How to Get Creative with Watercolors in Your Bullet Journal

Check out all the fun ways you can get creative with watercolors in your bullet journal. Want to give it a try? Keep reading and I’ll show you how!

To Start: Some Watercolor Basics

It might be helpful to have some practice painting with watercolors as you start using them in your journal. Here are two articles you can refer to:

1. Learn how to create basic watercolor washes.
2. Basic watercolor techniques.

The more you play with and practice using watercolors the more confidence and JOY you’ll feel creating with paint and brush in your journal.

 

New to Bullet Journaling?

Maybe you’re new to bullet journaling and want some basic information on how to get started. I’ve got you! Here are couple articles to help you:

1. How to bullet journal for a more abundant life.
2. Everything you need to know to start bullet journaling.

 

Can Bullet Journal Paper Handle Watercolors?

This is a great question. One that I had as well. So I experimented to see which journals could take the paint and water and found that both Moleskin and Leuchtturm 1917 passed my test. I looked for paper that wouldn’t bleed through and that held the paint well.

What I mean by holding the paint well is you don’t want paper that quickly absorbs the paint. You want paper that will let the paint sit on the surface of the page long enough that you can blend, mix, and move the paint before it’s soaked up into the paper. I think both brands above must have a special coating on them that helps with this because they passed when others didn’t.

So, whatever journal you use, test the paper for these two characteristics:

• Doesn’t bleed through when you use enough (not a ton) of water and paint.
• Allows the paint to sit on the surface long enough to move and blend in a painterly way.

 

What You’ll Need

To start watercoloring in your bullet journal you’ll need some basic supplies. You want tools that are easy to carry around with you wherever you go with your bullet journal.

I’ve painted in my bullet journal on airplanes, while waiting at the doctor’s office, and at the beach. You want it to be easy and hassle-free to watercolor in your bullet journal otherwise you just won’t bother.

So, do yourself a favor and gather your tools into one little bag you can toss in a backpack or purse. You’ll be grateful you did everytime when you want to create on the go.

 

What’s in my bullet journal toolkit? I show you in this video:

(You can watch the video at a faster speed if you want by clicking on the gear icon.)

Favorite Bullet Journal Supplies:

• • A bullet journal that holds watercolor paint nicely, such as Moleskin or Leuchtturm 1917
  • Water paint brush pens such as these here.
  • Watercolor paint set, such as this travel paint set.
  • A few paper towels.
  • Waterproof pens, such as the Micron PN and Micron 02
  • Print & Paint stickers and cut-outs such as garden designs or inspirational sayings availabale for FREE in the Gifts for You Collection when you join my email list. (You can do that below.)
  • Printer sticker paper such as here to print your stickers on or cover mistakes.
  • Portable printer such as the Sprocket.

Six Techniques for Watercoloring in Your Bullet Journal

Now that you’ve got some watercolor basics down, and you’ve got your supplies gathered in your travel-friendlly bag, it’s time to get down and dirty with the paints in your journal.

Watch the following videos where I teach six techniques I use with watercolor in my bullet journal. Then, armed with inspiration and ideas, give it a try in your own journal. You can do it!

The worst that can happen is you make a mistake and you get to try again. That’s one of the best things about a bullet journal: if you mess up, just turn the page and try again. No worries! Just have fun playing with color and falling into creative flow on your pages. It can be truly healing, restorative, and meditative. Besides, it’s just a lot of fun!

 

Here are some ways you can create with watercolor in your bullet journal:

Paint   Titles, Headers & Highlights

(You can watch the video at a faster speed if you want by clicking on the gear icon.)

Take-aways from the video:

Painting TITLES:

• When painting your titles, use a couple colors for interest. The colors blend and move together in exciting ways and look great! I usually paint two letters with one color, then, with the second color, drop color into the second letter and paint the next letter or two with the second color. Then drop in color into those new letters with the original color. You can see how I do this in the video.
• Dotted journal pages make it easy to space and size your letters.
• Work quickly so you can drop in colors while the paint is still wet. Try not to let the letters dry while you’re still working on your title.
• Try different lettering styles: block print, cursive, all capitals, all lowercase, thin lines, and fat bold lines.

 

Painting HEADERS:

• An easy way to create a header is to paint a swath of paint over the lettering in your header.
• Create a tiny wash over your header by squeezing the barrel of the water pen to pull the color across your header.
• Vary the number of colors in your header wash by adding one or more colors.
• Vary the lightness or darkness of your wash by adding more or less water.
• Vary the shape of your header: horizontal rectangle, circle, or oval.

 

Creating HIGHLIGHTS:

Big blocks of journaling can make it hard to pick out important information you want to find later. Highlighting with watercolor is an easy and visually pleasing way to bring words, phrases, and whole sections forward so you can find what you’re looking for fast.

• Highlight by painting a quick swipe of light (watered down) paint across the words or sections you want to bring attention to.
• Highlight a word.
• Highlight a sentence.
• Or highlight an entire quote or scritpure.

Tip: Titles and headers look the very best if you give them time to dry. Highlights can be hurried by blotting with your paper towel.

Use Print & Paint Stickers and Cut-outs

(You can watch the video at a faster speed if you want by clicking on the gear icon.)

