10 Easy Art Journal Prompts

Art journaling doesn’t have to be complicated—in fact, the simpler and more accessible you make it, the more likely you are to actually do it. Here are 10 easy prompts to get you started.

1. Look to your left (or left, or up, or down). Document what you see there: you can literally describe it in writing and/or through sketching, painting, collage, etc, or take inspiration from a color, shape, or memory that the scene brings up.
2. Write down your favorite quote (or song lyrics, poem, book excerpt, etc) and paint the page with the colors and images the words evoke. (2b: open a nearby book to a random page, pick a random sentence, and use that).
3. Create a self-portrait (3b: create an idealized or whimsical self-portrait).
4. Go for a walk and collect leaves, twigs, small bits of trash?? (I mean, if you think it’s not too dirty) and arrange on a page in your journal.
5. Repeat a shape over and over until a pattern fills the page.
6. What’s something you would tell your younger self?
7. Take note of funny things you overhear throughout the day and illustrate those phrases in your journal.
8. Cut holes in the page (radical!).
9. Make a little comic about your day.
10. Illustrate an awkward or embarrassing moment (see featured image for this post :O)