15 Art Journaling Prompts from Guest Artist Traci Bautista!

We are thrilled to have Traci Bautista stopping by Somerset Place on her blog tour for her new book, Doodles Unleashed! Read on to learn about her passion for incorporating a variety of media and handwritten techniques into her art journaling process.

I was able to share my story, inspirations, and recent artwork in an artist profile in the current March/April 2012 issue of Somerset Studio. The artist profile includes a few pieces of artwork that you’ll also find in my new book, Doodles Unleashed. I thought it would be a good exercise to explore how to use artwork you see in magazines and books as inspiration, and discuss ways that you can put a new spin on it. It’s great to be inspired by other artists and learn their techniques, but I advise you to experiment and play with different methods to develop your own unique style. The projects in my book include step-by-step instructions that you can follow, but I encourage you to look with “different eyes” and find new ways you can use the images on the page to jumpstart your artistic approach!

Here are twelve art journaling prompts derived from the images of my artwork featured in my Somerset Studio Artist Profile.

• Collage a background of painted papers and black & white photocopies

• Stitch a feather shape onto an art journaling card and glue it onto a page

• Paint a background with blue and green acrylic paint

• Use a white fluid correction pen to add circles and dots to the page

• Doodle floral shapes with a brush and black India ink on craft paper

• Hand carve a stamp or draw an image of a feather on craft foam to create a printing plate (find this technique in Doodles Unleashed!)

• Scribble art journaling blocks with colored pencils

• Draw a border with circles

• Write a personal mantra onto a page with permanent paint pens

• Place letter stencils on a page and spray through stencil with paint

• Stamp red circles on the edge of a journal page

• Write and draw with a pipette filled with India ink or acrylic ink

In Doodles Unleashed, I share the idea of creating a doodle jumpstart jar. Be inspired to write your own prompts by flipping through your favorite books or magazines (or just print out the prompts in this post) and add them to your jumpstart jar. Whenever you are in need of an idea, grab a prompt from the jar and start making marks on the page!

A few more ideas on how to be inspired by artwork:

• Choose two colors from the color scheme of a piece of art and use them to paint a background page.

• Turn artwork upside down. Choose a line or shape and draw your own doodle on the page.

• Use the theme of a painting to inspire your journaling (i.e. if the painting depicts flowers, brainstorm a list of adjectives related to flowers. Write, paint, or doodle an artful response to the words).

Leave a comment to share your creative prompts and ideas to jumpstart your own artistic process!

Happy art journaling and doodling!

Traci

A giant “Thank you!” to Traci for sharing her artistic insights today. Her book, Doodles Unleashed, is now available at The Shoppe. Order yours at 10% off the retail price until March 30th at 12pm.

 

Traci Bautista is a mixed media artist, designer, teacher, and author of the bestselling book, Collage Unleashed, and her recent release, Doodles Unleashed. Her art has been featured in over 15 art and mixed-media books and 40 craft magazines, including Somerset Studio, Altered Couture, Where Women Create, Art Journaling, Art Quilting Studio, Belle Armoire, and Somerset Digital Studio. She designs licensed product lines, Collage Pauge adhesive, and {kolLAJ} paper crafts. Her passion for sharing art has led her on a worldwide tour teaching mixed-media workshops. To learn about her new REFINE the Doodle online workshop series, visit: http://kollaj.typepad.com/doodles_unleashed/.

To follow Traci’s creative adventures, online workshops & digital boutique visit her website http://www.treicdesigns.com or blog http://kollaj.typepad.com.