Neurographic Art Grid Journal Page

Neurographic Art Grid Journal Page

Author: Alison Hazel   –   Updated: March 2025

Neurographic Art

About three years ago I came across the technique of neurographic art. When you see neurographic art you’ll realize that we’ve been doing all along, but since Pavel Piskarev coined the phrase and put it out there, it became clearer on how to use neurographic art in your art practice. 

For a quick overview, neurographic art is a practice you can do which brings focused thought to the art piece on which you are working. In a way, it’s almost like a meditation or therapeutic art piece. Neurographic art can be as simple or as complex as you like, and you can add embellishments as well to the piece. I created a basic neurographic art explainer video if you need a little more.

 

Artist Trading Cards

Around two years ago I did some work with artist trading cards and I used the neurographic. method for them which was quite a lot of fun. I still have some of these cards and because they’re trading cards, you trade them with other artists. Since then I’ve probably traded five or six cards, but I still do have half of the full twelve pack with me. 

Then towards the end of last year, I started working with grid art journaling, where you get six blocks on the page, or different shapes on the page, such as hearts and so on. This week it occurred to me that I should do a neurographic grid art journal page, so that’s what we’re doing this time.

What’s on Your Mind

Question Wrangling

One of the benefits of doing neurographic art is that it calms your mind. This is done if you have a troublesome question or decision that you have to make. Say for instance, your question maybe, “Should you move and downsize to a smaller apartment?”

Moving house is a huge decision to be made of which there may be many permutations, such as:

 

  • I’ll miss my garden…
  • Will I like living in a high rise…
  • I’ll have to get a new job, but it’s in a bigger city, therefore the chances are better…
  • What about the children’ school…
  • Perhaps I’ll have to put the dog in a kennel for a week…
  • Then there’s the moving truck fees…
  • I’ll have to find a new church…
  • I’ll have to go to a new yoga studio…
  • Will my fabulous cat, Mr. Pickles, run away, or get lost…
  • Will I make new friends…

 

Ruminating

Life’s questions can be complicated, but these are the ideal ones to pose as you do neurographic art in any form. Your question doesn’t have to be complicated and in fact, it doesn’t have to be a question at all, but it could just be something that you are ruminating on. Perhaps it’s about what happened yesterday or a conversation you had last week and you’re just trying to clear your mind. This is the time to do some neurographic art. Let’s get started.

Blank Page

On Your Mind

If you do have a question or something you’re ruminating on or something that’s been worrying you, before you start, write this down either at the bottom of the page or on the back of the actual artwork. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You could just put the words “move?” or “new job” or anything which is troubling you for which you want to try and find some resolution. 

I’m not saying that you’re going to have the answer at the end of it, but your thought processes of creating this neurographic art and the alignment of the synapses that occur in your brain as you think will possible provide fresh ideas for you. The idea is that this neurographic art technique will ease your mind and benefit your mental health.

Draw the Grid

2:3

For this grid page I went back to basics and chose the two by three (2:3) 5cm or 2-inch squares in my A5 sketchbookAs a reminder, you can check out how to set up a grid art journal page with six blocks in this manner.

 

Circles

Start with some circles and you can use a template for this or do it freehand. As I wanted to lay them out in some type of compositional form within the block I did each of the circles a different size. In each of the blocks, I sketched one or two circles lightly with my 2H pencil.

 

Neurographic Lines

Inside each of the blocks, I drew one or two neurographic lines going from one edge through to the second edge as by now you know that neurographic lines never dangle. These lines break up the six blocks into smaller sections, as we will see later.

neurographic-grid-art

Inner Corners

Next comes the fun part where you start with your black ink. I used a 0.3mm black pen, but you can used whatever pen you have to hand and it doesn’t have to be black. Curve in each of the corners and so for the four corners on each block I curved them in. I used about a 3mm radius here for each corner arc. If the curves are too thin the piece looks kind of spindly. So those are the four corners neatly rounded.

