Art journaling with watercolour pencils

There's no denying - art journaling is certainly very trendy at the moment. I'm showing you a couple of pages I have created recently using an X-Press It Mixed Media Journal.

The first thing I noticed was how lovely and thick the pages are - they can take a lot of water/media without buckling, tearing, pilling or any other disaster I have created in other lower quality journals.

I wanted to play with my beautiful Bruynzeel Design Aquarel Pencils in my journal, and because they are new to me, I created a colour chart of sorts to see how they behave on this type of paper. I started by colouring squares through a stencil:

 Then I added water to spread the colour a little:

I can see where more pencil/water needed to be added, but overall it made a nice background for a short quote using a Molotow marker:

I dried this page off, then started on another one. First I stamped a couple of Darkroom Door coffee stains using Memento ink:

 Then I coloured a scrap of paper (cut from a page torn from the Mixed Media journal).

 I added water to blend the colours and when I was happy, I dried it off with a heat gun.

 I coloured another smaller scrap with different colours:

 I added a lot of water, then sprinkled rock salt on top. The salt pushes the colour back as it dissolves,

 leaving a lovely pattern:

When dry, I stuck these in place on my page using Tripletac:

I traced around these pieces with the black Bruynzeel pencil:

and spread the colour out a little with a water brush:

I put a few drops of water onto an acrylic block, then scribbled the black pencil into it to create a pool of black:

I used a plastic pipette to pick some of the black up, and added a large drop to the top of one of the panels. I tilted the journal forward to allow the drop to drip downwards:

 and I used a paintbrush to pick up some more of the black to add some fine spatter:

I added a piece of Hazel & Ruby washi tape to finish the page off. It's minimalist, but messy at the same time and this style is making my heart sing lately:

The thing I love about art journaling is that anything goes - nothing is incorrect, and it's more about the playing and less about the finished product.

I hope I have inspired you to go forth and create....but first, do yourself a favour and start with a quality journal!