CourageThis season we are collaborating with a partner, or being our own cheerleader. Download the Season Sidekick for a list of prompts to work from. Char and Claudette are choosing three items...
Promise#gmseasonofpromiseYour challenge, should you choose to accept it: Relax with your art and get into flow state with this easy art journaling technique. Repurpose scraps...
We always hear about using Pinterest for inspiration. Let’s make a pin board of things we love and use it to inspire endless journal pages!
We always hear about using Pinterest for inspiration. Let’s make a pin board of things we love and use it to inspire endless journal pages!
Your handwriting. The way you walk. Which china pattern you choose. It’s all giving you away. Everything you do shows your hand. Everything is a self-portrait. A diary. Your whole drug history’s in a strand of your hair. Your fingernails. The forensic details. The...
Get creative using sticky-notes (post-its) in your journal pages. The humble sticky-note is often overlooked as an art material, but there are lots of fun ways of using them. We’ll share a few of our suggestions and we’re sure you’ll have lots more ideas of your own.
Have fun with messy lines and loose watercolor using an ink and wash style.
New#gmseasonofnewYour challenge, should you choose to accept it: Go back to your roots.I went back to my roots by going back to old journals. Here are some more ideas: copy one of...
Focus#gmseasonoffocusIn this video I’ll be sharing a layered spread from start to finish in my handmade journal. These spreads used to intimidate me, but not any...
Focus#gmseasonoffocusIn this video, I’ll take you step by step through my process of creating a spread which combines all the elements of my work. I will show you...
A look into some of my personal journal pages. We identify the elements I use together and look into the individual roles of each, what they bring to the page, how they bring it to the page and where they stem from.
Habit Gilly guides us through the relaxing art of making a grid by colour, doodle, paint, collage or mixture of different things.Using a thick piece of paper or art journal we'll...
Documenting In this lesson, you'll learn what junk journaling is and see examples of Meg's own junk journals. She'll show you how you can create your own floral inspired junk...
Starting Tanyalee Kahler Tanyalee Kahler is an Australian mum turned artist. She loves creating mixed media art journals, dabbling with watercolours, publishing magazines...
Failure Lesson by Emily Mulroney Emily is an artist. She’s also an explorer. Curious and open-minded, Emily enjoys exploring an array of creative pursuits and...
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This section will include 10 step-by-step formulae for making art journal spreads to take the overwhelm out of art journaling.
How I interpret prompts and how I utilise the techniques I have demonstrated so far to make my pages. The goal is to give you a starting point for using prompts in your own pages. It will include a run-through of my interpretation of four prompts, with hopefully four very different spreads at the end.
In this lesson we will cover different ways you can use journaling in your art journal spreads. We will be thinking a bit outside of the box as I am a big believer that the journaling you include in your spread does not need to be a huge story. It can simply be one or two words about how you are feeling or it can be a quote or song lyrics that represent your thoughts. Or you can let the art itself tell the story and skip the journaling part all together.
A bunch of techniques using pen and ink to encourage exploration.
For our final lesson, we will be creating freely! Take all that you have learned in this course and put your favourite techniques into one page. Be inspired by the pages I am sharing in this lesson as well as your own discoveries along the way. We all are drawn to different things so take stock of what you have been more drawn to throughout the course and think of how you can combine your favourite parts into one (or more!) art journal pages.
In our previous lesson, we learned how to use these two mediums together harmoniously. Lesson 10 however, is all about the contrast.
For our first lesson that uses both felt tips and inks together, we are re-visiting lesson 1. Lesson 1 taught us how to blend out our felt tips with water – this time though we are replacing the water with ink, or a mix of water and ink. This will give you a more pigmented finish and also allow you to mix colours and opacities.
In this lesson, we are looking at how to resist ink. Since ink is such a fluid and water like medium, it can be fun and interesting to pair it with something opposite. We will work with elements that are basic for any artist – nothing fancy, not even masking fluid!
Using what we have learned from our first two ink lessons, we will now start to mix our own colours. Most ink sets are quite basic which gives us lots of blending and mixing possibilities. You can blend either directly on your page or on a palette. Depending on how much pigment (ink) and how much water you mix, your colours can differ immensely. Mixing ink colours is different to paint, as you don’t have the option of adding any white. I like to think of water as the white when mixing with ink.
Imagine your brush is your magic wand and different spells will create different outcomes. In this lesson, we will see how many spells you know and can create.
In our first ink dedicated lesson, we are simply mixing it with water. Super simple, but really cool and a perfect example of stretching your supplies. When you begin altering your materials, it gives you artist status for sure!
For this final lesson, I will demonstrate how you can create a really cool art journal spread by layering multiple image transfers on top of one another. This particular process does take time to complete, only because you have to wait until each transfer is completely dry before you add another transfer over it. But the outcome is so worth the time and wait.
