Less Mess Art

When I talk to people about digital vs. hands-on art journaling I almost always hear the same thing. People like art journaling digitally because there is no mess.  Such a shame, because I really feel that a part of the whole art journaling experience is to be elbow deep in paint, gesso, glue, etc.

Before we left our house in Arizona I loved getting up in the morning, pull on my paint stained clothes and go to my craft/art desk and dig in. Not worrying about if the paint spilled on the desk or spattered on my clothes. It was such a wonderful feeling to just lose one self in the art. Moving into an RV has really changed all that. Now my craft/art desk is also a dinner table. I only have a small space for clothes so had to eliminate much of my "painters" clothes. And last, we don't just have an unlimited source of water for cleaning.

Then, how do I do it? Carefully, very carefully. I do not use acrylics as much as I once did. Water colors are easier to clean up. If I use mist paints, I take it outside to the picnic table. And use a lot of little boxes to store my art supplies. One box is an assortment of my favorite pens, markers, etc. Another box is full of ziplock bags with various collage fodder sorted by type. I have many more larger tubs with paints and other supplies, but I only pull those out if I restock my little boxes or if there is a specific item I need that is not included in my small boxes. So when I sit down to art journal all I need is my two little boxes. If I along the way decide to use inks or any other specialty item I go get those from their storage, and then put them away as soon as I am done with them. Keeping clutter to a minimum.

For keeping clean, and easy clean up I use paper plates, plastic cups, baby wipes, paper towels, Q-Tips, wax paper, etc. I like to use these items because when I am done with my art I can wrap everything up and toss it in the trash can. Yes I know that is not very eco-friendly of me, but if the choice is to keep my sanity or saving the planet, well I choose my sanity, and this is (hopefully) just temporary.

I place the wax paper over my work space and tape it down with masking tape. Easy to remove and fold up without spilling anything and toss in the trash when done. I use the paper plates as paint palettes. I usually have two large plastic cups. One has a little water in it. Not a whole lot. Just for dipping my water-soluble crayons and such. The other cup I use for trash. Paper towels and baby wipes are used for constant cleaning and the used pieces are placed in the trash cup. Q-tips are great for smearing of glitter glues and such and totally eliminates the stray glitter from going every where.

For adding a lot of color to a page without the mess I use my water-soluble crayons, water color pencils, Inktense pencils, Bombay inks, and homemade color mists. I also use a lot of collage fodder (some printed from collage sheets, and some are originals), washi tape, and magazine clippings. For writing and detailed work I use a selection of cheap pens, coloring pencils and ink.

Art journaling with less mess can totally be done. With my setup I can clean up inside of 5 minutes. As long as I always put away what I pull out. And put it back as soon as I am done using it. Sort your supplies so the items you use the most are easy accessible, and the rest is sorted in ways where you can access it without much fuss.

These are my two boxes. They can't hold a whole lot, but they are easily carried around to where I need to sit and do my journaling. The Journal on top is my doodle journal.

This is the content of my box of various supplies. The supplies that I use the most. I have a whole lot more, but I use these everyday.

And this is my box of collage fodder. I use this a lot to add texture to my pages.

I hope that this little article will inspire you to try art journaling, even if you don't like the mess, or simple do not have room for the mess in your life. It can be done with both limited space and limited clean up.