Journal Craft Inspirations

What a wonderful page for inspiration in 2009…

No secret resolutions, fancy promises, or wordy goals…
Just one plain and simple idea
“BE”
…my word of “direction” and my personal focus for 2009.
To “BE” in the moment…every moment…
fully..
actively, healthily, creatively, appreciatively, openly,
each and every day.”

 Holbein Drawing book..with Pitt Pens and Watercolor

From the journal of Margaret Storer-Roche
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Try to engage all your senses when completing a journal page - add fragrance to your page.  Scents and fragrances are wonderfully evocative and bring back memories in an instant. Melissa’s page was completed in response to a challenge posted on Michelle Ward’s Street Team Crusades - a fantastic site encouraging artists to try new things (warning - music plays when the site loads).

Snow
“I am working on loose sketching with watercolor in my art journals these days. I used 140 lb cold press paper, permanent Pitt pen to sketch, then colorized with watercolor. I added an oil scent to the page, called “Fir”, which of course, smells like pine.  The scent is a way to take you back, when you view it later, to the time and place which you originally created the piece.”

Lavende
“I bought pure lavender oil in Provence this summer. I wanted to save some forever, so I did this page, and added drops of the oil on each of the colored spots at the bottom.”

From the journal of Melissa Sabin
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Many christmas ornaments have special memories associated with them, make sure you record them in your journal for posterity.

“This one has been passed down in the family for a long time. No one knows it’s origin.”

From the journal of Vicky Williamson
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A simple page from Dave that still manages to capture a lot of information about his day…

“Just a page-a-day journal entry. I try to do a little sketch and some text around the image I make. I carry the journal everywhere and whenever I have a few moments I sketch what’s in front of me. Later I watercolor the sketch.”

Noodlers ink in fountain pen and watercolor wash

From the journal of Dave Terry (click here to visit Daves blog - 365 Journal Entries)

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Keep a record of the books you have read by creating a journal spread.

“Just finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ and felt inspired to do a journal page. I wanted to try out a new material - Safmat, a transparent film, from Letraset that you can print onto. I edited a couple of photos of winter trees in photoshop and printed them onto the Safmat. I then peeled off the backing and stuck the transparent film with the printed image into my Moleskine sketchbook. I had used a grey PanPastel on the page first, deliberately patchy, to create the dusty landscape depicted in the book.

Quite pleased with the Safmat, it is very thin and ‘almost’ invisible, so a good way of getting photos into your journal without creating too much bulk.”

From the journal of Gill McCowen
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A days activities, randomly placed make a great page..

From the journal of  Nicolette Anderson
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Even your ‘to do’ list can be made interesting, as Jeanette has shown in her Garden journal

From the garden journal of Jeanette Yee Sclar
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And this page by Theresa Hall.  An easy way to make your page more visually interesting even if you think you can’t draw.

To do list in Moleskine Squared Notebook 

From the visual journal of Theresa Hall
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If you have the patience, and can resist the temptation,  try sketching your meal before you eat it…   A great way to remember the occasion.

“Another food ‘on-location’ sketch! Tried an aerial/plan view for a change.”

Watercolours in Moleskine Watercolour Notebook

From the Visual Journal of Liz Steel
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“Architecture has always fascinated me. Since I was a child I have always been looking up rather than where I should be going – often with some quite disastrous consequences. I have the scars to prove it!When I was at college I had a tutor, who is probably long dead, who used to fume about how people never really took in their surroundings. “Consume, consume consume that’s all we do”Anyway, this teacher – quite a short and portly guy with something of the Army about him – used to love going into churches with his camera. The best way to enjoy a church, he told us, was on your back. And that is what he used to do. Shuffle on to his knees, flip himself over, in his Saville Row suit and all, and lay flat on his back.

The first time I saw him do it I very nearly died. And he would lie there for ages with people stepping over his prostate body.  I think he taught me something. “

From the Visual Journal of Nick Clapson (Click on the image to view original)

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Using triads and grids - both exercises featured in Dory Kanter’s book Art Escapes

From the visual journal of Vicky Williamson (Click on the image to view original)

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