Favorite Materials for Art Journaling & Collage

“Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this?
No. Just as one can never learn how to paint.”
Pablo Picasso

Pages from altered hardback called the noticing journal.

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FAVORITE ART JOURNALING & COLLAGE MATERIALS

RECYCLED|FOUND STUFF  The core of my art materials is the stuff I find or re-use. Stuff like receipts, ticket stubs, maps, old books, postage stamps, dictionaries, scraps of patterned cardstock/scrapbook paper, found objects, photographs, postcards, forms, labels, tags, lists, quotes, wrapping paper, holiday cards, clippings from magazines and catalogs. More on ephemera, the "stuff" you put in your journals, see Step #399: Art Supplies + Step #414: Ephemera + Step #574: Create Journal Fodder. In fact, I did a fun journal fodder etsy treasury (like a flickr mosaic) of stuff you could theoretically use in your art journal.

ART MATERIALS You need materials to pull your pages together - color, texture, adhesive, etc. 

Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Artists' Crayons. Useful for art journaling for edging pages and drawing soft lines. Neocolor II's are water soluble and can be painted with water for a watercolor effect. Neocolor I's are cool too, but not water soluble. Here's my pick for 14 Neocolor IIs to Get Started.

Golden Fluid Acrylics. Intense, saturated color. Light feel, dries quickly and can be layered. Create backgrounds. Paint words on your journal. A good start would be five small containers plus white and black. You can mix the colors with white or black or with each other, to get lots of variety in your pages. To thin the color, mix with water or fluid matte medium. To get a pastel look, mix a drop of fluid acrylics with white gesso. Here's my pick for 11 Fluid Acrylics to Get Started.

Fluid Matte Medium. Multiple uses. 1. Thin fluid acrylics to make them more transparent {example at Altered Book: The Road}. 2. An adhesive for collage.

Golden Heavy Body Artist Acrylics. Thick, saturated color in your art journal. Use leaves or twigs or combs or a palette knife to add marks. Use with a brush to create blocks of color. Mix with white gesso for a lovely, soft pastel look.

Fiskars Softouch Multi-Purpose Scissors. Having had hand and elbow surgery, I cannot use scissors for more than a minute or two at a time. These are the only scissors I can use without pain. I use the 6" version. Extremely sharp, with a precise tip. Work with paper, glossy magazines, photos, fabric, detail paper cutting. I've got a pair near the sewing machine for paper/fabric, and another with my art journal gear.

Liquitex Basics Acrylic Gesso. I use gesso more as a whitener than for its intended purpose of strengthening pages and adding tooth so paint will adhere. It is useful for strengthening pages when working in an old hardback book. Art Journal: Faded Blue uses white gesso to fade the color. 

WATERCOLOR

I use Winsor & Newton Artists' Watercolor Half Pans. I use two travel kits, which came with another brand and I just switched out the half pans. Heres a picture of my full set-up. Consistent, gorgeous. The kids and I also like the Pelikan Transparent Color Set.

BLOCK PRINTING & BRAYER PROJECTS

Speedball Water-Based Block Printing Inks. With the consisitency of heavy body acrylic paint - used with a brayer and found stamps {see Bubbled Brayer Backgrounds} to add color & texture to journal pages, for leaf stamping (see Acrylic Leaf Prints) and Block Printing. Dries ultra-fast and matte so can be layered. 

Speedball Soft Rubber Brayers. Roll effortlessly, sturdy, clean up with soap and water. My kids and I use 2" brayers for everything. We have 4 so that we can switch colors without cleaning up. 

Inovart Printfoam for Block Printing. For block printing and mono-printing - fabulous way for toddlers + young children to make imprints without sharp tools. Reminds me of soft styrofoam. To learn more see Block Printing. Perfect for small hands and those not ready for sharp lino cutting tools.