Many of the skills and techniques used in creating Visual Journals and Sketchbooks are also used in Book and paper Arts so don't forget to browse those too
Visual Journals , Sketchbooks and Visual Diaries
1000 journalsare travelling from hand to hand throughout the world . Those who find them will add their stories and drawings and then pass the journal along in an ongoing collaborative art form.
Anahata Katkin has published spreads from her visual journals which span a period of 3 years. A second gallery exists as part of her typepad site where Anahata Katkin keeps her blog Inspiration Engine.
Asian Children's Visual Journals are online as part of the Festival of Asian Children's Art. In the Gallery you can select and view illustrated diaries via country.
Archives of American Art form houses a collection of illustrated journals online. Great browsing if you enjoy having a glimpse of how artists think
Art of the Journal provides
visitors with a peek inside Elizabeth Badurina’s art journals. Also on Moderngypsy.com you will find links to zines, information related to artists trading cards, letter writing, and altered books.
Artists Journals by Aisling D'Art
houses tips tricks and information on how to keep an artist journal. Travel journaling is also covered.
Danny Gregory's site is a regularly updated blog with pages from his wonderfully inspiring artist's journal.
Dave McKean is a mixed media whose work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects and digital art. This is not really a visual journal site but I am sure many who are interesting visual journals will find his work inspirational.
Drawing club offers 10 reasons to keep a visual journal.
Everyday Matters Superblog, is made up of blogs written and illustrated by members of the Everyday Matters Yahoo Group which was formed by Danny Gregory.
Frances Pickering is a contemporary textile and book artist who has done and taught the City & Guilds courses and lives in Kent, Britain. Frances has produced a series of hand made books that are a personal response to battlefield landscapes and the poetry of the First World War. I was attracted to her work because of her interest in creating textured surfaces by using using wax and dyeing. Most of her work is on paper and take the form of hand made journals but includes stitching on any surface. These books which are to be discovered in the gallery section of the site are crammed with ephemera, evocative sketches, stitched images and mark making on what looks like hand made paper.
Illuminations: Visual Journaling Inspirations is aimed at writers who are wanting to work with imagery but there some useful tips. The emphasis is on self discovery rather than using a visual journal a record of things seen and observed.
Illustrated watercolour Journalling. Christina Lopp and Gay Kraeger run classes on how to keep visual journals they describe the practice and its growth in popularity as: “As the world gets more immediate, more online and easy to delete, the journal is a low tech, highly tactile method of capturing aspects of your world. A variation on the written journal is an illustrated journal — adding the richness of hand drawn images to words.”
James Jean has published his illustrations and sketchbooks Take a look at the travel journals too as these moments caught through the eyes of a professional illustrator are a treat. (The sketchbooks are found in the side bar) and ckeck out his blog too.
Journaling from the Tera's Wish site who uses journals to
set goals, catch ideas, and as personal development.
Journals of Dan Eldon: Since childhood Dan Eldon kept notebooks “From the beginning, the journals were a home for ephemera. He pillaged the house for odds and ends: food labels, cloth, string, ticket stubs, old magazines. When he’d exhausted that supply, he expanded his search zone. The more bizarre or rare an object the better—a Russian paper was more valuable than one in English, the wrapping from a Russian caviar canister was better than an everyday soup label. He discovered that locating these objects entailed a search and often meant going to unusual places.”
Language of Imagery: Keeping a Visual Journaloffers tips and advice on using imagery on visual journals for self discovery.
Linda Kemshall of Design Matters is also an instructor for accredited City and Guilds online courses and she has pages of images of student’s visual journals online. For anyone who is interested in keeping a working visual journal that relates to textiles browsing these images of students explorations will be of interest.
Luna Jaffee is an artist who has produced a visual journal called Conceiving a Life: Birth and Rebirth at Forty.
Michael Bell is an artist, suggests that: “Visual journaling is a way to record life's experiences, feelings, emotional reactions, or one's own inner voice visually and verbally. Sometimes words alone fail to describe what we feel inside." Bell's site also houses a number of videos that cover the process of using a visual journal, generating ideas and applying them to major works.
Migrating from written to Visual journals is a difficult step for some. Diane Windell has taken readers by the hand and written a concise guide on starting a visual journal offering those who are hesitant useful starting points.
Moleskinerie is a blog devoted to Moleskine notebooks. Many of the entries highlight how the notebooks are being used as visual journals
Moosewink’s visual journals Barb Berry has published online images of the of her visual journal page spreads which she has been keeping.
Notebookism is a blog devoted to notebooks and keeping them. Many of the entries highlight how the notebooks are being used as visual journals
Rozworks:
Roz is a designer, illustrator, teacher and writer who has her visual journals online. These are often annotated with information about why and how she keeps a visual journal.
Sketchbob.com. Bob Fisher has been keeping sketchbooks since he was 14 and now 20 years later the practice is well integrated into his life. Currently only the most recent 6 books are online in the gallery section of the site Bob maintains the practice of keeping an art journal in order to keep his work fresh.
Teesha Moore's site features art journals, altered books, textiles, and links to her blog
Through the Surface a project that features 14 contemporary textile artists in Japan and Britain. The exhibit is going to be touring Britain this year and Japan in 2005. You can follow the development of the works on-line via journals kept by each artist. These record the development of the process of collaboration via journal entries photographs and interviews. The Director Lesley Millar also documented her experience of overseeing the project in a journal.
Visual Journals and Paper Arts houses sections on art journals, travel journals, preserving letters, organizing your materials, paper craft and book binding.
