Quick Art Journal Page

Yes you can make art quickly!

In this video I share a very quick 10 minute page to show you that with very little product and in no time at all you can still be creative and make some art. Dont tell yourself you dont have time – make time! Art doesn’t have to take hours, 50 products and 100 layers.

Tips for doing a quick art journal page:

1: Scale your work down – work in a smaller journal

A smaller page or journal has less real-estate to cover so you will use less product and get it done faster.

2: Limit your supplies – pick one colour medium

Don’t over complicate this step, choose an easy to use product and stick to a monotone (different shades of the same colour) or an analogous (colours next to each other on the colour wheel) colour scheme. On this page I used Faber Castell Gelatos. They are super easy to use and water soluble. (I do have a trick for layering this water reactive product – read all the way to the end)

3: Simple layers – one colour layer, one texture layer

Again, keep it simple. I used one layer of colour and added visual texture by doing the ghosting technique with the stencil. You can add a layer of texture paste through the stencil, but that takes extra dry time so I usually skip that if I am in a hurry. With a simple baby wipe you can take away or add Gelato through a stencil and create amazing visual texture.

4: Single quick focal point – use die cuts or sticker books to create an easy quick cluster

This is one of my favourite ways to add a focal point – I call it a mini paper collage or cluster. I am not a fan of fussy cutting so die cuts and ephemera is my number one go-to product for a mini collage or cluster.

5: Final touches – splatters and shadows! Splatters add movement and interest and shadows and shading make your focal point stand out from the background

Splatters finish off any page! Who doesn’t love splatters, they really pull a page together. The most important finishing touch is the shading. Your focal point needs to pop against the background and shading/shadows will do just that. It pushes back the background and makes the focal point stand out. I will almost go as far as to say that you can skip the splatters but not the shading… almost… just do your shading and don’t forget your splatters LOL

Dont over think any of the steps or layers, work quickly and embrace any ‘oopsies’ (or glue your paper cluster over it :).

Tips for layering Gelatos

Gelatos are water soluble (they react to moisture) pigment sticks. They are easy to use and super versatile but they can be tricky to layer.

Water soluble mediums generally stay reactive to water or moisture (with a few exceptions, but that’s a post for another day). Each layer that you apply and wet (activate with moisture) will re-wet (re-activate) any previous layers of water-soluble product, especially in the case of Gelatos.

In this video tutorial I used Gelatos as my background colour but then once I added my focal point, I knew I would need to add shadows around it to make it stand out. To keep the project fast and easy I only used one colour medium. That meant my shading would need to be done with Gelatos as well. But that will present a problem as blending a shadow with water will re-wet the background layer.

The only way to layer water soluble mediums and allow for additional blending without affecting the previous layer you will need to set (make permanent) any previous layers.

So here is my tip for setting Gelatos layers: heat… yes, grab a heat tool or your hairdryer and apply heat to the Gelatos. You will need to get it quite hot in order for it to set. When working with a heat tool be careful not to burn your page. Keep the tool or hair dryer moving and don’t hold it too close.

I got this tip from the Gelato Queen herself – Rochelle from LaRochelle Bible Journaling. Visit her You Tube channel for Bible Journaling tutorials and lots of tips and techniques with Gelatos.

Make time for art and never stop creating!