For this art journal prompt, we are going to focus on tragedy and how to use art journals as a tool to help get through them. No one likes experiencing tragedies, no one likes admitting they need help through them, and no one likes reaching out for help when it is needed. This is a hard reality to deal with, but it is not impossible.
Use your art journal as a tool until you feel comfortable to talk to others about the kind of help you need. This art journal prompt is not meant to encourage you not to reach out to people. Rather, it is meant to help you find some comfort until you are ready to make that step.
For this art journal prompt, you will need the following materials:
- Art journal
- Heavy-duty glue stick
- Scissors (these can be straight edge or decorative edged)
- Colored paper (your favorite colors, both light and dark)
- Black ultra-fine tipped sharpies
- Black paper (construction paper would work best)
- White gel pen
- Your favorite magazines
Follow these steps to complete this art journal prompt:
- Open your art journal to the first blank page spread
- Using the black sharpies, write out everything that is bothering you. Write it as quickly as you can without worrying about how messy your handwriting is.
- Cover over all the writing with the colored paper using the heavy-duty glue stick. Create a color collage.
- Flip through the magazines and cut out every image you enjoy. It does not matter why you enjoy it, so just cut everything out.
- Using the black paper, cut out squares about two inches larger that the images you cut from the magazines and glue them together.
- Create a picture pattern over the color collage.
- Using the white gel pen, decorate the black paper and the dark colored paper. Use the black sharpie to decorate the lighter papers.
- Using the white gel pen, write out the feelings you get when looking at the images you have cut and glued down.
Repeat this art journal prompt as often as necessary to convey all that is bothering you and so that all the images are used up from the magazines. If you do not have time to work on this in one sitting, place all of your items into an envelope and place it into your art journal so you can return to it later. It is important not to ignore this project so you can explore your feelings and be ready to take the steps necessary for healing.