 

Intersections

Then I turned my attention to the intersections where two lines cross, or where a neurographic line overlaps with a circle, or where two circles meet. Anywhere where two lines cross each other will be an intersection, and every crossing needs to be curved. If your lines are very close together, you will end up with a very small blob shape and that’s okay. Depending on the angle at which the two lines come together, the junction might be quite whopping as well, and that’s acceptable too.

No Rush

Inking the intersections is the stage where you are mentally getting into the zone, finding your flow state and contemplating the question or issue which you put before yourself earlier. Take your time here, there is no rush. In fact, I took a full day from starting the curves on these corners and intersections and then I left my sketchbook overnight. 

Returning to it the next day I could see the page with fresh eyes and was able to find the bits I wanted to smooth out further. I really didn’t like some of the pointy looking corners I had, so I smoothed out my curves even deeper and in this way laid down more black ink on the sheet.

Pattern

Now you have a page with several open squidgy areas, also known as blobs, and here you can definitely get creative. You can add patterns like swirls, zigzags or waves as you see fit. For guidance use your intuition and don’t feel the need to overdo it. To have one focal point (blob) in each block is a good idea. Try to think back to the issue you posed before you began and let your thoughts run on that path and create new tracks.

Colour

The next step is to add some color in the open shapes. Only as your art piece evolves can you decide on color. If you make the page too busy with multiple patterns and colors it can become somewhat of a blur overall. I like to use a limited color palette when I’m working on such small sketches like in this grid art journal page. This time I chose pinks and greens.

Embellishments

But wait, there’s more! Now you can add some embellishments if you like. I typically add some flourishes of gold pen here and there and that seems to be enough for me, but you could collage some sequins, ribbons or other trimmings if you like. It’s up to you.

Creating Grid Art Pages

Why

I think that the practice of creating grid art journal pages in your sketchbook has two main benefits and it could have more if I thought about it longer.

 

Practice Art

The first benefit is that it gets you doing daily art practice and you keep sketching your art in your style. I do like the idea of doing the weekly or daily art practice. This is why I love using my grid art journal sketchbook and you can get a peek inside.

 

Concept Art

The second reason to work on your grid art journal pages is as micro concept art ideasIn general, concept art is a form of visual storytelling used to convey ideas before the final work is developed and is a process which allows creators to experiment with ideas quickly. With concept art the goal is to capture the essence of a concept, ensuring a clear and cohesive vision. It’s a way that something which evolves in one of your blocks, in one of your grids, on one of your pages, may one day be the genesis for a larger drawing or painting piece which you can later develop further. Clearly, not everything you doodle in our grid art journal is going anywhere, but some of it can.

Last year I took one of my grid art journal pages and developed it into the illustrations for a children’s book which I’ll explain more about one day. And to be perfectly honest, of all the sketches I’ve done in my grid art journal pages, only the sea star page did develop into something further. Although I have taken a couple of the sketches that came through my grid art journal page earlier and created larger images which I’ve used on greeting cards and you can check out more of those in my art shop.

 

Overarch

Let Me Know

Let me know if you’ve tried grid art journaling or if you tried neurographic art at all and how you are getting on.

pink-green

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Alison Hazel

Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you.

Read more about Alison’s story.

Get her newsletter.

Sketchbook African Violet Ink Wash

Sketchbook African Violet Ink Wash

Sketching This weekend I had planned to go to the beach. It's a short bus ride from my home and very pleasant to spend time there on one of my precious days off. Unfortunately, it continued to rain which seemed to be set in for the whole day. My original idea was to...

Artzlife Newsletter

Artzlife Newsletter

Author: Alison Hazel   -   Published: December 2024 Artzlife Newsletter Creative art journal inspiration for hobby artists Welcome to a Place for Passionate Hobby Artists Are you a hobby artist seeking inspiration, connection and gentle guidance on your creative...