Take-aways from the video:

You can watercolor images and inspirational sayings to use as stickers and cut-outs to use in your bullet journal.

 

ACCESS Print & Paint Pages.

• You can access for FREE the Print & Paint pages through my private Gifts for You Collection here at my website by joining my email list. Once you sign up you’ll immediately be sent the password to access the collection. You can sign up right here.

Color Blocking

(You can watch the video at a faster speed if you want by clicking on the gear icon.)

Take-aways from the video:

• This is a GREAT technique for study notes or taking notes in a class, at a meeting, or a conference. You can also use color-blocking for collections such as favorite quotes or a gratitude log.
• Prepare your color-block pages ahead of time before your meeting or class or when you first set up your collection.
• Paint each block lightly (more water and less paint) because you’ll be writing in the blocks with pen later.
• You can measure out the blocks with a ruler and mark lightlly in pencil, or just eye-ball it using the dots on your pages as a guide – that’s what I do.
• Paint quickly and with plenty of water to move the paint and to keep the paint from drying before your block is painted. But not TOO MUCH water. There’s a balance to be had between using enough water to keep the paint moving and so much water you water-log your page. With practice you’ll know how much your paper can stand.
• With the water paint-brush pens you can squeeze the barrel to get more water as you need.
• You can vary colors and sizes of blocks to get the look you want. Try new combinations.
• Have fun watching the water and paint move as you create washes in the blocks.
• If you make a mistake, no problem. In a bullet journal you can always turn to the next page and try again.

Tip: A bigger brush helps fill in the blocks faster to avoid your paint drying before you’re done.

Whole-Page Washes

(You can watch the video at a faster speed if you want by clicking on the gear icon.)

Take-aways from the video:

• Using a big, flat water paint-brush pen is the best way to create whole page washes.
• Be careful to not over-work your wash. In traditional washes you work the page quite a bit but on the thin bullet journal pages this doesn’t work well. So instead lay your paint down line-by-line without overworking each stroke. You can see how I do this in the video.

ONE EXAMPLE:

• Create a whole-page wash of undulating waves of color by first painting one line, creating an interesting shape across the page.
• Add another line of variated color. Feel the JOY as you watch the colors blend and bleed together.
• Continue running addition lines of paint in varying colors, shapes, and directions across your page until you have the design you like and have filled up the page as you desire.
• When your whole-page wash is dry, you can go in with notes and journaling.

OTHER IDEAS:

• Create loose scenes that fill the page such as:
  • a mountain with sunrise
  • the sun with extending rays of light for journaling
  • a tree with journaling on branches
  • ocean waves
  • landscape with fields, mountains, and sky

Tip: Move your bullet journal as needed as you work if it’s easier to pull the paint toward yourself instead of away to get the stroke you want.

Simple Doodles & Accent Ilustrations

(You can watch the video at a faster speed if you want by clicking on the gear icon.)

Take-aways from the video:

• Are you a doodler? If so then you’ll LOVE painting simple doodles and accent illustrations to decorate your bullet journal.
• What kinds of things can you doodle and illustrate?
  • leaves
  • flowers
  • plants and succulents
  • really anything you want!
• I’m NOT much of a doodler and have lots still to learn about creating fabulous doodles in my bullet journal. But there are many talented artists that do this beautifully:
  • I really like watching Shayda Campbell. Here are some links to some of her tutorials:
    • flowers
    • leaves
  • I also enjoy Emma Lefebvre. Here are some links to some of her tutorials:
    • spring florals
    • wildflowers

Big Designs & Background Graphics

(You can watch the video at a faster speed if you want by clicking on the gear icon.)

Take-aways from the video:

DEFINITIONS:

• Big Designs are journaling tools where you create big spaces with watercolor for journaling. Pretty and functional – my favorite!
• Background Graphics are large illustrations you paint to decorate your pages.

 

BIG DESIGNS:

• To create a Big Design, think of an image or object that has a lot of area that you could represent on the pages of your journal that you could use as windows for journaling. For example, leaves, flower petals, sunshine rays, balloons, fingers on a hand (yes a traced hand could work!), or a window with several panes.
• I like to draw my design out with a waterproof pen first, then come in with the watercolor after the drawing is done.
• Keep the color light where you’ll be journaling later.

Tip: As you create your drawing, take up as much space on the page for journaling as possible. For example: If you’re using flower petals for the journaling spaces, make those petals fat, taking up a lot of space, and draw them close to each other so you have plenty of journaling room.

 

BACKGROUND GRAPHICS:

There is no end to the images you could paint as a background graphic to decorate your pages: flowers, trees, herbs, portraits, landscape scene, household objects….anything! This technique takes more skill and practice, like simple doodles and accent illustrations. But the reward is high with little works of your own art in your journal.

Remember, nothing has to be perfect. Often the joy comes from trying something new and reaching beyond your comfort zone. You can even have a bullet journal set aside just for painting practice where you develop your skills and abilities in creating illustrations with watercolor. You can do it!

Grab your FREE Print & Paint Pages Here

Yes! I want to try using print & paint pages in my bullet journal.

Do you want to live life more abundantly?

You’re not alone. I’ve got great news for you, my Friend. Watch the video for a virtual hug and words of encouragement from me. You’ve got this!

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