Join me at the art table as I show you how to create a mixed media collage in your art journal.

It can be difficult to figure out how to begin an art journal page, but if you think about it layer by layer, it gets easier – and more fun! It is the same with collage – the key is to take it one step at a time.

I start this page by playing with marks and color. Beginning in this way, allowing for the intuitive exploration of colors and marks, makes for a much more expressive and interesting piece of art.

Join me in my art studio as I show you how to create a beautiful, whimsical portrait in your art journal – perfect for beginners and more experienced artists too!

There are days when you long for some gentleness. For softness and sweetness. For innocence and a certain je ne sais quoi.

On one such day, I pulled out my one-page shopping bag art journal, and decided to paint a sweet little flower girl. 

Some of the collage paper on the page inspired the idea for the flowers in her hair, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t create something like this in any art journal.

Grab your art journal, pull out some of your favourite paints, and come join me as I show you how to create an intuitive figurative mixed media art journal page!

I started this page with some burnt umber acrylic paint, because the husband mixed up a much larger batch for his project, and you can’t let good paint go to waste, right?

I started the page without any ideas or agenda. In fact, this is the first time that I really used raw umber, and I have to say that I love it much more than raw sienna.

I’ve recently been doing quick gestural drawings of whimsical faces using my non-dominant hand in my sketchbook. They’re an easy way to warm up before your painting session. And drawing with your non-dominant hand gives these portraits a raw, expressive feeling that’s almost impossible to mimic when you use your dominant hand.