GRID ART JOURNAL: African Violets

GRID ART JOURNAL: African Violets

Author: Alison Hazel   –   Published: December 2024

Grid Art Journal Page: African Violets

Preamble

Earlier

I had an idea about six months ago about creating some artist trading cards for my African violets. Now typically with artist trading cards you do twelve cards. It then occurred to me that I could do a grid art journal page of African violets with six images. So, last week I created a six grid African violet grid art journal page and then it occurred to me, “Why don’t I do another one and video it for you guys? This is what we’re doing today.

violet

Grid Art Journal Page: African Violets

Grid Layout

Today I’m using a Peter Pauper Press A5 sketch bookMy grids are 5cm or 2″ square with half an inch or 1cm between them. You can find out more about how to layout an A5 grid art journal page in this videoI have lightly penciled in the squares using a 2H pencil.

grid-art-journal-page-african-violets

Pencil Sketch

One of the ideas, if you’re working with grid art journal sketch pages, is that you can look at one topic. And draw multiple images of the same topic. It’s a way to get your hand in or rather get your eye in on the actual topic. Now generally I would sketch out some concept art on subscript paper first, but because I had already done a 6-grid last week, I’m just going to use that as my template for this project.

Top Left

So, starting at the top left, I sketched in three blooms of the African violet. In this square one there’s no leaves. I’ve put the three blooms together. You will need to pay attention when you’re drawing flowers to how many petals each flower has because some will be different. You can get two petal 3-petal 4-petal, 5-petal and multiple petals. African violets have 5 petals and ideally you want 5-petals on each of your blooms.

Top Right

I chose one particular leaf to try to get a bit of a close up on the leaf of this plant. African violets have rather round leaves. They are quite a dark grey-green and quite furry and soft. Their edges are also scalloped and there are visible veins that curve out and upwards from the main stem.

Middle left

This sketch is one bloom by itself is more of a close up. I’m going to be doing this one bloom in a different colour (not violet) later on. I’m sketching in lightly the five petals. Here you can see the middle yellow bits as well so I make a note of that.

Middle right

In this grid box, I’m drawing a little part of African violets. There is a little yellow pot and it’s standing on a surface. I think there’s four or five little blooms and some leaves sticking out. Here you get a general idea of the silhouette of this plant.

Bottom Left

For the bottom left I also did a plant standing by itself, but this time the angle slightly different, so we’re looking down almost into the pot. It’s a bit of a closer view than the other full plant one. Here you can see a little bit more about how the leaves fall out of the pot horizontally and that the flowers stand up quite straight.

Bottom Right

In the bottom right, I was initially decided wanting to do a swatch of the colours I was using. Then I thought why don’t I write the word “Violet” and swatch the colours in from there. Because there are six letters I divided the block into six divisions. I wrote “V-I-O” on the top line and “L-E-T” on the lower line. Each of the letters will be colored in one of the shades that I was using, almost as a “swatch word” if you will.

grid-art-journal-african-violets

Colors

The coloured pencils I use are Faber Castell polychromos in a selection of greens, purples, pinks, blues and yellows. You can buy them one-by-one at art stores, but I was gifted the 72-color tin by my daughter a few years ago which I’m using. I’ll provide the full list of colours here.

Greens: Leaves

  • Earth green yellowish
  • May green
  • Chromium green opaque
  • Olive green yellowish

Violets, Pinks, Blues: Petals

  • Purple violet
  • Mauve
  • Middle purple pink
  • Magenta
  • Rose carmine
  • Pale geranium lake
  • Ultramarine
  • Prussian blue

Yellows: Centre

  • Cadmium yellow
  • Dark Naples ochre

Greys: Shadows

  • Cold grey II
  • Cold grey IV
grid-art-journal-page-african-violets

Colored Pencil

Top Left

I use two shades of purple on the petals with the lighter in the middle and the darker towards the edges, making sure that all the strokes flow towards the centre. I colored in the centre yellow.

