Week 48: Relaxing Night Sky

Welcome to Week 48 of the 52-Week Art Journal Journey. I’m Melinda, and I’m here to encourage you to reclaim your creativity and establish a healthy habit of creative self-care through my simple form of art journaling.

This week we’re getting back out the acrylic craft paints. Because reclaiming your creativity doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. And they’re a great consistency for the pulling or dragging or whatever you want to call it we’re doing this week. It’s basically the same technique as our Week 33 cats. But instead of putting the paint we’re using on our paper, we put it on our card. An old credit-card-type card is the another thing you’ll need. If you decide to add paint splatter stars, you’ll need some clean water and a small paintbrush, as well as white, or whatever color you choose, paint among your selection. Three is a good number of sky colors. Masking, painter’s, or delicate-surface tape will allow you to create neat edges and also limit unnecessary mess. I used a fine micron pen for a fun “frame.” Use what works for you.

Cover your work surface and have paper towels and a rag handy to clean your card.

Start your art by using your tape to create a border for your little section of unique night sky.

Choose your first color, then, instead of putting a blob of it on your paper as we did before, put it near one of the short edges of your card. Then apply the color to your page with the card, by gently dragging it along your page to pull your paint in whatever directions or shapes you’d like.

Unlike with my cats, I quickly realized I liked not wiping my card clean between colors. I also kept going back over areas which created a more blended look than the reel that inspired this week’s prompt.

Yes, Friends, it’s another Instagram-reel-inspired small-art week. From a new favorite. Click here to check her out. She’s a Norwegian artist… I did not attempt her name in the video. Because I did not want to butcher it…

My results are mostly quite different form the reel. and that’s okay. I’m inviting you to find your way to make it yours, too. We don’t need to try to make copies of anyone’s art, just use it to give us ideas, spark our own creativity, and learn techniques.

I used white paint spatter to represent stars. I wet my brush with water before dipping it in the paint. We want it wet enough to spatter well, but not so wet we lose too much pigment.

In the end, the parts of my two takes of this project you can watch in this week’s video that are the most like their inspiration is the frames around my art, which are art themselves.

I outlined each three times around with thin wobbly lines. Not a close outline; think more along the lines of a picture frame. In the first I softened the pointy crossings in a way you’re familiar with if you’ve been around for our neurographic-art videos. Check out or revisit some below…

Week 25: Finding Peace in the Process
Week 31: More Hidden Writing
Week 37: Neurographic Monarch Wing

In the next I filled some of the spaces created between my crossing border-lines with horizontal lines and small circles. I had also made the painting smaller by using the tape from round one with more pieces to leave more white space to nestle my small art in. I loved how cutely the inspiration piece was placed.

As I often say, have fun with it. Use as many colors as you want. Make each as blendy or distinct as you want. Add stars; don’t add stars. Embellish (the inspiration had much rounder stars with fun embellishments). Make funky frames or don’t… The important part is to take some time to make some art, to practice creative self-care.

As you are always free to make art the way you want to in your art journal, this week’s journaling is also artist’s choice. Stream of consciousness whatever comes to mind to say.

Our art journals are a safe place to express ourselves and experiment without fear of what others will think. Yours is as private as you want it to be. I share mine to encourage you to reclaim your creativity and practice creative self-care. If you decide to share yours on Instagram to encourage others, tag me @melindavanry or my new account that will focus more on creative self-care and less on my personal art, @better.with.art.

If you’d like to share in a smaller, safe, encouraging setting, click here to sign up for my weekly email and invitation to join my private Facebook group.

I’ll be back next week with another small-art and journaling prompt! I’ll be back next week with another small-art and journaling prompt! In the meantime, enjoy playing with acrylic craft paints to creative unique night skies… and click here to check out or revisit past videos for more inspiration.