Get started making art

Do you want to make art but don’t know where to start? You could start by giving art journaling a go. It’s simple and doesn’t require a lot of space and you can start with a small selection of art materials. Art journaling is a great introduction to mixed media and collaging. No drawing skills are needed and you can come up with original pieces of artwork.

Art journaling can take a number of different forms. When you watch lots of YouTube videos it can seem quite overwhelming at first. Different people have different styles and promote different ways to journal. All are correct! You cannot do it wrong. So start with identifying your materials that you want to use and go from there.

The ‘journal’ you use can be a sketchbook, loose art paper or even cereal boxes. I’ve used different sketchbooks with different weights of paper and all work. However, you need to be careful not to use a lot of wet products with lighter papers as they can buckle. You also need to be careful with inks as they can seep through a thinner page. Preparing the page with a layer of gesso can create a barrier against these issues but I prefer to use a heavier paper instead when using water and inks.

So now you can start by finding a YouTube artist that uses the materials you have. Search ‘art journaling for beginners’. Then continue by exploring lots of techniques, tools and styles until you find what you like or even develop your own.