For this lesson, we really are going back to kindergarten. Colouring in is one of life’s simplest joys. It is remarkable for calming your nerves as well as creating bold and fun pages.
Humans are in and of this world, we interact with it; there is an exchange of energy. This is one of the first principles we learn in Anthropology and we sometimes forget this. We are the product of our environment, we are linked to it. Elemental magic encompasses those symbols, seen and unseen, that surround us.
In this lesson, we are using magazine pages instead of our art journal. Try and gather 5-6 different pages to try out these techniques. I always gravitate towards black and white imagery – or pages with a lot of blank space on them. This way, your felt tip marks are the star of the show with their bright colours and the images don’t steal focus.
Taking what we have learned from our first lesson, we are repeating some of the same layering techniques but this time, adding water. The inclusion of water changes the aspect of felt tips so much and there is a lot of different ways to approach this method. Grab your supplies and let’s make a splash.
We will be learning how to layer felt tips on a page. Using multiple colours to create new blends for backgrounds and patterns. Playing with warm colours, cool colours, light and dark colours together.
How and why we should incorporate interaction into our journal pages.
3 different warm up exercises designed to help you loosen up and also connect internally with your marks.
In this bonus lesson, we will create an art journal page transforming a found image with marks! This is a great technique to practice creating marks but also makes for a really lovely art journal page!
How to successfully layer different types of marks without causing chaos or muddying up your pages.
Lines can be utilized in many different ways to create visual interest in your artwork. Lines can be used as a graphic element to create drama, help draw the viewers eye across the page to a point of interest, create backgrounds with controlled line work and more.
Creating organic patterns with dots and dashes, altering images, and sippling.
Ah, scribbles, the most instinctive of all the marks to make! I use scribbling heavily in my work because to me it’s an open ended expression and can easily be modified to reflect my emotions. You can use scribbles in so many ways to build backgrounds, create color blocks and add more expressive details.
Ubuntu Elly here, adding my thoughts to the Season of Ubuntu. We have all had weeks now to wrap our minds around the concept of Ubuntu and part of my thought process has been...
Ubuntu Hi, lovely Messians! It’s Divyam here and I’m totally excited to share with you this tutorial for the Season of Ubuntu. This season feels like a great moment to include...
Art and science combined are great passions of mine and so naturally I really enjoy Scientific Illustration.
So today I wanted to share with you the rules of scientific illustration and hopefully show you some ways that you can level up your drawing skills, and illustrate the seasons.
Sometimes a season can seem like a country with it’s own landscape and culture, quite distinct from other seasons. In this tutorial, we are going to choose one season to work with and create a map showing its unique terrain. We’ll add some simple symbols to represent each place and touches of colour to bring the map to life. This map can serve as a helpful guide when you find yourself deep within this realm, reminding you of the roads you can take and places you can visit to make your stay more enjoyable!
For me, art journaling is as much about the story and the meaning as it is about the actual art work. I want to show you a way to combine words and images without having to draw on your art work.
Comic book panels are a great way to focus in on the small moments while, at the same time, building up a bigger picture of the story we want to tell. In this tutorial, we’re going to be telling our stories by combining a comic book page layout with a mixed media, art journaling style.
Story Amy Tan is here today to teach us how to tell our most important story - the every day one. Watch her incredible tutorial and learn how she uses everyday life + art to tell...
In this Artist Date with Cindy, we will glue and paint and then gesso and then glue and then paint some more. And then maybe some more.
Play There are a zillion ways to fill a sketchbook. Danny and Koosje share tips to push you out of your comfort zone and help you grow your sketchbook into a work of art. After...
Divyam shows you how to draw a face so you can add unique characters to your art journal.
When I read all our posts and conversations on the Facebook group or on the forums, I am continually blown away by the incredible human beings that make up this community. I see courage, creativity, friendliness, and love. I see artists making the world a better place each and every day. Lets play at being superheroes, celebrating these incredible qualities and bringing them to life in our art.
Drawing is one of the greatest ways to learn how to see, because when we sit and spend time looking at something in order to draw it, we must give it more than just a passing glance. Here are some arty tips on how to draw people.
Kindness Hi fabulous messians, this is Clare and I am here to show you two ways to make a mandala. Both are meditative and lovely to draw and create. Let's practice some self...
Nature Hi Get Messy friends. It's Elizabeth here with my final tutorial of the year. And what a year it has been. I have been so grateful to connect with you, and have been so...
Nature Hey everyone, It's Katie here! You've probably heard of zentangles, right? It's a method of line drawing where you create repeating patterns and turn them into designs. I...
Connections Hello, beautiful Messians! It's Ashley here, and today I'm sharing a quick challenge to stimulate your creativity and inspire you to get messy. When I was a kid,...
Connections "A portrait affirms; it gives the gift of self to its subject. It says, 'Yes, you are worth spending this time over, your story deserves to be told, you should...
