in the inspiration mode, collecting ideas and dreaming of things you'll make someday. I want all my students to finish the class and jump right in to this simple assignment. When you finished, be sure to post your project in the gallery and let us know how went for you. What were your roadblocks? How long did you spend on your page? And if you're itching for more, I have another quick little project in the next video for bonus points. 7. Bonus points: So maybe you remember from the beginning of this class, your motto as you start your art journaling journey should be. There's no wrong way to do this. I hope you have added in mind as you started your first pages, and I hope it keeps you from getting discouraged when your first marks might not be exactly what you're picturing. I hope it keeps you pumped up is to keep adding to your are journal and start seeing your style emerge. It might not look anything like my style, and that's okay for your extra credit project. I want you to take a stab at some hand lettering and make a page with this school as the main event. Use whatever materials you like and make it your own for my sample. Here I am using my all time favorite travel watercolor set by prima Marketing. You'll notice that the paper is getting a little bit wrinkly because it isn't even watercolor mixed media paper. But even there is evidence that you can use the quote unquote wrong stuff and still get a cool result. After the paint dried, I added black pen around the letters and made some extra lines for more interest. I think there's a pretty cool piece, and I might even need to take it out of my art journal and frame it. I'm excited to see how your designs all look in the gallery. Don't be shy about posting them. 8. Thx & good luck: Well, there you have it. An intro chart. Journaling. I hope you love the glass. And I hope you've already posted your project so we can see all the awesome people styles all in one place. Follow along. All my information is in the class description. I can't wait to see what you guys I'll come up with and have a good day.