Leonardo da Vinci filled over 7,000 pages of notebooks with sketches, observations, inventions, and ideas. Frida Kahlo kept an intensely personal diary filled with watercolor paintings, written confessions, and symbolic imagery. Picasso accumulated 178 sketchbooks over his lifetime. But art journals are not just for geniuses. They are one of the most accessible, rewarding, and psychologically beneficial creative practices available to anyone — including people who insist they "can't draw."
An art journal is simply a book where you make visual marks. It can contain drawings, paintings, collages, photographs, pressed flowers, ticket stubs, written thoughts, or any combination of these. There are no rules about what it should look like, no audience to impress, and no standard to meet. The point is not to produce finished artwork — it is to create a space where you can think visually, experiment freely, and develop a personal creative practice without judgment or pressure.
This article explains what art journaling is, why it matters, how to start, and what materials you need. Whether you are a seasoned artist looking for a low-stakes creative outlet or a complete beginner who has not picked up a pencil since grade school, there is an approach here for you.
What Is an Art Journal?
An art journal sits somewhere between a sketchbook, a diary, and a scrapbook. Unlike a traditional sketchbook (which typically focuses on drawing practice) or a written diary (which uses words exclusively), an art journal combines visual and written elements in whatever way feels natural to its creator.
Art journals can take many forms:
Visual diary — Daily or regular entries that record your life through sketches, colors, and images rather than (or alongside) words.
Experimental sketchbook — A place to try new techniques, test materials, and play without worrying about the result.
Collage journal — Pages built from found images, magazine clippings, fabric, paper scraps, and other materials.
Travel journal — Visual records of places visited, combining sketches, photographs, maps, and souvenirs.
Therapeutic journal — A private space for processing emotions through color, imagery, and mark-making.
Prompt-based journal — Each page responds to a creative prompt (draw something blue, paint your mood, sketch what you ate today).
Why Keep an Art Journal?
It Reduces Creative Anxiety
One of the biggest barriers to creative expression is the fear of making something "bad." An art journal dissolves this fear because it is private. Nobody sees it unless you choose to share it. There is no grade, no critique, no social media judgment. This privacy creates freedom — freedom to experiment, to fail, to make ugly pages, and to discover what happens when you stop trying to be good and just start making marks.
It Builds Visual Thinking Skills
Regular art journaling trains your brain to think visually. You start noticing colors, patterns, textures, and compositions in the world around you because you are constantly looking for things to capture in your journal. This heightened visual awareness enriches your experience of art, design, nature, and daily life. It is the same skill that helps you appreciate art in galleries more deeply.
It Supports Mental Health
Research in art therapy consistently shows that visual creative expression reduces stress, anxiety, and symptoms of depression. The act of making art — even simple mark-making — activates different neural pathways than verbal processing, giving your brain an alternative way to process emotions and experiences. You do not need to be a skilled artist to benefit. The therapeutic value comes from the process, not the product.
All you need to start art journaling is a blank book and a few simple supplies. The practice rewards consistency over perfection. Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash
It Creates a Personal Archive
Over time, an art journal becomes a rich visual record of your life, interests, and creative evolution. Looking back through old journals reveals patterns you did not notice while living through them — recurring themes, evolving tastes, periods of energy and periods of quiet. It is a more intimate and revealing autobiography than any written diary could provide.
Getting Started: Materials
One of the beautiful things about art journaling is that you need very little to begin. Here is a basic starter kit:
The Journal Itself
For beginners — A simple hardbound sketchbook with medium-weight paper (around 120–160 gsm). Brands like Canson, Strathmore, and Moleskine offer affordable options.
For mixed media — A journal with heavier paper (200+ gsm) that can handle watercolor, acrylic, and collage without warping. Strathmore Visual Journal (Mixed Media) and Hahnemühle are popular choices.
For travelers — A pocket-sized hardcover journal that fits in a bag. Moleskine and Leuchtturm1917 make durable travel journals.