Top Right

I used the darker greens and worked from the outside colouring in the edges and then also where the veins were on the leaves. Choosing dark green colors, I left the light bit above the vein. I came in with the lighter greens and gently went over the veins. Nothing is actually white on the leaf, but the veins are definitely lighter. I gave it more depth by blending the two greens together.

Middle Left

Not all African violets are actually violet, you do get them in pinks and blues as well. I coloured in a two-tone pink African violet again with the darker pink on the outside and the lighter pink coming from the centre. The centre I coloured in the yellow.

Middle Right

I put it in a little yellow pot, ideally it looks like it’s a brass or gold type of pot because I was picking up the yellow from the centre of the African violet plant as they all they all have a yellow centre. I then gave some deeper blue on the table and continued to colour in the rest of the plant.

Bottom Left

With this grid square I colored the plant pot in soft steely looking greys. I worked the petals with a two-tone violet color as well. Again, when colouring the leaves I used two shades of green.

Bottom Right

Because I had intended this “violet” word to be the swatch, which was the original idea, but clearly there’s only 6 letters and I had used multiple colors. I just chose one of the colors from each of the main color families which I was using. So, the “V” is in mauve the “I” is in earth green yellowish, the “O” is in rose carmine, the “L” is in magenta, the “E” is in middle purple pink and the “T” is in dark Naples ochre.

Overarch

Grid Art Journal

This is just me sharing with you how I created an A5, 6-grid art journal page of African violets. Now clearly, you can use any plant in this way. You can pick out bits of the plant like the petals, the leaves, the roots, maybe even say if you did an onion or something, you would be able to do the roots as well. 

What I love about grid art journaling is that each one is a very small artwork. Only two inches or five centimetres across. Grid art journaling is a way which I can continue to build my daily art practiceIt’s a way that I can work with my coloured pencils in this particular case.

Hobby Artist

I am a hobby artist. I’d like to be better at art. I’d like to paint like Picasso, but at the moment this is the best I can produce. I’m enjoying myself doing these hobby art practice pages in my grid art journal.

Daily Art Practice

I encourage you to start a daily art practice with grid art journaling

It is pretty simple. 

It doesn’t need to be complicated.

It’s something you can do with your kids as well, which I think is a total bonus. Let me know if you’re going to be doing a grid art journal page and which plant you would draw first.

african-violets-pin

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Alison Hazel

Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you. Read more about Alison’s story. Get her newsletter.
Artzlife Newsletter

Artzlife Newsletter

Author: Alison Hazel   -   Published: December 2024 Artzlife Newsletter Creative art journal inspiration for hobby artists Welcome to a Place for Passionate Hobby Artists Are you a hobby artist seeking inspiration, connection and gentle guidance on your creative...

Grid Art Journal Page Setup

Grid Art Journal Page Setup

Grid Art Journal

Page Setup and Flip Through

This time I’m sharing with you some of the types of things that I’ve been putting in my grod art journal pages, as a hobby artist. I believe this will inspire you to get started. I’ll show you how to set up a grid art journal page in an A5 sketchbook.

 

How it Began

Earlier this year, I came across a couple of videos about grid art journaling. And the main idea for grid art journaling is that you have multiple small blocks on your page. So, you can do several different mini sketches of the same topic.

Words

For instance, when I first started with my grid art journal page, I just put some simple words in the first few blocks.

grid-journal-words

Coast: English Bay

My next attempt I drew the coast near my city of Vancouver at English Bay. This is a subject I’ve frequently painted and on a side note, I’m beginning to think I might just be a seascape sketch booker but we’ll see. But within the six images I drew, each one showed a different mood for the actual subject, but really the topic was the same. In my early grid journaling art pages, I did watercolor washes first on the page and then went back over with the pencil sketch and then the black pen.

grid-journal-english-bay

Grid Art Journal: Shells

I’m really quite keen on nature journaling as well. I like working with shells. I drew six different shells on my shells grid journal page. I do have a small collection of shells, so this is always an inspiration for me. Then I colour them in with coloured pencil as well.

grid-journal-shells

Sayings to Live By

On the next page I only have three blocks. And I wrote some sayings that I like to you have about me as uplifting words to look at during the course of the day.

