Struggling with Creative Block? Try this Easy Art Journal Page!

Do you ever have moments where you’re struggling with a creative block? If it’s been a while since you’ve had time or energy for creativity, you are not alone. It’s easy to fall into these blocks and can be incredibly difficult to get past them.

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Recently, I’ve had several family members diagnosed with critical illness, and it’s been a challenging time emotionally. It’s hard to feel excited and passionate about art when loved ones are dealing with illness and really challenging times.

What do we do when we’re feeling this way? Do we just stay away from our art and creativity? Or do we use it to process these challenging feelings? This can be a vehicle for working through these trials and difficulties in a healthy way. Creativity can be healing and expressive in a way few other things can be.

But it also can be hard, especially if you’re dealing with anxiety or depression. It can be hard to even pick up a pen, a glue stick or a paint brush to start creating. It can feel forced, but it’s amazing the positive effects it can have on our mental health if we’re willing to try. Art can be such a comfort in these difficult times.

Art Journaling Techniques to Get Past the Creative Block

Today let’s explore the idea of how to get past the creative block to find creativity again. I’m going to walk you through some of the techniques that I use that help me work through emotions while creating beautiful art. 

Start with Watercolor Paints

I usually start with one easy to apply color based medium to add into the first layer of my project. For me, this is usually watercolor, Pan Pastels, acrylic paint or even coloring with markers. It doesn’t have to be anything exotic, just grab something that will help you put down color quickly.

When I start this type of process, I tend to stick with watercolor paints. Watercolor is easy because you can create beautiful washes and stick to simple colors. You can keep it to one color or a range of colors. You can create marks with your brush or create simple washes. Just start adding colors that make you feel inspired.

For me, I’m starting with blue and moving to green. I’ve been working on landscape sketching lately, so this was definitely affecting my color choices. If you’re working in a book, you might get some curling like I am. If this bothers you, start with watercolor paper that is taped down to a surface and add it into your book later. To prevent curling, I just added a clip to keep my page flat.

Mix Things Up with Watercolor Powders

If you’re looking for more texture and vibrant color, try adding watercolor powder. As this pigment reacts it creates beautiful textures and splashes of color. Sometimes I like this, but today I was looking for a slightly softer, vibrant background.

With a wet brush, you can always move the color around. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to create grassland and skies for this piece, but it’s what came out in the moment. It’s important not to plan or try to control too much. Let yourself play and see what intuitively comes out on the page. You may be surprised at the result!

Starting with a colored background helps me to get the ideas flowing. A blank page can be very intimidating, so often by adding color, this helps me get past that creative block.

Using Your Favorite Collage Papers

At this point, sometimes I’ll move to mark making and doodling, but I just found some beautiful papers that I forgot were in my art room!

Vellum Collage Papers

I love this vellum with gold foiling and flowers which I found in a little Japanese store called Oomomo. What’s amazing about these foil papers is the translucency of the material. It’s a way of adding layers of collage onto my colorful background without completely covering it up. This is where we can let our intuition take over and aid us in the creative process.

Choose your favorite shape when cutting your papers. For me, I like the overlapping rectangular shapes. But this is where you can use your preferred shape, like a triangle or circle, to add some structure to your background. You can rip your papers for a more organic look or cut them for stronger lines. There’s no right and wrong with this process, it’s a way of finding relaxation in creative play.

Designer Collage Papers

I’ve been rearranging my art space and found these beautiful 49 & Market papers that I had tucked away. I love these floral and nature designs mixed with text. The neutral colors really spoke to me, and contrasted beautifully with the colorful background.

I didn’t want everything to be cut, so this is where I did a combination of cut and torn edges. This is a way of creating structure and a bit of organic feel to this page. The layering of collage elements is an important process for me. It’s a great way to play around with shapes until I find something that speaks to me.

Adding in Metallic Watercolor Accents

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know how much I love to add metallic watercolour accents to my papers. This project was no different. It’s an easy way to add a bit of shimmer, while helping the different layers stand out. The gold watercolour paint is a great choice, especially since it matched well with the gold foil.

Choosing the Ideal Focal Image

I have been spending as much time outside in nature as possible. It brings me so much peace in challenging times. I really wanted my focal image to be a flower. I could have drawn a flower image, but when I want to keep things simple, I look for things on hand around my studio.

This beautiful chipboard piece felt like the perfect addition to the page to finish off the design. I’ll usually paint or color chipboard pieces, but with the neutral colors I’ve used for collage, I really wanted to keep the flowers neutral.

But I felt like they needed a little something to help tie them to the rest of the page design. Out came the metallic watercolor to add a few touches of paint to the chipboard.

Using Journaling to Pull the Page Together

I was thinking about how we need to show ourselves kindness, especially if we’re having a challenging season. We can often expect more from ourselves than what we can give in the moment. Being outside amongst the flowers, I had this thought:

Plants don’t grow overnight. Give yourself time to blossom.

Nadine Milton

We allow children to take time to grow, we let plants take time to grow, and we don’t expect perfection or for them to grow up instantly. But we don’t always give ourselves this opportunity. This was a reminder to me that we need to give ourselves the opportunity to be in the present moment, to grow at whatever pace we can, and that some seasons make it easier to grow than others.

Creating Unique Quotes

You could just write down your thoughts in your journal, but I love using my manual typewriter to type them out and add them to my book. I love my loud, manual typewriter, there’s something that feels special about using it instead of a computer for my journaling.

It has a less perfect look and depending on the typewriter tape and how I type, there’s imperfections in the typing. Sometimes I make mistakes and have to write quotes out multiple times, but I love the process. I use my paper cutter to cut the paper, add some watercolor shimmer and add the words to my journal.

Tips for Getting Past the Creative Block

1. Choose a Smaller Journal

I purposely stick to a smaller journal page for these types of projects. It’s a great way to stay focused and finish a piece quickly. This may be more complicated than what you would do for a page like this. Don’t feel the need to follow my instructions exactly. Take one or two ideas and create a page, just to help you get the creativity flowing.

2. Stay in the Moment

The key with this process is staying present and in the moment. Let yourself create and find joy in the process. It’s about taking time to connect with how you’re really feeling. Life can get away from us and it can be hard to find joy in the moment.

This type of exercise is something I do when I’m struggling to get started, or feel like I’m having a creative block, or feel like I’ll never be creative again. It’s a great way to show kindness to ourself by doing art that’s not meant to be on display. It can be just for us.

How Do You Get Past Your Creative Blocks?

I’d love to know what you think about my approach for this project. What do you do to get past your creative blocks? I’d love to know! Feel free to leave a comment below. If you’d like to see another article about how to get past creative blocks, check out this article next: The Intuitive Collage Process- How To Get Past a Creative Block

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