Create Your Own Artists Journal

by Erin O'Toole

In Create Your Own Artist's Journal, Erin O'Toole helps artists capture those fleeting moments of inspiration and beauty that compel them to create. She begins by showing them how to observe and record what they see; composing images that come alive with color and movement. O'Toole also discusses the materials involved in keeping a journal, and offers advice for finding interesting subjects, painting from memory and improvising sketches as a scene changes. Finally, she provides guidelines for compiling a portable journaling "kit" that artists can take with them anywhere!

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Journaling, Nature

128 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2002

Reviews

[Greta]

Someday I'm going to stop reading these books about drawing and painting and go out and draw and paint. In the meantime, just the reading of this book was a pleasant way to spend a few hours. Her suggestions for creating a journal and her own paintings are lovely and inspiring.

[Gabriella]

To me, this book was more about nature journaling specifically, rather than art journaling in a broader sense. If you are looking to journal/illustrate the world around you - plants and animals in particular - this book could be a good resource for you. There was some good info on techniques for drawing, watercolors and gouache, and many glimpses into the writer's personal journals.

[Cindy]

Such a pleasant and inspiring read! I did not go in to this book expecting it to be a thorough "how to" so I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was full of examples from the artist's own journals as well as helpful tips. I have always had my own "artist's journal" where I create pieces of art that are "journalistic" in nature. This book focuses more on drawing and documenting your surroundings. I appreciated this lens since most of what I journal about are my life events and emotions. This helped me learn how to have an eye for the beauty of nature around me!

[Heather]

Lovely book, the illustrations are gorgeous and it's worth reading just for that, but it lacks in substance as far as actually making your own journal. Oh, it goes over it but it's exactly one page. I guess I was hoping for a lot more. Mostly the book is advice about getting out there and sketching or painting in public or in nature. It's worth taking a look at but not worth keeping for my library. Obviously, this is just my opinion and others might have found it more useful!

[Jessica Welch]

It was gorgeously illustrated but not what I was looking for...

[TeriC]

Wonderful inspiration. I browse through it when I need some. Just read it again.