Last Updated on June 26, 2023 by Dee
Need some inspiration for your Art Journal?
Art journal prompts are short phrases or single words that are used to inspire your creative art making in your art journal!
At some point, we all get to a place where we feel stuck in our creative journeys. It is just part of the ebb and flow of art-making and instead of being fearful or frustrated by it, let’s do something about it!
An art journal prompt can be about anything! From nature to your emotions – you name it, anything goes!
Check out these beautiful abundance affirmations that you can use in your art journal.
Often all this freedom to choose a meaningful topic for your art journal page is daunting and you can end up feeling a bit like a rabbit stuck in headlights. It really helps to have a set list of topics to choose from and this is why I have created this art journal prompts list.
[Related Article: Create your own Vision Board Art Journal]
101 Art Journal Prompts for 2023
- Gratitude
- Music – Listen to these songs with good bass to get you in the mood to create.
- My Still Place
- Fire
- Direction
- Roadmap
- Air
- Cooking
- Vintage
- Animal soul
- Redo
- Illuminate
- Celebrate
- Unwind
- Zest
- Crave
- Blind spot
- Wish
- Hands
- Ache
- Wound
- Reflections
- Pareidolia
- Home
- The gift
- Soul sister/brother
- The child
- Integrate
- Strength
- Feline
- Canine
- Trajectory
- Build
- Scaffolding
- Cerulean Blue
- Cadmium Yellow
- Organic Matter
- Botanical
- Vegetable Garden
- Unfurling
- Ecosystem
- Sustainable
- Recycle
- Waste
- Fresh
- Hope
- Flora
- Fauna
- Sentient
- Tea
- Coffee
- Candy
- Cookies
- Pancakes
- Chocolate
- Pudding
- Bitter
- Salty
- Sweetness
- Anticipation
- Boots
- Gloves
- Hat
- Vision
- That joyful moment
- Healing
- Tears
- Under the magnifying glass
- Macro
- Wide-open spaces
- Holiday
- Beach (check out these palm tree captions)
- Under the sea
- Mountains
- Forest
- Savanna
- My Achilles Heel
- Making amends
- Today
- Sky fall
- Knitted together
- A happy memory
- Tragedy
- My favorite place
- The stranger
- Toxic
- Song lyrics
- A line from a poem
- A line from a novel
- Nectar
- Age
- Balance
- Habits
- Goals
- I wish…
- Dreams
- Light and Dark
- Opposites
- Fragments
- Sun
- Water
- Angel numbers… (check out 0909 angel number)
How do you use art journal prompts?
You can use them in whatever way suits you. The essential part of creating art and working in an art journal or creative journal is to have fun and play. Play is a lost art for adults, and we need to spend more time engaged in activities that allow us to have fun and create.
Many of these prompts are concrete objects you could draw or paint. However, it can be quite fun to use these concrete objects more as symbols of something else. For instance, you may use the prompt Recycle to create an art journal page about what emotions you are ‘recycling’ in your personal life. If you’re wondering how to manifest your dream house you can create a page about it using the prompt, House. You could even use a concrete object to represent something abstract – like drawing a tree to symbolize growth and progress in your life.
You can even find inspiration from your favorite music like songs about unrequited love!
Here are some ideas of how you can use them for your art journal pages…
- As a starter for a mind map.
- Use colors related to the prompt.
- Repetitive use of the prompt (Create your own pattern).
- Find 5 images related to the prompt.
- Look for some well known quotes – like marriage quotes.
- Find a picture of the prompt or take a photo and then annotate it.
- Create a mixed-media collage with 7 images linked to the prompt idea.
- Create an art journal page opposite to the meaning of the prompt.
[Related Article: How to Start an Art Journal of Your Own]
Conclusion
I have created this art journal prompt list to hopefully inspire you and give you better direction in your art journaling process. In fact, this list can also be used for any art-making practice you are involved in, whether it’s visual art like your school Art Portfolio or your visual diary, dance, music, photography, or writing.
My visual art students use these art prompts for a range of art mediums – watercolor painting, gouache painting, mixed-media, collage, charcoal drawing, printmaking, photography, and a range of other art-making techniques.
I hope these art journal prompts have given you some things to think about and explore. Wishing you lots of joy and play in your art-making process!
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