Art Journal Flowers – Overcome the “Blank Page”

Sitting in front of a blank art journal with no paint or anything on it can be very intimidating to some, to the point where its actually discouraging. I totally understand that.  I use to have the same fears, but today I want to tell you a bit about how I get started.

  • It helps me to sit down with no idea in mind.  Don’t set yourself up for failure and don’t overthink things.  Go into the session with a clear mind, and a willingness to just play, make mistakes and learn.
  • Chose one thing at a time, a medium, a paper, anything and go from there. Don’t overthink this, use what you have on hand. Your favorite artist might use one kind of paint but if you don’t have it, its no big deal, you can still create equally magnificent art using what you have.
  • Shapes or words are good to create focal points.  I find inspiration flows from simple shapes.  You will see what I mean in my project.
  • Mistakes are really easy to work around, cover them up with paint or paper.  Any page is only done once you say it is.  Come back later with fresh eyes if you need to.
  • If you can, skip the first page, and start at a random place.  (I have a bit of OCD, so this is a no go for me, but other artists have found this helpful)
  • If a physical white page staring back at you is the problem, why not start it off with a collage pattern paper, or a collaged serviette? You might even be inspired by the colours or shapes.

You can view a quick slide show of the project here:

Now, I’m going to show your my project for today.  I started out this page, with two colours I wanted to use.  Pomegranate seed and Rose Quartz form Dylusions.  I had no Idea what I wanted to do, and got the idea to cover the page in Pomegranate seed, and make round circle swirls with the Rose quartz.

I flipped through my stencil stash and got one I wanted to use: TCW824 Growing Wild .  I applied TCW Heavy Body Acrylic paint – Spun sugar, and removed the paint through a baby wipe.

Still no idea where I am going with this page.  I look through my stash and find my Fiskar Circle punch, and cut out some gelli prints.

Flowers, YES!  I want to make FLOWERS out of them.  I chose a couple that I think looks good, and adhere them with TCW Matte Gel Medium.

Now to make them flowers, we need to add some petals.  I want to make sure the petals stand out, so I am adding a first layer using the Heavy Body Acrylic paint – Spun sugar.

Now adding some colour using the Heavy Body Acrylics – Lemon custard .

Now lets shimmer it up, because you can never have to much shimmer or shine.  I’m adding my fav, Shimmery Goodness to the flowers to make them magical and shiny.

Next I wanted to define the flowers more, so I am using a water soluble pencil from Faber Castell – Polychromos in black, and making some stems and leaves out of more gelli prints.

Let’s add some gold texture paste to the page.  I’m adding Champagne gold modelling paste and stencil TCW803 Distressed Lace.

Lets add some words, or a quote to the page.  I’m going to use the word stickers from Tim Holtz.

I’m really happy with this random play session.  I just have one more thing I want to play with.  Ink Sprays.  So in between the gold stenciling, I’ll spray some Gold spray form Heidi Swapp, and at the bottom some lime green.  This is just creating a clear distinction between the grass and the sky.

And I’m going to call this page done!  I loved this random play session, and breaking the blank page.  I hope you had fun with me today, and feel encouraged to try something similar for yourself.  See you again soon!

Don’t forget to check out my Youtube channel for loads more free inspiration.

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