Can you believe it is June already? It's Summer time here in the States and i have vacation/holiday on my mind. i am so excited to take time to relax with my friend Martha on our trip coming up at the end of the month. Since i simply cannot stay away from creating daily, i will be bringing my art journal on the trip. Today i want to share with you some tips to make it easy to create while traveling.
The hardest part of creating daily on the road isn't finding the time, it's choosing what to take with you. Simply put, Keep It Simple Silly or KISS. First figure out what journal you want to take. Do you want it larger or smaller? Is it a sketch journal or a daily art journal?
i picked up a few of my journals to show you some possibilites. The largest journal here is 5" x 8". It fits neatly in a backpack or suitcase. The rest are smaller all the way down to a pocket journal.
- Dylusion Journal -- Bristol paper 5x8, made for mixed media
- Sketch Journal -- plain paper, better for sketches, ok (but not great) for wet medium
- Global Arts & Moleskin Watercolor Journals - landscaped & watercolor paper
- Terraskin Journal -- made of stone, slick, very good for wet art
- Pocket Sketch Journal -- thick paper, great for mixed media
- Pocket Watercolor Moleskin - Perfect for mixed media
- 7 Gypsies Pocket Sketch Journal -- less pages than #5 but similar
Think about your vacation and what will work for you. Don't let this overhwelm you, just make a decision and go for it.
Once you narrowed down the journal, next is setting yourself up for success during your holiday. A great way to do this is to create backgrounds on your pages before your trip. Add color however you like, acrylic paints, watercolors, spray inks, paints, india inks, acrylic inks, washi tape, etc. Create without thinking too much about it.
You can keep it simple with just one or two colors. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. i love monochromatic pages and maybe your travel journal is the place to try them out.
You can also add a few more colors if you want. This is the 7 Gypsies small journal and i just added a few splatters of spray inks, washi tape, & masking tape.
Insert leftover paper to your pages like in this journal where i added a piece of waterfolor with washi tape. It flips open for more journaling and makes it interesting.
Or how about a small tag? i used Ranger's Color wash on the background for that splash of color. Love it. i then scored a tag so it bends and attached it to the page.
This watercolor journal is fun because of the landscape direction. i like to add masking tape or washing tape to the spine to make it stronger. On this page i used mostly acrylic paints with some spray inks & stamped images. Now start building a couple pages a day at a time so you don't have to drag out all of your supplies.
Or keep it really simple & leave it blank so you can make it a sketch journal.
Your sketch journal is a recording what you see & do each day. In the above watercolor journals i sketched out things and then used watercolors to fill it in. i journaled out some thoughts on the side pages. i like doing this for capture places & people i see along my adventures.
Next pick one medium to bring with you. Keep it simple & pick just one. i have lots of mediums in travel sizes so i am not weighted down when i am on the go. Just one. Is it watercolors? Watercolor crayons? Watercolor pencils? Colored pencils? India Ink pens? Or dual brush pens (these react to water)? Just one and go!
