Art Journaling Without Rules
Tue, January 29, 2013 at 01:17PM {reposting this essay from March 2011}
Psyched to bring this post forward for The Buried Treasure project at The Altered Page! Seth Apter is coordinating a massive treasure hunt and I'm taking part.
this is a page from a book i altered a few years ago
{Info on the page above at Black Gesso & Stamps}
We're governed by rules and we impose rules {trivial and not so} on ourselves -- things like no coffee after 2pm or always vacuum on Mondays -- so it's not surprising that we make rules for our art.
A two page spread has to be one journaled as one big page.
Don't tear out pages.
Every page has to have some words or journaling.
The colors I choose have to "go" together.
A page has to be finished in one sitting.
You can't art journal on canvas.
Pages must be worked in order.
My pages have to look like those of {insert cool art journalist's name here}
Don't brag. Don't bitch. Don't be a downer. Don't get too personal.
Don't cut up your journal pages.
You can't work in seven journals at once.
All of the above are certified 100% without a doubt, officially, undeniably wrong. Art journaling has no rules. It is whatever you want it to be. It's not "having" finished pages but "having created" the pages that makes me happy. To put a rule on yourself misses the point. You CAN have a journal dedicated to something specific. You CAN have a journal of one style. You CAN finish a page in one sitting. But you don't have to.
I don't like to follow rules in general, and certainly not in my art.
The joy is in the play.
Please... tell me about your rules. I am curious to learn what constraints we put on our journals. What rules, spoken or un-, do you place on your art journaling or drawing? Do any of the rules speak to you? Do you have rules that you didn't realize you had? Let's chat.
Reader Comments (33)
Great post!
I think mine are not rules so much as they are guidelines. I have one journal where I try to have only my stuff/designs/whatever. There's another one where I will use scrapbook supplies/found ephemera/etc. Another guideline I follow is not posting on the web. Right now my art journal is for me and I find it freeing not having to worry about photographing it, resizing, and posting about it. If a friend wants to see it, I'm happy to let them look. These guidelines are flexible and subject to change in the future.
A rule I have that will probably always be in place is to cover up anything I write that is self-revealing. I art journal for myself and don't edit, but I make sure to cover it up when I'm done. That way there's no worries about someone discovering the deep parts of myself that I'm not ready to share. If I didn't have this rule, I wouldn't feel safe, and I wouldn't art journal. The thing I like most about working in an art journal, besides the fact that it's super fun, is that I can use images and colors to express my feelings and emotions and not be limited by words, and possible interpretations of those words.
This is *exactly* what I've been talking about with my mum recently! Have emailed her the link to this so she can have a wee read. Keep up the gorgeous work! :)
ah rules... I "follow" a few of these. I wonder if I should break some just to get out of the rut I feel like I'm in.
I tell my art journal students that my only rules are: 1) show up and 2) don't waste paint. :) The rest of are just suggestions and they don't have to follow a single thing I say!
I don't like to think that I have rules when I do any kind of journaling or anything like that. I guess I used to when I first started scrapbooking and cardmaking. I don't have any rules for what I do now. I am branching out into the world of mixed media, art journaling, etc. I have found that when I don't let myself be restrained by rules, then I find that I am more happy with what I have created. I am still new to the world of mixed media and art journaling so I am still "learning" some of the tips and tricks! I love your blog and I find it very inspiring. Thank you.
I try not to overthink when I'm working in my journal, and I'm not sure this is even a "rule" per se, but I think there is a blurry line between what is intuitive and what is a rut and sometimes when I reach to do something comfortable or familiar I will stop and see if I can approach something - say, a layout - in a different way. It's not something I obsess about or spend a lot of time on, just a blip, but it is a way of shaking things up. I'm actually not against rules if they challenge. But like the line between intuition and rut, there is a line between rules that challenge and rules that inhibit. I guess it's a matter of finding the middle ground.
In the last year or so, it's very important to me to include my own scribbles or drawings on a page. Again, a "rule" but not a bad one.
The overarching rule is no rule shall override expression. :)
Great post! The joy really is in the play. A great thing to be reminded of.
Great advice!
For the last few months I have begun the process of breaking my old rules. ...and I had lots of them. Maybe it's because I just turned 55 and I don't seem to care anymore what anyone thinks! I was raised in one of those "what would the neighbors think" 1960s suburban families. I'm finally starting to let go of a lot of that.
Just have fun. If you aren't having fun, you aren't doing it right. (I guess that's the one rule I'd like to keep.)
I find that rules are useful to me not to get lost out of the final purpose ...but I apply different ones in each of the several journals I work at once :)
I love this page. Really love it. And I am really trying this year to have no rules and to be open to anything. Not that I had really self imposed rules ever, but I am trying to be freer. That said, I do have a preference for having two pages of a spread to look unified, and part of the same spread so I have further to go clearly! :)
i didn't know there were rules!
My block is this: I am drawn to mixed media art and love the look, however there is a voice in my head that says using stamps and someone else's images is cheating and not real art, possibly also a copyright infringement.
I think I can relate to what Kasey said. I always think I have to say something PROFOUND on every page.
I hadn't realized it till I read this post that I subscribe to the two-page-spread rule. It's pretty funny when you think about it. One rule I also have is that every page has to be GREAT. Or worth posting on flickr or Facebook.
I have a LOT of trouble just "playing."
I only have one rule. Whatever I do: never create for an audience or a response. The only person I create for is myself. It's the singular rule I have because if I create for the sake of recognition, validation, acknowledgement then I loose the sense of what an art journal is for ne.