What Can I Draw In An Art Journal? (29 Amazing Ideas)
Drawing in an art journal is just as satisfying as drawing anywhere else.
I’ve been drawing and painting for quite some time now but if you’re a beginner like myself, it’s incredibly easy to become frustrated at your progress.
This is why I’ve recently taken up art journaling as a means to express myself freely without the added pressure of trying to create gorgeous artwork and avoid those artist blocks.
In an art journal, there’s an unlimited amount of things you can add such as scrap papers, cardstock, patterns, paint, and even draw things.
It’s easy to dump everything you can in these journals.
So, what can you draw in an art journal?
You can draw just about anything in an art journal whether that’s cute animal drawings, flowers, places, or even people. Other ideas include drawing a map of places you’ve visited or even a full spread of your entire art supplies collection.
If you’d like to know more about these drawing ideas for an art journal in detail, here’s everything you need to know and can try:
Best Things To Draw In An Art Journal
1. Random Doodles And Lines
My most favorite thing to draw in an art journal are random doodles and lines.
Here you don’t need to think too hard or create too detailed drawings but instead, you can doodle cute things that come to mind.
This could be doodles of hearts, stars, flowers, plants, mushrooms, characters, or things that relate to what you want to say.
Another fun thing to draw in an art journal is just random lines. These could be a bunch of connecting lines that create a pattern or squiggly lines all over the page to fill in some missing spaces.
See also: How To Learn To Draw (A Detailed Guide To Drawing)
2. Cute Animals
It doesn’t matter what kind of spread you’re going for, cute animal drawings are bound to make your page look even better.
What I love to do is draw at least one animal drawing on the corner of the page or somewhere in the middle.
If your journal page is more of a woodland theme and you want to create that fantasy/mystical feeling to your page, then try drawing animal doodles like foxes, raccoons, and wolves.
Alternatively, if you’re working on a page centered around yourself and you plan to have a spirit animal that represents you, then you can draw a specific animal of your choice too.
3. Birds
From kingfishers to crows, there are hundreds of bird species that you can draw. These bird drawings will fit in effortlessly no matter what type of page you are working on.
Also, birds are fantastic because its so easy to draw, especially if you’re only a beginner at drawing.
4. People And Faces
In many art journal pages on social media, I’ve noticed a few that feature a person or a face from imagination.
This is a great way to make your page feel more personal if you design a character on your own.
If you’re creating a page about your thoughts or feelings, then try drawing a girl or a boy and add little details or color washes to make these portraits stand out.
Another option you can try if you’re working on a page about you is to draw a portrait of yourself or people that mean a lot to you.
This will make your journal feel unique and special.
5. Flowers And Plants
The easiest way to decorate art journal pages is to draw flowers and plants. These simple drawings don’t need to be detailed and there are so many different flowers to draw that will look fantastic in just about any place.
Also, the good thing about drawing flowers in your journal pages is that they can fit in so well. If you have a few blank spaces that you don’t know what to do with, draw these flowers and plants.
You can also draw flowers, leaves, and plants next to paragraphs of text that will make it stand out.
Here’s an amazing tutorial on all the flower doodles you can draw in your art journal:
6. Places You’ve Visited
An art journal is all about you so why not customize it according to your very own experiences?
A great way to do so is to sketch the pages you’ve been to. This will make your traveling experience so much more meaningful.
You could also design and draw out a map of the places you have went or plan to go to soon.
But if you haven’t been anywhere and would love to go places someday, draw those places in your journal.
This in turn will also keep you motivated to make your goals and dreams a success and it will be an incredibly therapeutic journaling session when you make exciting pages like these.
7. Butterfly Pages
Don’t you feel butterflies are one of the most beautiful insects in the world?
They are each stunning in their own way and if you inspect closer, they have gorgeous colors and patterns on them.
To make your journal a little more pretty, you can create large spreads with butterfly drawings only on those.
If you’re up for the challenge, you can draw a whole collection of different butterflies in your art journal and even write a few inspiring quotes or poems next to each of them.
Related Post: How To Draw A Butterfly With Easy Step By Step Instructions
8. Art Supplies
If you’re looking to fill out a blank page or two, then here’s a fun way to do so and that’s drawing your own art supplies. This could be the pens that you use to journal with or a favorite watercolor pan that you love.
After drawing these art supplies, be as creative as you want and create splashes of color on these spreads.
You’ll really enjoy doing this page for fun and you’ll also love it just as much when you revisit it later on.
9. Mandalas And Patterns
If you want to increase your creativity and take it to a whole new level, then try drawing mandalas or random patterns in your art journal.
But if you can’t come up with a mandala on your own, then do a search for a free pattern and you’ll be able to draw that in your journal.
The great thing about these mandalas that although they may be heavy in the details, it’s still an enjoyable activity to do and once you color them in, they look even more amazing.
However, if you’re looking to draw something a bit more simple than that, then all you need to do is draw circles, dots, or squares to create a beautiful pattern of your own.
20+ More Things To Draw In A Journal
If you need a few more awesome ideas of things to draw, then here’s the best one’s I handpicked that I think will look great in any journal:
| Wind Chime | Rain Drops | Books | Dresses | Roses |
| Seashells | Sun | Feathers | Mountains | Owls |
| Hot Air Balloon | Umbrella | Lamps | Cars | Sea Horses |
| Shoes | Planets | Vintage Clocks | Buildings | Octopus |
| Water Cans | Boats | Pocket Watch | Cartoons | Trees |
Related Post: What Do You Write In An Art Journal? (7 Genius Ideas)
Closing Thoughts
There are thousands of things that you can draw in an art journal but the options above are usually what I go for.
If you don’t have enough time to spend on designing and creating detailed pages, then stick with drawings that are easy and quick to do.
This will save you time without compromising the way your art journal pages turn out.
The best thing you can do to know what to draw in an art journal would be to look at the page and think of things that immediately come to mind.
Then you can do a simple search and draw what you see.
Just remember that these pages don’t need to be perfect and your drawings don’t have to look accurate either.
Draw it how you see it and how you feel it should look.
If you follow this easy step, you’ll never have to think abut what to draw again and it will come to you naturally.
