Art Journal Every Day: Even When You Don't Want To

If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, all the posts can be found here.  Please read this post first.  There is a flickr group for sharing right here.  Remember, it's just ten minutes of nourishing your creative self every day!  No need to finish anything or even like it.  Just play! You can join the linky list for August here.

Fact: I'm not always in the mood to art journal.

Just like I'm not always in the mood to be nice or wash the dishes.  Or sometimes I'm tired after a long day.  Or sometimes I just feel like the mojo ain't flowing.  But I do know that making art is a discipline.  And I know that I need to crack that thing open every day, if only for two minutes, and even if everything I do looks like crap.  And for me, today is real example of, "I don't want to."  But I did.

I simply added the white circles.  Not brilliant, not interesting, barely noticeable, but it's enough for the day.

I figured that I can't be the only one who doesn't feel like art journaling every day.  So here are some ideas to help motivate you when you don't particularly feel like it.  They work for me.  I hope they'll work for you!

• Take your journal to bed.  That's right.  Lie in bed and read it.  Look at a few pages.  Let it be the last thing you look at before you fall asleep.  You may find that you're ready in the morning.
• Write with the intention of covering it up.  Take a blank page and just start writing -- whatever is in your mind: your shopping list, your dreams, a list of people you hate, whatever.  On another day, you can come through with crayons or gesso or whatever strikes your fancy and cover the whole thing up.
• Be a little kid.  Take some bright colors and scribble on a piece of paper, an envelope, a napkin, whatever is close at hand.  Awesome collage fodder for later.
• Make a tag.  Tags are so compact and easy and achievable.  Decorate one and stick it in your art journal later.
• Find a page you don't like and cover it with gesso.  Sometimes it feels good to destroy something.  And now you have a blank canvas for later when inspiration strikes.
• Add one thing to one page and call it quits.  That's what I did.  And it's enough to check off "art journal" on your to do list.
• Change formats.  This is why I have three or four art journals going at the same time.  Sometimes a change of shape helps motivate me to play.
• Change locations.  Take your journal with you to your office, in the car, to a coffee shop, or just into the living room.  Never underestimate the power of your surroundings to change the way you feel.  Sometimes your studio has too many distractions.
• Open your journal and prep a page, whether that's a wash of color or masking tape and gesso.

I say to you what I say to myself: It's the days that I least want to open the journal, that it gives the most back to me.

Share any motivating tips you have!  I need them right now!

Thanks for stopping by!