There's lots of stuff in my acrylic pouring toolbox. But this Journal page is probably the most valuable one of them all.
I designed this journal page to record all the critical info of every painting I create. Whether the painting was successful or a total failure didn't matter. I learned from both, especially the failures.
In my opinion, keeping a journal of your paintings is the fastest way to make better paintings.
I designed this journal page for my own use. It has everything I need to keep track of in an easy fill-in-the-blanks format. Now, I'm sharing it with you!
Here are some of the important pieces of info the journal records. All this stuff will make you a much better artist...if you choose to use it.
- Keep track of the colors and brands you used
- record what paint mixture you tried out
- All the little details like painting technique, size, date, amount of paint needed, etc
- Write down the order of paint layered in your cup, (this one is huge for recreating a painting).
- Big picture stuff like color scheme and your intention for the painting.
- Room for notes and end results.
- There's even a spot for name ideas if inspiration strikes.
One of the side benefits of using this journal is it makes you think about what you're doing.
I used to just mix up a bunch of colors and start pouring without much thought. The results were pretty horrible more often than not.
When I started writing everything down my results improved dramatically. It wasn't because I was mixing my paints any differently. It was because I was thinking more. What colors scheme do I want? What colors am I going to use? What technique am I going to try? How am I going to layer these paints in the cup?
Formulating a game plan proved to be incredibly powerful.
Back in the early days, I wrote this stuff down in a notebook. It worked fine. But I always forgot to write down something important.
So, to make it easier I created this pouring journal. After a few revisions and improvements, it contains all the important information I want to record.
The journal page works great for me and I think it will work great for you too.