Start with whatever art supplies you have on hand, whatever is in your child’s craft box, your scrapbooking supplies, the shed or kitchen. Just start and get a feel for what you enjoy working with. Not everyone enjoys messy techniques or bright colours and some people just sketch. As you develop your style & explore techniques, your art supplies will evolve.
1 Paint: Any paint you have on hand is a great start. Watercolours for example make great back grounds. I generally use student quality acrylic paints as they are cheap and quite transparent. As I am doing lots of layering I want the previous layers to be seen underneath. The only colour I buy best quality is white. Start by buying the primary colours: blue, red, yellow, practise mixing them together and adding in black and white. Then buy hard to mix colours such as purple and bright pink depending on your preferences.
2 Paintbrushes: Start with a few cheap paintbrushes. I use a wide flat brush for spreading glue and Mod Podge, and thinner brushes for painting details.
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3 Lead Pencil: Use any pencil. I find it helpful to lightly sketch my layouts, lettering and trace around shapes and cut outs.
5 An Art Journal: Choosing an art journal is a very personal thing. I prefer an A4 art journal, though my first two art journals were A5. I prefer the larger space as it seems to be easier to plan and fill. Many stencils are designed 12×12 and suit an A4 open page spread. Choose a journal with a page thickness of 125 gsm or greater. Thinner pages permit paint/ink and glue to seep through and stain the next pages (even if using gesso). Thinner pages also become fragile when wet or gluey. I also recommend an art journal that is sewn together rather than spiral bound. I have found that the inner edges of spiral bound journals stick together as art journaling is usually messy. I also work on a double page spread each time so a spiral journal feels broken in the middle and therefore lacks cohesiveness. Many people just start with whatever they have on hand: old diary or exercise book, a sketch pad or notebook and glue two pages together to strengthen the pages. You will probably try a few art journals before you discover what you prefer.
6 Glue: I use craft glue (dries clear) mixed with a little water or Mod Podge to adhere papers onto my art journal.
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7 Black Pens: Good black pens are vital for journalling, doodling and adding details. I recommend the black Faber Castell Pitt Big Brush Artist Pen for thick lines. It is Indian Ink, so it writes on so many surfaces and is permanent when dry. I recommend the black Uni-ball 1.0mm Gel Impact pen too. It has a roller ball that continues to write despite slightly wet paint or glue, and is permanent when dry.
8 Scissors: For goodness sake if you are going to be cutting paper, buy a decent pair of scissors! I love my EK Success Cutter Bee scissors. A great pair of paper craft scissors is worth the initial investment.
10 White Pens: I use a white pen for journaling and adding details and highlights to my pages all the time. I recommend the white Faber Castell Pitt Big Brush Artist Pen for thick lines. It is Indian Ink, so it writes on so many surfaces and is permanent when dry. For medium thick lines I recommend a Sharpie water based paint pen with an extra fine point. For fine lines I recommend the Uni-ball Signo broad gel pen.If you’re new to art journaling (or just want to try some new techniques) I’ve put together this list of recommended art journal supplies just for you! My goal is to do individual reviews on a lot of these, and I will link to those reviews as they are completed.
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But before I get started, I will say this: I’m never too precious or pretentious with my art journal supplies. I’m art journaling for MYSELF. It’s fun and creative and helps me hone my artistic skills. But nothing I create in my art journals is going to end up in an art museum.
And for that reason, I’m fine with using lower-cost craft supplies, my kid’s discarded Crayolas, etc. I’m just here to have FUN!
Having said that, if I’m going to spend a little more money, it would probably be on the art journal itself. Having thick, quality paper is important to me, because I use so many different types of media and I want that paper to hold up to it all.
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So the first thing every art journaler needs is a journal, of course! In fact, once you have a journal, you probably have enough other supplies around the house in order to get started today! (Colored pens and pencils, scissors, glue sticks and maybe some old magazines are a great starting point.) But all journals are definitely NOT the same. So let’s talk about some differences, so you can figure out what journal will be best for you.
There are different types of binding – or how your journal is held together. Common examples for journals are spiral bound, perfect bound, and hardbound. There are other types of binding you might find on journals, but these are the most common. So let’s go over the pros and cons of each…
Some people love spiral-bound journals because they lay perfectly flat. And yet other art journalers don’t like them because they can’t journal across two pages – the spiral gets in the way. They also aren’t as easy to store — stacked or on a shelf, that spiral can be troublesome. But the fact is, I still really like them for certain journal projects! (Collage, especially.)
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If you’re just getting started and want to try out a spiral-bound journal, I recommend either the Strathmore Visual Journal (which is typically under $8):
You can remove that cover page, and the hard cover itself underneath (at least on mine) was a fairly unappealing brown, so I just collaged over it!
The Canson journal has lovely paper, and the pages a perforated, in case you want to tear them out. (I haven’t had that need, but you never know.)
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In fact, I’ve personally used both of these as journals and I like them a lot. The paper is heavy enough that it can hold watercolor (or other water-based media) without bleeding through. NOTE: Do check/test with your own supplies, too, though. I’ve had some random things bleed through when I thought for sure it was safe to use them! (A common offender: Sharpie or other permanent markers.)
My reasons for suggesting that one are because I like the brand (Strathmore has always been good for me), the size, and the fact that it has mixed media, 90lb paper. Speaking of paper…
Paper is another thing to consider when choosing an art journal. You can choose a journal with paper that is based on the medium(s) you’re most likely to use, like watercolor paper if you’re going to use a lot of wet mediums, or bristol paper if you’re going to do a lot of drawing and writing.
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Generally art journal paper is white, but you can find them in bright white or cream, or some other variation of white. There’s also grey or even black . You can also get gridded or lined paper in your art journals (I know most bullet journalers love/use journals with gridded paper ).
I love to play with size in my art journals! I have this one small 4″x4″ one from Field Artist (though I will say this: it says it’s watercolor paper inside and yet, it pills up a bit when I used watercolor on it.) But I also have some that are 9″x12″. I like to be able to get something down quickly in my smaller art journals, but I also love all the room to play on bigger pages. If you only choose one size for now, that’s something to keep in mind: will you have lots of time? Or will you want to create quick, small spreads? I like to do both, so I have both available.
Of course, you can go SUPER simple: I’ve seen “found” journals made from anything from a glossy pamphlet to a toaster oven instructional manual. The journaler just painted or collaged over what was already there. And you can get these gorgeous handmade watercolor journals on Etsy :
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Or you can even get one made for you from this shop that uses vintage book covers to create a unique art journal just for you!
Of course, if you know how to bind (even the simplest of) books, you could make a journal for yourself, too! I will have a tutorial up about that soon. In the mean time. you can check out this free (for a limited time, to new students) class called “Book Binding Part 1: How to Create a Pamphlet Stitch Journal or Sketchbook in 15 Minutes ” and/or “How to Make a Coptic Stitch Sketchbook “.
As you can see,
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