Therapeutic watercolor blobs and relaxing lines

Welcome to Better With Art! I’m Melinda and I’m here to encourage you to reclaim your creativity and practice creative self-care with weekly small-art prompts that can be done in an art journal or on paper if you don’t have one. This week’s small-art was inspired by, no big surprise, Instagram. You can see the post here.

My rendition is less objectively beautiful than the inspiration I’d seen. But that’s okay. It’s just my art journal. I share mine to encourage you to take time to make art, but yours is as private as you want it to be. Our art journals are a safe, low-pressure place for us to express ourselves and experiment without concern for what others will think. If you don’t have one and aren’t ready to invest in one, I suggest you get a folder or something else to put your art in.

If you’re looking for one to get started with my simple form of art journaling, click here for my top value-for-the-money recommendation.
I use it in my prompt videos, and for the art journaling groups at the library where I work. I LOVE the paper. It works well with the dry, wet, and layered applications I use it for. If searching for something different than this three-pack, remember the paper needs to be heavyweight and preferably hot-press because although I love the texture of cold-press it’s really hard on markers and pens. This one is 140lb/300gsm.

Here’s a link to the pens I used in this video.

I don’t know if they’ll still be on sale when you read this, but the set of metallic Sharpies that the copper in this video belongs to currently is. Click here.

If you’re interested in more of my favorite art supplies you can also visit my slowly growing Amazon storefront here.

If you use any of my Amazon links and make a qualifying purchase, I will make a small commission as an Amazon associate. This does not affect your price, but allows you to support my channel with your purchase. So thanks if you do!

If you’d like to join an encouraging community of art-makers at various stages of our creative self-care art-making journeys, sign up here to receive a link to the private BETTER WITH ART Facebook group. You’ll also receive no-more-than-weekly emails from me.

And if you’d like to be among the first to know when my Seeking Solace Translucent Layer Collage Workshop is open for registration, you can do that here.

Thanks for the opportunity to remind you that taking time to make art is not a waste of time, and encourage you to reclaim your creativity and practice creative self-care.