Here’s How to Make your art journal personal and unique
Since art journaling is such a great way to express your creativity and learn some skills, it gives you the opportunity to make your art process more personal and unique.
By being more personal in your art journal, you not only create something unique, but enjoy the process more.
Also, you can create an artful memory book in your art journal by using lots of personal stuff and combining them with art.
So, in this blog post, I’ll show you the ways you can make your art journal more personal and truly unique. You can try all of them, or just some that speak to you.
1. Choose the right materials

First of all, if you really want to start personal from the beginning, choose an art journal that resonates with your personal style. Something that you love looking at and brings you joy. Also, pick a journal that you’d be happy to work in.
If you want to make quick pages or love working on a smaller scale, then avoid large journals.
Then, listen to your gut and choose other art supplies you love working with. Don’t choose the ones that you can’t fully understand. Let’s not let confusion stop us from creating. You should feel comfortable using your supplies and tools.
And finally, think about your favorite colors and choose them. To start, write your choices on a piece of paper so you have the first step before even creating anything. This will help you choose colors you love, and give you some room to think about other color combinations later.
2. Incorporate personal mementos
This is my favorite part. To make your art journal pages personal, go through your photos and saved things, and pick something you want to work with.
That can be photos, tickets, letters, etc. For example, I have old notes my friend and I used to exchange during lectures at university. They’re now precious to me.
The easiest to start with are photos. If you don’t have any, pick a few on your phone and print them out. They don’t have to be printed on photo paper. Copy paper will do fine, too.
By having these personal items, you’ll get more ideas to create, you’ll feel the process more personal and meaningful and purposeful. And everything will have more sentimental value.
3. Experiment with different techniques
You can experiment with different techniques to see which one you like. Then, you use that technique often and it will soon be recognized as something personal and unique to your pages. In combination with personal mementos above, you’ll be creating something really special.
Not to mention, that by experimenting, you can develop your own style which automatically becomes personal and unique to you.
4. Add personal writings and reflections
Besides techniques and mementos, what really makes a page personal is the writing. You can get creative here and there’s an endless well of ideas on what to write.
Of course, it depends on your goal, theme, etc, but those can be:
- Poems
- Quotes that move you deeply
- Your daily reflections
- Affirmations
- Prayers
- Sayings
- Dreams
- Lists
You can use your own handwriting, or letter stamps, stencils, cut out words and letters from magazines, etc. Figure out what you like and stick to it for a while. This will develop a strong sense of creative achievement and even give a personal touch to your writings and texts.
5. Use color schemes that reflect your mood
Did you know that colors can convey emotions? Well, so they say. True or not, we can use that to get more ideas and to make more personal pages.
Earlier I mentioned that you choose the colors you love. After you’ve done that, you can check what emotions that color conveys and see if that’s true for you at that moment.
6. Include hand-drawn elements
Even if you don’t have great drawing skills, try using hand-drawn elements on your pages. That can be just doodles and nothing complex.
If you love doodling specific shapes or lines, patterns, express yourself on your pages as well. Maybe that can become your unique sign or symbol. For example, I love dots and circles, and almost every art journal page has got them. It’s something that’s unique to me when I combine them with the rest of the colors, and images etc.
But don’t forget that skill level doesn’t matter, but your personal touch does. Even if it’s a funky doodle only you can understand, do it!
7. Reflect your personal growth
This can be done in any area of your life. You can document your personal milestones and achievements, big events, things you’re grateful for, etc.
Your art journal could become a reflection of your personal growth. When you add these small journaling bits of words, sentences, texts that describe your achievements, you can read them later as a personal story, page after page. Then your journal evolves into something so special, personal, unique, and precious.
8. Stay authentic to yourself
While we can learn a lot from others, sometimes copying other people’s art can lead to being dissatisfied. We see how someone creates without effort, and we might struggle. So, what’s important is to stay true to your preferences and don’t compare your work to others’.
An art journal is a great place for self-expression, and that means sticking to your gut, doing what you love doing, using what you love using. Also, experimenting and figuring out what it is that you enjoy or find interesting and rewarding.
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Need more art journal ideas?
Check out these articles:
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