Journal Craft Inspirations

Well, the time has come to take that well earned summer break - long lazy days on the beach; the buzz and excitement of street markets; the unusual sights, smells and sounds of foreign lands.  Wherever you are going make sure you take your journal with you.  Take the time to slow down, really look around you and capture the magic, it will make your trip extra special. 

Diana created a wonderful journal for her trip to Maine, she has taken the time to capture all the little items that caught her eye

“I made a 5-1/2 x 7 ring-bound journal with scrapbook and watercolor paper pages and used a Maine map for the covers. Took this on our trip to the Maine coast and journaled and sketched and now I have a wonderful little book of memories of our trip.
I draw with Faber Castel Pitt Artist Pens and paint from a travel watercolor kit. The ring-bound set up worked well to add things on the trip and so the pages laid flat to draw and paint”

From the journal of Diane (Click on images to view original on Diane’s Flickr stream)
Image copyright of the artist.

Checkout the Journal Craft store for Pitt Artist Pens, Moleskine Journals, and Watercolour Paints.  We also have a Travel Journal Kit, which includes a booklet of tips and ideas for your journal -

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Don’t forget to take your travel journal kit when you go away on holiday.  It’s easy to take little sketches in situ, and finish off your page when you get back home. 

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Including a map in your travel journal really brings the trip into perspective, it can be as simple or detailed as you like.

“Grandma & I embarked on an awesome road trip to explore the “Wild West” AKA the Black Hills. It was a long drive but definitely a worthwhile endeavor. I felt very patriotic most of the time…”

 

From the journal of Jennifer Hamilton
(Click on the image to view original)

I love Nicolette’s take on her map with the van driving around the coastline…

“Another page from my art journal – the journey from Canmore to Pentiction”

 

From the journal of Nicolette Anderson
(Click on the image to view original)

Images copyright of the artists

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Try an unusual approach to your subject -

“Can you tell what this is? It’s the view from the window of our house, drawing only the negative space. And yes, that’s the ocean out there!”Watercolours in Moleskine Watercolour Notebook

From the journal of Jane laFazio
(Click on the image to view original)

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I love Kathrin’s journal pages, they always zing with vibrant colour. She uses a standard Moleskine daily planner, usually with copic multiliners and Copic markers. However these do have a tendency to bleed through to the next page, to avoid this she will sometimes use watercolours, acrylic colours or crayons.

“This page is of the Landesgartenschau in Schleswig. I created the photo strip in InDesign and placed the pictures there, after that I printed it.”

Copic markers in Moleskine Planner

(Click on the image to view original)

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A great way to capture little things as you are travelling, is the 3 minute sketch technique featured in Dory Kanter’s book ‘Art Escapes’. By drawing a small box on the page beforehand you avoid the ‘blank page syndrome’ and can record small things that catch your eye.

“Long wait at Lille station for our TGV. My eye was caught by two musicians travelling with their cello’s when they were standing at the ticket machine.

I loved Dory Kanter’s suggestion in her wonderful book “Art Escapes” that you draw little boxes on the page and sketch inside them – far less intimidating than having to fill a whole page, it also meant I could get away with drawing only the bottom half of the ‘french chic’ girl – the top half was too difficult!”

From the Travel  Journal of Gill McCowen
(Click on the image to view original)

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I love this sketchy page in Jenni’s journal – showing different tile patterns she found while travelling in Venice.

“You can put ANYTHING you like in your journal – it’s a record of all your interests and likes and dislikes, not just a diary! This was drawn in a hand-bound journal with a mixture of different weight cartridge papers in it. I used a regular Pilot Precise or Fineliner pen because I like to use the same one for both writing and drawing. Whichever, it would have had soluble ink to achieve the washed effect. The colouring medium then would have been an ancient box of Winsor and Newton watercolours dating from my college days – and they’re a long time past!“

From the Travel Journal of – Jenni Last
(Click on the image to view original)

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Anna uses her daily planner, rather than a dedicated sketchbook, to illustrate her diary.

Aquarell pencils, copic markers, crayons, and black markers in a Moleskine Planner

From the travel journal of Anna Denise van der Reijden
(Click on the image to view original)

Reproduced with permission under a Creative Commons licence

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An effective addition to a Travel Journal is a map of the route or the locations visited.

“In preparation for my week in Paris, I’ve drawn maps of the area we will be staying in and added details from walks through the area. The writing is miniscule! I normally have a big bold hand, but this time I didn’t want to take up valuable sketching room in my book, so I somehow managed to write like this.”
From the travel journal of Jan Allsopp
(Click on the image to view original)

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A lovely record of a camping trip – with a mixture of sketches, pasted in pictures and handwritten journaling.

From the Travel Journal of – Leigh Koegler
(Click on the image to view original)

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