The Blank Page: Tips for Starting Your Art Journal

I’ve been art-journaling for years, and I still get blank page syndrome every once in a while. You know what this is, right? It’s when you have a beautiful brand new art journal and it feels too nice to mess up. Or it’s when you suddenly can’t think of one thing to write or draw in your art journal. Is it because the pages are so white that they become threatening? Are we afraid to mess it up?

I’m sure there are a whole list of reasons why blank page syndrome exists, but today we’re going to face them, and I’m going to share several tips for starting your art journal. Use one, or use them all. And definitely, have fun!

Tips for Starting Your Art Journal

1. Fill the page with an amusing message. My first tip is to admit this is a kind of funny predicament to have. I mean, you have a beautiful art journal in hand, and most likely, you also have some art supplies to use. But you’re nervous to use them.

What makes this funny (to me) is 99.9% of the time, no one is even going to see my journals, so I have to wonder to myself why am I nervous? In times like these, I draw a sign like the one below.

Goodbye blank page!

(If you’re curious, I use Canson Mixed Media sketchbooks for most of my art journals. LOVE them. In the picture below, I used a Tombow brush pen for the message. :))

2. Make a dedication page. I’ve created a page like this many times. It usually happens when I’m completely stuck (or completely happy that I have a new journal.) You can write the date, your name, or a little message to yourself. Then turn the page, and you’re off and running!

3. Make a permission to create page. If perfectionism is your bane, you might need to give yourself some old-fashioned permission. Acknowledge that you’re a creative person and that this is a journey. Admit that this journal isn’t going to be perfect, but it is going to be fun. (The page below is from my book, The Creative Retreat :))

4. Swatch it out. Pull out your markers, pens, pencils, or whatever art supplies you have on hand, and create a swatch on the first page. I used markers and then added water to them for the page below. This is also a great way to get to know your supplies better.

In the image below, I did something similar for a new set of Tombow markers. I love how one end is a felt brush marker and the other is a fine-tip felt marker. Swatching your new art supplies out is both fun and a learning activity because you get to see how the colors really look on the paper you’re using.

Believe me, I’ve had some surprises along the way when I didn’t swatch and used a color in a project that wow, did NOT work.  Click here to get the set I use.

5. Use all the colors. Have you ever used every single color you own? You can do this exercise in many ways—simply scribble the color like I did below or create a picture and use every marker, pencil, etc. that you own. It makes for a wild picture, that’s for sure! I discovered I had many more varieties of green than I realized when I created the page below. (P.S. The colored pencils pictured below are from the Prismacolor brand.)

6. Scribble. For the page below, I grabbed a fist-full of colored pencils and swooshed them back and forth over the page, toddler style. Now I know why they do this! It’s actually a lot of fun. 🙂 You can also cover the page with doodles.

7. Leave the page blank. Yep, this is totally allowed. Not sure what to do with that first ominous page in your art journal? Just turn to the next one and get started. I’ve done this before in super nice journals. That first page felt like it should be engraved or something.

8. Glue or tape a coloring page over the blank page and color it in. There you go. Blank page, be gone!

9. Write a list of your favorite things. This also makes your first page really positive and nice to revisit. Sometimes I end up drawing my favorite things on every page of my art journal. I call this happy journaling. I even wrote a bestselling book about starting your own happy journal!

10. If you have a little kid around, let them take care of the first page. Children don’t have the hangups we do when it comes to creating and art-making. They just dive in. Watching my daughter’s freedom of expression has loosened me up a lot and made me want to create more.

11. Jump right in. In some of my journals, I immediately start collaging, writing, or painting. In the image below, I used the journal to draw out my newsletter (for this blog) for the week. I wrote and drew a story, and before I knew it, that first page was complete.

It can be frustrating to have the desire to create and then suddenly feel stuck, so I hope these tips for starting your art journal help you out.

And as always, if there are ideas you’ve used to get past blank page syndrome, let me know in the comments. We can all learn from each other!

Have a wonderful {and creative} day!

P.S. I just wrote another list of fun ways to fill up your blank art journal. Click here to read that post! It’s about creating backgrounds that you can add to later. 🙂