Connections Hello, messy tribe!Sasha here again for the Season of Connections. This Season seems so intimate and deep to me, so I wanted to come up with a tutorial that...
Colour Hello, hello! It's Ashley here. This season has been such a blast, so I wanted to round it out by sharing a simple color catalogue you can create and use for continuous...
Colour Hey Y'all, Katie here today to share a tutorial with you! As you know I love drawing and painting, and with it being the Season of Color, I wanted to share with you how I...
Colour If you have been collaging or journalling for a long time and feel you have a distinctive style, it’s useful to notice your patterns and try to break out of them from time...
Contrast This season has been a blast, and I can barely believe that there are only two more weeks left in this wonderful world of contrast! But, thankfully, I have prepared for...
Contrast One fun way to create unique journal spreads is to find "mini masterpieces" in your old art. Even when I don't care for a piece or a page, if I focus on small areas,...
Contrast "The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.” – Elizabeth GilbertHello my favorite artists! It’s Riet here...
Contrast Hi you, beautiful creative souls! I am so happy to be back with another tutorial for a brand new Get Messy Season of Contrast. Can I just start by saying that I feel...
Contrast Hello dear Messians! Vanessa here, I am thrilled to welcome you to the Season of Contrasts. I am feeling very inspired by this theme. When I was thinking of how to...
Art 101 Hi, lovely Messians. It's Elizabeth here. I hope to serve as your personal creative cheerleader this season and throughout the year, chiming in with a "Just give it a...
Art 101 Hey Messians! EmK here for my first post, and I could not be more excited to be sharing these videos with you! You may have realized that this season is special! The...
Art 101 Hi Get Messians! Jennifer (@stitchandletter) here. I'm so excited to show you one of my favorite lettering styles, what I'm calling "connected lettering." I've been...
Art 101 Hello Messians! I'm so excited to be back on the creative team this year and today I am sharing a very simple how-to guide for creating expressive lines in your pages....
Art 101 This technique is an art journaling step by step that anyone can do, whether following the steps as I have done, or adding your own unique spin to the...
Art 101 Hi guys, it’s Riet here. Today I want to show you my Raven Nest Journal. It’s about my spirit animal that I discovered last year. I dedicated a whole journal...
Gifts Hello lovely Messians, Vanessa here for the last time in 2016. What a year it has been, no? For me it was a year of change, of adapting to new surroundings, of...
Gifts Hey Messians. It's Nina here with a fun and simple idea for your next art journal spread. Since we're in the season of Gifts I thought it only appropriate to...
Gifts Hello, Julia here again to share a new type of creative practice with you... This past year, I have started to create in a new way (for me, at least). It’s...
Dreams Hey everyone, Katie here, your resident doodler, painter and galaxy-obsessed artist! Are you loving the Season of Dreams as much as I am? Dreams are so magical...
Dreams Guys, it’s Julia here with the most exciting thing ever. Be prepared to put a journal under your pillow because we’re about to get early morning creative! Creating a dream...
Dreams Hi everyone, Vanessa here. I hope the Season of Dreams has been full of inspiration for you so far. Interestingly enough, both Essie and I came up with the...
Dreams Hello, excellent ones! It's Essie again, this time with a really simple post about adding pen details to watercolour artworks. I feel like I need to start this...
Music Music is such a powerful part of life and memory. You can hear a beat, a lyric, see an album cover and be immediately transported to another place and time. I have strong...
Music When I’m staring at a blank sketchbook or art journal page, feeling the call to create but at a loss for where to start, I often turn to music. A good song can evoke...
Music Hello all and welcome to the Season of Music! It's Vanessa and I'm going to show you how to add some stitching to your pages...but maybe not in the usual way. Stitching can...
Introspection Introspection is the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes. When I found out the topic of this season was about...
I love using envelopes when I art journal! It’s the perfect thing to tuck away some special writing or journaling, photos, letters, anything really.
Introspection Hey friends, it's Katie here today! Your resident doodler! I'm the girl that always has ink on her hands! Really. This year I'm doing a challenge to draw or...
Lists Hey messy people! Nina here.When you’re taking on a huge project – like a daily challenge or a 30 lists album – it can prove quite necessary to take a shortcut on some...
Lists Hello, favourites! It's Essie again, back to share how I've been approaching this season of lists.Now, I am a crazy busy person. Like a lot of women, I wear many hats, and...
Magic Hello everyone, Nina here. One of the most humbling experiences in life is learning just how much we don’t know. As we get older we realize that the things we used to be one hundred percent...
Magic Hey there, it’s Kathleen here and today I want to share some ideas with you for how you can incorporate words and phrases in your art journal pages even when you don’t like your handwriting (...
Words Hand lettering is something that everyone can do. I think it’s really important to embrace your writing, it’s part of you and your personality. I love to use my handwriting on my journal pages...