Budget option — A composition notebook or even a stack of printer paper stapled together. The journal does not need to be precious. In fact, a cheap journal can reduce the pressure of "ruining" expensive pages.
Basic Supplies
Pencils — A regular HB pencil is fine to start. Add a 2B or 4B for darker marks if you want variety.
Pens — A waterproof fine-liner (like Micron or Staedtler) for line work that will not bleed when you add water-based media.
Color — Watercolor pencils (combine drawing and painting), a small watercolor set, or colored markers. Even a single set of children's crayons works.
Glue and scissors — For collage. A glue stick is simpler and less messy than liquid glue.
Washi tape — Decorative tape that adds color and pattern without requiring any artistic skill.
Techniques for Non-Artists
If you genuinely believe you cannot draw, these approaches bypass traditional drawing skills entirely:
Collage
Cut or tear images from magazines, newspapers, junk mail, and old books. Arrange them on a page in ways that feel interesting to you. Add color, text, or marks on top. Collage requires no drawing ability — just an eye for interesting images and the willingness to experiment with arrangement.
Color Exploration
Fill pages with color. Paint swatches that capture a mood. Mix colors and see what happens. Create gradients from one color to another. Record the colors you see in your environment — the specific blue of the sky today, the green of a particular plant. Understanding color theory is not required — just paying attention to what you see is enough.
Doodling and Mark-Making
Doodling is art journaling's most underrated technique. Repetitive patterns, spirals, hatching, dots, and abstract marks fill pages with visual interest without requiring any representational skill. Zentangle — a structured doodling method that builds complex patterns from simple, repeated strokes — is particularly good for beginners because it provides structure while remaining creative.
Text and Lettering
Write words, quotes, lists, or stream-of-consciousness text on your pages. Vary the size, color, and style of your lettering. Write in circles, diagonals, or spirals. Layer text over images or color. Words and images together create a richer visual language than either alone.
Found Object Inclusion
Glue in ticket stubs, receipts, labels, stamps, pressed leaves, fabric swatches, or any small flat objects that have personal meaning. These found elements add texture, color, and narrative to your pages without requiring any artistic skill.
Art journaling combines text, image, and material in ways that are personal and process-oriented. There is no wrong way to fill a page. Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
Building a Regular Practice
Consistency matters more than quality. Here are strategies for making art journaling a habit:
Start small — Commit to five minutes a day. Set a timer. When it goes off, you can stop. Often, you will not want to.
Keep supplies accessible — If your journal and pens are buried in a drawer, you will not use them. Keep them on your desk, your nightstand, or your kitchen table.
Use prompts when stuck — "Draw something in your pocket." "Paint today's weather." "Collage three images that make you happy." Prompts short-circuit the paralysis of the blank page.
Accept ugly pages — Not every page will be beautiful. Some pages will be experiments that fail, emotional dumps, or technical tests. This is normal and necessary. The ugly pages teach you as much as the beautiful ones.
Do not compare — Social media is full of gorgeous art journals. Remember that you are seeing curated highlights, not daily practice. Your journal is for you, not for likes.
Art Journals and Mandala Practice
Drawing mandalas in an art journal combines the meditative benefits of repetitive pattern-making with the creative freedom of art journaling. Start with a circle (trace a cup), add a center point, and build outward with repeated shapes and patterns. The symmetry and repetition are inherently calming, and the results are often surprisingly beautiful even for complete beginners.
Final Thoughts
An art journal is not a product — it is a practice. The value is not in the finished pages but in the act of making them: the slowing down, the paying attention, the translating of experience into visual form. It is a conversation with yourself conducted in color, shape, line, and texture rather than (or alongside) words.
You do not need talent. You do not need training. You do not need expensive materials. You need a blank book, something to make marks with, and the willingness to fill pages without judgment. Everything else — skill, style, confidence, visual thinking — develops naturally through the practice itself.
Ready to deepen your creative practice? Learn about how the creative process really works, or explore how to start appreciating art even if you do not consider yourself an art person. The blank page is waiting.
