Above, you can see the awesome new artist journal I purchased recently while I was in London, made with thick, absorbent handmade paper, coverless coptic binding, and rough cut deckled edges. Below you can see what I’ve put on the first ten pages of it.

So far in this one, I’ve only used easily portable materials like watercolor, crayon, and ink. When I settle back into my studio (I’m just back from Maine and heading off soon to Texas), it’ll see a wider range of mixed media, I’m sure.

I feel like an artist journal is an important place to meditate, muse, doodle, try things out, think things through, and just keep your hand in art-making between bigger more, more focused projects. It is good to have a place where the marks for just for yourself, and the result doesn’t matter.

It also gives you a chance to sort out what ideas you like better. For example, I’m liking the white spaces in the third and seventh ones, and am thinking I should incorporate more literal white space in my larger work.

Which do you like best? Are you keeping an artist journal? I hope so!