The first one is, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune”. This is a quote from Shakespeare.

The second one is, “Don’t live someone else’s dream.”

And the third one is, “Fortune favors the brave” which my father used to say.

grid-journal-sayings

Seed Pods

My next grid sketch was of seed pods, and I had a few selections here. I don’t know all the names of these seedpods and I did draw them from memory because I do have a bit of a collection of seeds and pods, and I’ll show that to you one day.

grid-seed-pods

Fruity

Next came “Fruity”, which is watercolor. First, I penciled it in, then I did an ink over with a black pen, erased the pencil marks, and then went in with watercolor. And finally touched it up with a little bit of markers.

.

grid-journal-fruity

Sunflowers

On my sunflowers page, I drew many drawings of sunflowers looking at them from different angles. Some are single heads some are side on views and others are close ups zooming in on the actual sunflower seeds.

grid-sunflowers

Tarot Cards

When I divided my grid into four rectangles, it occurred to me to draw some tarot cards. I just selected for the Magician, the Empress, the Star and the Sun. Once more with pencil, then going in with a black pen and these were then coloured in with markers.

grid-journal-tarot-cards

The Creation

For my creation spread, this is the double page spread where I have eight grid segments. The first being the title which is Genesis 1: 1- 28. This is the first writing in the Bible starting at, “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.” I then go on to show the seven days of the creation with mini sketches of what happened on each day of the creation.

grid-journal-the-creation

More Shells

At this point I was gifted a book from my son-in-law called, “The New Beachcombers Guide to the Pacific Northwest” by J. Duane Sept. This is a book that has lots of images of shells and other interesting creatures that actually live here on the coast in Vancouver. 

This was brilliant because it gave me different shell shapes to draw. And on this particular page, I have named the shells because I happen to know what they are. They’re not just my imaginary shells that I’m working on. A lot of these shells have what I would call fancy names, but my favorite is the Money Wentletrap which I believe is a great name for a shell!

grid-journal-more-shells

Rock Pool Adventures

The next page I attempted I called my Rockpool adventures. Here I drew six different views of an intertidal rock pool that I would imagine would be in the coast here at the beach. A rock pool is created when the tide comes in, it fills up a pool and the tide goes out and some animals get trapped within the water and they can’t get out again until the next tide comes in. These are called intertidal rock pools and. I ended up drawing this sea star to which I added a face.

Now these sketches became the beginning sketches of a children’s book which I recently published. Before I did this grid sketch, I had no idea that I was going to create a children’s book. The idea only came to me once I’d done the drawings of the rock pools on the sea star, but I’ll tell you more about that project in in another video.

grid-journal-rock-pool

Leaves and Vines

For my next grid sketchbook page, I penciled in the actual box, but I didn’t draw it in ink. Then when I drew the leaves and vines with the black pen, they are in the shape of a box, but there is no line holding them in. This was a different way of working with the space.

leaves-and-vines

Prayer

The next page in my sketchbook I gave over to a prayer. I was feeling a bit low as I was having some surgery that week and I wrote these words down to let me be able to concentrate on this prayer.

the-lords-prayer

Autumn Pods

This next one I had six blocks, but it was a combination of squares and rectangles in a sort of windmill shape on the page. I was trying to break away from just straight up grid of two blocks by three blocks and going with a different kind of shape of grid. Within these squares and rectangles, I have some more seeds, seed pods, peapods, acorns and whatnot.

autumn-pods

A Well Woman

When I sketched this page, I was doing some recovering healthwise and it was taking a long time. This saying popped into my head, “A well woman has many wishes, an ill woman only one.” And this really did hook into how I was feeling at the time that really all I wanted to do was get better.

