September Book List & Other Thoughtful Stuff

Here are the books I brought to the September classes. These are good starting places for ideas of the range of things people do in their art journals. While it's good to be *inspired*, I don't want you to be overwhelmed or awed by the images you find in these books. They are "curated collections" of pages that someone deemed beautiful enough to be in a book.

The purpose of our journaling in ALWAYS about the journey and not about the beauty. I totally understand the desire to create something beautiful in your journal. I'm not immune to it myself. But tension about making it beautiful can stop you from exploring freely and playing with idea and materials in a relaxed, creative way. 

Artists Journals & Sketchbooks Lynne Perrella
This is a great book for beginners. Not only are there wonderful examples of pages to get to you started, but she's done some great "technique summary" pages that efficiently show you 10-12 practical ideas to play with using the same image. Highly recommended.

Art Journal Kickstarter edited by Kristy Conlin
A wide-ranging collection of artist journal pages from a wide-ranging collection of artists (including me). Each piece of art is accompanied by a few brief questions: What inspired this piece? What materials do you use? Why did you start art journaling? All good stuff.

A World of Artist Journal Pages curated by Dawn DeVries Sokol
Another fabulous book of journal pages featuring artists from around the world (and yes, me, too). There are a few interviews with featured artists, but the focus is on the visual and it's interesting to see such a diverse collection. Highly recommended that you have a look.

Art Journal: Judy's Journal Journey Judy G. Grupp
I chose this one sort of because what it isn't. It isn't flashy or professional or intimidating. It's got ultimate approachability, the story of someone just starting out who's documented her process and her results, which are not that different from how everyone starts out. Very newbie-friendly. 

And now for all the fun stuff that was on page 7 of the handouts ... just to get you thinking. You can print these out to use in your journal pages. You can see how I use them in my own journal in the next post.

Next post: a peek in a Penelope's Journal and some collage sheets for you, too.