I’ve kept a written journal for most of my life and only started art journaling about 4 years ago. During that time, I’ve noticed that visual journaling has helped me through many hurdles that I couldn’t seem to get past otherwise. I think they helped because I would often revisit my art journals where I would rarely reread my written journals. Also, my written journals were more cathartic (like a rant), where my visual journals were more wishful.

When I started this process, I was daunted by the prospect of creating "Art" every day. How could I ever expect to measure up to the talents of Hannah Hinchman or Sara Midda? (Bah humbug, you Inner Critic! Who asked you?) But then I found some baby steps, where each of them isolated a little hurdle, making them easier for me to overcome. I hope that these steps may shed some light on what may be annoyances for you, so you can start to enjoy this process as much as I do.

• I always feel that the first page should be something special, and that keeps me from starting. So, start a brand new journal on the second page! I start journaling, and later on an idea for the first page will occur to me. Sometimes it’s simply a journal page that turned out well that I photocopy and paste on the first page. Other times it’s a really cool picture that I want to keep looking at. Whatever, but don’t let the mean ol’ first page keep you from starting!
• Does the blank page staring back make your heart start to hammer? Try painting pages ahead of time. This is a great one for breaking that "blank page fear". By painting 4 or 5 pages ahead of time, I’m much more likely to start doing something on that page. My favorite ways to get color on the page are by spritzing with Pearlescents, or using baby wipes and Radiance re-inkers. They’re both fast methods, and fun!
• Journal a little bit each day. I try to journal for 15 minutes with my morning coffee. This makes it part of the ritual of my day, and I seem to do it more consistently. If you’re migrating from a written journal, you’re probably already journaling regularly, so this is a no-brainer for you.
• Some days I do art, other days I write. I don’t know if it’s a brain shift thing, or if it’s because you need different materials to do art vs. writing. I just find it easier to do them on different days.
• Neatness "schmeatness". Having to be neat is a real creativity killer for me! I just let myself to go for it. When I have to be precise and measure, it becomes a lot more like work. So go wild!
• Find or make a journal with paper that you like. Once I started making my own journals, and I could pick the paper, I found that I filled them up faster than any store-bought ones. I love heavy watercolor paper, and usually make my pages out of those. Also, I don’t worry about ruining my hand-made journals. I always figure that I can make another one.
• Figure out what you’re drawn to in other people’s visual journals and try to incorporate that into your page. It could be color, texture, loose watercolors, sketches, the combination of words and pictures, calligraphy, collage. Whatever it is, include a small piece of that in some of your pages. You’ll know what it is, because you’ll keep relooking at those pages. For me it’s hand-drawn images, so I try to incorporate that into my journals every 3 or 4 pages, even if it’s very small.
• If you are nervous about not having enough ideas, start with a small journal and work your way up. Small journals can be less daunting because it takes less to fill up the page. Right now I use half page journals, and they seem to be the right size for me.
• I don’t journal chronologically, I skip around within the journal, but always date the page. Since I paint my pages ahead of time, I find a color that suits my mood that day, and then I write there. As long as I date the page, it seems to work out fine.

Here are some of my favorite journal page starter techniques:

• Paint, spritz, color on the page, and then rubber stamp in the margins
• Paste a paper doll on a page, imagine her having a dialogue with you, and put the words in a word bubble next to her.
• Include a movie page, with pasted ticket stubs, movie reviews, and movie art. You could also make one for books that you’d like to read.
• Use a rectangle template (the kind for scrapbooking), masking tape or squiggles, to divide up your page into separate blocks. Doodle, color or write in those areas. Breaks up the page into manageable chunks.
• Draw a scene using watercolor crayons, and journal over it. The cool thing about this technique is that the picture doesn’t have to be very detailed because it’ll be covered up with writing.
• Paste a black and white picture or a sketch onto the page and color in with color pencils or chalks. This also works great if you print the image on tracing paper.
• Keep lists on the back pages of your journal for quick reference. I like to keep track of :
• My favorite journal pages in this book,
• New art supplies I want to try,
• Important events that happened during the writing of this book,
• Themes that cropped up that I’d like to look at,
• My goals list.

Rubber-stamp or stencil the topic on the top of the page and color it in.

• Paste in letters/cards you’ve received, emails, pictures that you like, basically the ephemera of your life. Now you have a place for all of it!

I hope this has given you some ideas about how I "moved over" from written to visual journals. They still don’t look like Hannah Hinchman, but I cherish them all the same. Give it a try, and pretty soon you’ll be hooked, too!

Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or if you just want to say "hello".

Diane