We’re seeing it was a well woman so I thought, well, I might as well draw a woman at a well although the image it really is slightly different to what the actual saying is about, but there it is.  Of course there’s always a cat somehow creeping in.

a-well-woman

Grace

Next, I have a page with grace because I was struggling still, as I say, with some medical issues, struggling to eat and just about managing to get down some bone broth. At this time, I started to appreciate what I was eating, so I wrote a page for grace.

grace

ABC

This ABC page is still a work in progress. I’m not very happy with the number two and the number three. I don’t think it’s working, and this is still in pencil, so I’m likely to erase it and not take it further. And that’s fine.

abc-123

Lambis Lambis

Next up I have a single page with one grid box, and I drew the lambis lambis shell, which is a shell that I actually own. It’s very tricky drawing shells with all the curves, but I do enjoy them.

lambs-lambis-shell

Sea Seahorses

Next, I did a six-grid page with some seahorses. This was the time when I’d published the Sea Star book and was considering the second book in the series, which would then introduce a seahorse. Now I found this was a particularly difficult animal to draw. I did give it several ways of working with it because there are many curves and the nose itself is quite tricky, but anyway. I created six different ways of looking at seahorses. This page I haven’t taken any further, but it’s still something that’s percolating in my mind.

sea-horses

Down the Garden Path

With this image I started with one large frame and then decided it would make a good window. So it becomes a window frame and I lightly shaded walls in cream to give it prominence. I’m calling this one, “Sown the garden path” because from where we’re standing, we’re looking out of the window down the path to endless possibilities.

There are some birds in a birdbath and a bench to sit on, there’s a pond with ducks and then you can go through the gate, continue on up into the mountains, past the sheep and to who knows where.

It’s one of those drawings where it’s taking you somewhere, but you don’t quite know where it’s going to take you, so I quite enjoyed drawing that one as well. And yes, I see there’s another cat snuck in there.

down-the-garden-path

Vines

The one with vines is a grid drawing that’s going across several of the grids. I’ve got five or so vines rooted in the two bottom squares and they are developing and unfurling as they go up. This sketch is still just in pen and I may or may not colour it in.

vines

The Plant Cycle

In my grid sketch for, “The plant cycle” I’ve got a narrow ribbon arrow running behind to show you which way to go. You follow the arrow as the plant develops leaves, grows, buds, flowers and so on and then eventually the leaves drop off. It depicts a plant cycle. This one is still in a sketch. I haven’t quite finished it yet because it’s an imaginary plant and I’m not quite sure if I’m happy about the two middle drawings, but that is something I can still think about and mull over.

the-plant-cycle

Draw Your Grid

Now I’m just going to tell you how I actually draw these grids in my A5 sketchbook. My sketchbook contains pages are 14cm by 21.5cm (5 1/2 inches by 8 1/2 inches.)

From the right-hand edge, I measure 2cm in and put a mark and then count 5 centimeters across a put another mark, and then 1cm and another mark and then over to the last five-centimeter marks. 

If you are doing this is in inches, my squares are about two inches wide with half an inch in between.

So, if you start with the ruler 5 inches on your right hand edge, you would put a mark at 4 1/2 inches, 2 1/2 inches, 2 inches and 0.

You would then get two columns of two inches wide with half an inch in between, and then coming down the page from the top you would measure it down 1 inch and then have a 2-inch square, half an inch for the gap, two inches of rthe middle grid block, half and inch for the gap, and two inches for the bottom squares.

I draw my grid squares lightly, usually with a 2H pencil, although in the video I’m using an HB because I want you to be able to see what I’m doing. Once I’ve lightly sketched out the squares, I will go from there.

Your Turn

This is how you set up an A5 grid art journal page.

Now you can get started on your grid art journaling.

grid-sketch-page
Alison Hazel

Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you.

Read more about Alison’s story.

Send Alison a quick message.

AHAtober 2024

AHAtober 2024

Author: Alison Hazel   -   Published: July 2024 AHAtober 2024 Welcome to AHAtober 2024! AHAtober is a special event for meditative artists, inspired by the popular Inktober challenge. This month-long journey is designed to bring calmness and creativity together,...

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