Art Journaling and Great Thinkers
Art journaling is certainly not a new art form. Great thinkers like Charles Darwin and Leonardo DaVinci used mixed media journals to collect their thoughts, ideas, and observations. As great thinkers, we can use art journaling too!
In this class, students will learn what an art journal is and different ways it can be used through a powerpoint presentation and lecture. We will talk about different ways to get started creating an art journal and different things that can be included in it. We will look at examples of art journal pages including historical Great Thinkers that made use of the mixed media journal.
This is not a technique class. I will not teach specific art techniques, but we will discuss the importance of collage and how different elements can be brought into an art journal to add interest and significance to each page. I will promote experimenting with different types of materials and especially stepping out of the student’s comfort zone to try something new. We will also discuss the importance of process art.
This is also not a writing class, but we will discuss ways to incorporate writing into an art journal and how it can be effective. We will talk about different types of writing that work in an art journal and how keeping written records of observations, feelings, and thoughts can help a student deal with the world around them.
If we have time and students have the materials, we will create an art journal entry together. I will give students a prompt to think about and begin a piece.
Materials (optional): 7×10 mixed media spiralbound notebook variety of art tools such as pencils, pens, oil pastels, chalk pastels, watercolor paints, acrylic paints, tempera paint, sharpie markers, embellishments like buttons, felt, cardboard, scrapbooking paper, twigs, leaves, washi tape…
