So, I have a confession to make. While I love to art journal and splatter ink and gesso on blank pages, I am totally intimidated by it as well. I really struggle to find the balance between being inspired by and learning from other artists, and comparing myself to all of your amazing pages and feeling like a complete novice. Plus, I tend to over think things and analyze all the little details, trying to figure out what should come next, so that one spread ends up taking 2-3 days, which is totally unnecessary.



So, I gave myself a challenge and I’ve been practicing. I really excel when I can set boundaries for myself and work on one or two techniques at a time. In the past week I’ve been using the same parameters for each page in my art journal- using stencils, texture paste and india ink to create all my pages.

Of course, I did add other things on many of the pages, as well- paper embellishments, and a lot of stamps. But it was fun and allowed me to work so much faster to know before hand that I was going to be using texture paste and stencils to create the main parts of my pages, and india ink to color them.

I will say this- I am a fan of using a small brush to splatter ink on my pages, and then misting them with a spray bottle. I feel a lot more in control of where the ink ends up then when I use spray inks. Plus, the feathered effect that happens when ink splatters are hit with water is super cool. You should definitely give it a shot!

So, what should my next technique challenge be for my art journal? I’m thinking something to do with text… I’ll let you know!





