Art Journal Tips

Bird Series in my Art Journal: Part 3

In part 1 of this series, I glued photos of birds in my art journal. In part 2, I added doodles. Now in part 3, I add color to the doodles. I tried to choose colors that coordinated with the colors of the birds. I had a lot of fun with this series and hope to do another one soon.

Chickadee with doodles in my art journal

Heron & waxwing with doodles in my art journal

Supplies used in this journal spread (These are affiliate links. This means that if you click on the link and buy certain items, I will receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) to help keep the lights on in the studio.)

Bird Series in my Art Journal: Part 2

The second step of my bird series was to add doodles. See the Part 1 post here.

View the other parts of this series:

Bird Series in my Art Journal: Part 1

I got a free subscription to a bird magazine for filling out a survey. I was charmed by all the photos of birds and cut out a bunch of them.

I particularly liked the chubby chickadee and cut his shape out of other photos from the magazine. I had more cut-outs than I could use on one page, so I decided to create a bird series spread in my art journal.

Spread 1 has the lone photo of the chubby chickadee.

Spread 2 has two of the bird shape cut-outs.

And Spread 3 has four.

Spread 4 has a heron-shaped cut-out and a photo of a Cedar Waxwing.

View Part 2 and Part 3 of this series.

Sketching in My Art Journal

I’ve been drawing on and off for most of my life but have never been satisfied with my results. A pattern design course from Make it in Design inspired me to start sketching again. I decided not to worry so much about the result and enjoy the process.

I debated whether to use a separate book for my sketches but finally decided to do them in my art journal. I like having all my inspiration in one place.

I’ve been drawing flowers and nature.

And also some objects.

I’ve been paying attention to how I arrange my sketches on the page to make an attractive composition.

Here I placed the drawings in a more collage-like arrangement and even added a patterned background.

Improving an Art Journal Spread

My art journal is my place to play and experiment. Unfortunately, not all of these experiments are successful. Lately, I’ve been seeing what I can do to improve the less successful spreads.

This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on the link and buy certain items, I will receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) to help keep the lights on in the studio.

I’ve been experimenting with using more color in my art journal. While I like the paper weaving area of this spread, I wasn’t happy with the doodles. It’s too busy, doesn’t have enough contrast, and the colors I chose are too bright.

I decided to color in some of the areas with a sanguine brush pen. This new version is much more successful. It’s less busy and has more contrast. And the sanguine color blends in better with the paper. I even like how the original pattern is partly visible through the pen. Maybe this will become a new technique?