Style your art journal photos to add depth, context, and visual appeal.
When scrolling through social media posts, some photographs stop you dead in your tracks. Wouldn't it be wonderful to know how to create posts that have that effect?
Let's take a look at some striking posts from Instagram and see what we can learn...
Scroll-stoppers!
@deedeecatron
DeeDee often presents her artwork against a simple white backdrop, allowing all of the elements, loose threads and rough edges to show clearly. A coloured or textured backdrop would deflect from the subtle shades that DeeDee uses within her art.
Both her cohesive colour palette and the clean staging of the journal immediately tells the viewer that you're looking at one of DeeDee's posts
@orlyavineri
Orly creates intriguing settings to show her art and journals. The low camera angle of this photo creates mystery by having some elements in clear focus with others in soft focus, drawing your eye from the foreground to the back.
Orly uses symbolic items, such as these nests and flowers, which add beauty as well as reflecting elements in her storytelling.
@supermamadesvosges
Eugenie creates beautiful photos that reflect the joy of her art journals. The choice of the wooden background with natural coloured seed heads creates a warm background that enable the bright colours of the journal to sing out. The placement of the coloured pastels gives balance to the composition, adding colour to the brown area above the journal, as well as a hint at the process used to create the artwork.
@roxanneevansstout
Roxanne Evans Stout's work is strongly influenced by nature and the landscapes where she lives. She often uses shadows in her photographs, including in her reels where they dance across her artworks. In this photo, the earthiness of the artwork is complemented by the shadows from flowers on her desk, reinforcing the connection to nature.
Roxanne frequently crops photographs to show close-ups of the details of her work.
@thenoisyblackbird
Alexa Reber creates delicate collages and journals combining neutral-shaded ephemera with nature-inspired watercolour sketches.
This photo draws the viewer in to identify the various sketches and materials on the desk, and to get a hint at Alexa's process.
@thenoisyblackbird
In this photo, Alexa presents a full-screen close-up of a collage, excluding any background such as the desk. As there are various sketches within the collage, the viewer is enticed to study the elements, without any distraction.
What can we learn?
Think about your background: would a clean white background work best, or a warm, textured background?
Try different camera angles; overhead flat lay, side view, low angle like Orly's.
Dress the desk using relevant materials: flowers, nature, art supplies.
Show process: sharing the reality of your process, the materials and tools used.
Balance: think about the composition of the photograph, does it look balanced? Are there too many empty spaces or is it too cluttered?
Close-ups: remove any distractions by cropping your photo to show just the artwork.
Look for opportunities to connect your artwork to the nature surrounding it by catching shadows in your photos.
Thank you to all the artists who kindly agreed to share their work.
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