For anyone who has not come across Roz Stendahl you have been missing a treat, she has been keeping sketchbook journals since she was a child and has been making her own hand-bound journals for over 25 years. Her journals are a visual delight – a combination of her love for nature and the everyday. Roz is very active in the Everyday Matters group and regularly dispenses useful information on sketching, journaling and materials. On her blog Roz Wound Up, she has recently published an informative series on page layout (see links at the bottom of this post), culminating in this video – a brief glimpse through one of her journals.
This video shows lots of good ideas of how to incorporate sketches and other items you want to insert in your journal without putting undue pressure on the spine and binding of your book. As a prolific journaler, Roz regularly fills 14 books a year, she has developed an indexing system (which you can see on the last page of her journal in the video) – read about her system here.
Informative posts by Roz you may like to check out (all links open in a new window) -
I will leave you with some wise words from Roz from her recent post Why Journal?
“…. You might have just created 30 pages of the ugliest sketches and paintings and idiotic writing on the planet—it still doesn’t make your internal critic right. It’s a step, one that you took, despite the chattering of that internal critic. Future steps will be easier because you took one. (And this will continue to be true every day you take such a step.)
You hold in your hands a document which says “I allowed myself to create; I allowed myself to take risks.” I think creative risks are like loose rocks on a hillside. We scramble over them, slipping at times, at other times finding sure footing, so that we can get to the top of the hill and have a better view.
I think having a better view (of ourselves, our creative process, our place in the world, the larger world, the people in our world) is what regular journaling is all about.
Why do you journal? What goals does it meet? What benefits do you derive from it? It’s good to ask these questions. The answers will be unique to you and tell you something about yourself.
Remember: just because it has great benefits doesn’t mean it can’t also be fun!”
Spring is well and truly here in the Northern Hemisphere, and thoughts turn to gardening. The seasons and wonderful fruits of nature are great fodder for your journal. Here, Susan has created a beautiful Garden Journal with photos of flowers from her garden, drawn plans and photographed progress of her vegetable garden.
dahlias from the garden of a “flatting” son brought home to “roost” and the spectacular cardoon.
Rotation garden plans and the garden hoed and marked out.
I had fun making this journal from an old book - just used gesso washes, stamps, fabric paper, and leftover bits of tissue and paper from other projects. My lovely 107 year old villa and the fields surrounding it are my inspiration.
Oh, and if you are wondering how to get incredible blooms like this in January – then I’m afraid you will have to re-locate to New Zealand…
From the journal of Susan Shelley
(Click on the images to view originals, or click here to view more images of her Garden Journal)
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Zom Osborne has written a wonderful article on Art Journaling on her blog -
What is it about art journaling that makes me love it so much?
I like that it’s in a book. I have always loved books, and I love working in a book. I can take it with me, and the pages turn and I can close it and it’s like I have my own little world under my arm or in my bag.
I love that I get to write in my book. I also love that it isn’t just writing. I love that I get to use different pens in pretty colours when I write. I have an excuse to buy lots of pens.
I love that I can do anything I want in there. I can draw or paint or collage or write, and one isn’t ‘better’ than another. I don’t have to worry about what it looks like or how it will turn out. I really really like that.
I love that I get to use pretty colours and buy new materials that I can try out. I also love that I can use ugly colours and use stuff out of the bin and recycle useless stuff.
I love that I sometimes write really deep stuff and get these wonderful insights into my self and the world. I also love that I can write really shallow stuff like lists of stuff I want to buy or complain about petty things, hee hee.
I love Elaine’s daily journal pages – always with a little weather report. This is a page she produced at the end of 2008, looking forward to the year ahead. A very simple way to record those resolutions
My short list… for 2009
From the journal of Elaine Magliacane
(Click on the image to view original)
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Do you treasure the Christmas decorations your children have made at school, but wonder how long they will stand the test of time? Why not document them in your visual journal and make sure the memory stays with you for ever.
Resolved: To draw/paint/collage more often, to expand my subject matter beyond plants, to FILL LOTS OF PAGES! To provide entertaining reading for my nursing home days.
Somehow the best intentions get lost in the confusion of living every day and the plan follows ups and downs as capricious as any game of Monopoly. My own Journopoly game includes properties named for artist/journalists who inspire me.
From the journal of Jeanette Yee Sclar (Click on the image to view original)
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As many of you know, Danny Gregory was one of the people who started me on my journaling journey. His book ‘Everyday Matters’ inspired me to start drawing again. So it is wonderful to see inside some of his original sketchbooks. Danny made a habit to draw something everyday – here you will see what inspired him – his local neighborhood, the conents of his kitchen cupboard, or drawings from newspapers and magazines…
Take inspiration from what you find lying around, clippings, photos, magazines, and turn it into a wonderful journal page.
“Today it was Monet & blue – went searching through one of my “journal drawers”. It’s a drawer where I keep misc. paper scraps & old stationary to decorate pages. I pick the pieces and color scheme according to my mood.”
From the journal of Betsy Cañas Garmon
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Use your journal to experiment with media you are not familiar with -
Part of a journaling challenge to expand our horizons and try things we’re not used to doing. I chose to try watercolors, something VERY out of my norm…but I really enjoyed it.
From the journal of Barb Smith
(Click on the image to view original) or here to visit Barbs blog
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Julie Pritchard has just announced two exciting new online workshops. If you have ever wanted to make your own art journals then Art Journaling Supa Nova part one is for you. Part two will cover lots of journaling techniques. Workshops can be taken individually or booked together for a discount.
