Keep Project Themed Art Journals
Using Them With Diary-Like Methods
Before beginning, remember creating mixed media pages in art journals can be tricky if using wet media. So be sure to use a journal with thick paper or place waxed paper between the pages during manipulation.
When artists are part of numerous mail-art projects, art-a-day challenges or personal projects where the need to track progress is needed, use of an art journal becomes necessary. These journals are not only for visual entries, but for text entries also. Why?
Let’s pick it apart:
1. Mail-Art Projects: Many mail art groups are available online through Yahoo groups, nervousness.org and flickr.com, to name a few. Many mail-art artists choose to sprinkle their efforts over more than one group, and keeping track of this could become a daunting task. Using an art journal to track progress, sketch entries, write down plans and experiment with methods is a good way to keep track of things. Consider sectioning off the journal so a few pages can be dedicated to each project. Use of page flags will be handy.
2. Art-a-Day Challenges: For those who are participating in art-a-day challenges (some are month-to-month; some are week-to-week for a year, and so on), it won’t be long before projects are forgotten, progress is no longer tracked and focus is lost. Creating an entry each day with a to-do list, plans, methods, experiments, prep work and resources prevents these mishaps. Add visual items like paint brush strokes, handwriting techniques, collage manipulations and so on to keep the inspiration and ideas churning.
3. Personal Projects: Few artists work primarily on work-related or mail-art related projects. A plethora of personal projects also tends to be spread throughout studios and workspaces. Keeping track of what’s done, what needs to be done and what’s still in the concept phase in an art journal will prevent forgetfulness; lack of confidence and missing personally imposed deadlines. Personal projects are equally as important as those that are on a deadline, so use of these art journal pages will be a bonus. Page flags to separate pages for projects will also be useful here.
How an art journal is set up is entirely up to each artist, their taste and the purpose of the journal. Consider creating a handmade journal for each project to ensure it has the right number of pages, that it’s the right size and that it contains the type of paper needed. This project will also open the artist up creatively during times of artist’s block.
