The hardest part of starting an art journal is figuring out how to dive in. In this first week, Dawn explains what an art journal is, and provides fun and fearless exercises for getting started on that first blank page. Dawn demonstrates the full arsenal of art supplies you might want to have on hand, and shares lots of beginner techniques, such as simple ways to draw faces, incorporate color, and play with lettering, as well as tips for identifying your favorite doodle shapes. These warm-ups are intended to get you nice and comfy within the pages of your new journal.

What Will You Learn:
• What tools and materials to have on hand
• Exercises for discovering your go-to doodles
• Tips for incorporating words
• Easy ways to draw faces
• Exercises for combining collage and doodles

Now that you’ve had a chance to warm up with some exercises, it’s time to start thinking about backgrounds and color. This week, Dawn shares some easy and effective ways to fill your pages with vibrant acrylic paints, inks, and collaged papers. Once you’ve learned how to create backgrounds, Dawn shares exercises for adding new layers of texture and doodling onto the freshly painted pages.

What You Will Learn:
• Tips for creating your personal palette
• Finger-painting techniques
• Brush-painting techniques
• Tips for creating texture and incorporating collage into painted backdrops
• Tips for doodling over backdrops

This week’s class focuses on collage elements that can be found in every day life and creative ways to incorporate them into artwork. Dawn also shares tips on how to compose several design elements on a page so that they are balanced, and develop your own style of hand lettering. Bringing all of these techniques together will help you develop your very own personal style.

What You Will Learn: • Tips for collecting collage elements
• Composition basics
• How to combine collage elements and doodling with a painted background
• How to make splattered ink splotches
• Tips for developing your own style of lettering

For our final class, let’s hit the road! This class is all about seeking inspiration outside your home or studio. Dawn treks across San Francisco with her pens and journal, taking in the sites, smells, and overheard bits of conversation and incorporating them into her artwork. This class is chock full of ideas for looking, listening, and doodling on the go, whether you’re sitting at a local coffee shop, exploring a new city, or lounging beneath a tree in a park.

What You Will Learn:
• Ideas for sketching and documenting what you see and hear
• Optimal tools and materials for sketching on the go
• Tips for collaging with found pieces