My Three Favorite Journaling Supplies
If I could only have three things to work in my art journal, it would have to be gesso, acrylic paint and Sharpies.
I always start the background of each page with either gesso or fluid acrylic paint. Sometimes I put a coat of gesso and before it’s dry, add some paint and blend them together. Sometimes I put one color of paint on part of the page and then one or two other colors for a multicolored background.
If I use a medium or dark color for the first layer, I’ll then use gesso on rubber stamps over the paint. For a more monochromatic look, I take the same color as the background and add a little gesso to lighten it and use that on the stamps.
I never buy white paint, I use gesso for any white I need. I also use gesso if I want a textured background. You can apply it with a putty knife or credit card or pallette knife and have some great texture.
I buy the cheapest gesso I can find. I have used the good Golden’s and it is yummy. But because I use so much, I just get the cheap brand so I don’t have to be sparing with it.
I feel the same way about acrylic paint. I have Golden’s fluid acrylics as well as some heavy bodied tubes. The tubes are very rich and creamy and if I could afford them, I’d use nothing else. The fluids by Golden have a rubbery feeling, shiny surface when applied to sketch paper or watercolor paper, though so I don’t like them as much as the cheap craft paint type acrylics. And, again, they are so cheap that I can use as much as I want without worrying about the cost.
I use Golden’s gel medium to seal everything, so I dont’ have to worry about the paint chipping or fading. And the craft paints come in so many colors, you rarely have to mix them.
Finally, I love Sharpies for so many uses. I nearly always write in my journal with sharpies. They will write over acrylics and gesso. If the paint hasn’t been dry for a while, the tip of the Sharpie might get covered with paint and stop writing, but if you rub it on a paper towel it cleans right up.
I also like Sharpies for outling designs that I paint on the pages. It’s much easier than outlining with a brush and paint. If you use Sharpies on a thin page it will bleed through to the other side and possibly to the next page. To prevent the bleed through, use a coat of gesso or paint first. If you don’t want to do that, you can cover the bleed through with black gesso! To write or draw on black gesso use metallic sharpies or a white-out pen.
