I have mentioned before that I only review books that I own and love. Well, I own *so* many books on art journals and journaling, most of them dealing with making the structure of the journal, that it was hard to make a decision. So for this issue, I thought I would like to review my favorite books about using the insides of the journal, once those blank pages are there to tantalize and torture!

Included on this list, but already reviewed in the last issue, is my all time favorite book of creative inspiration: The Art of Looking Sideways - which so many of you purchased through our Amazon Associate Links last time, and I can’t thank you enough. Every drop of revenue counts at a free magazine! I hope you are loving and using the book as much as I do.

There are four other books on my list this time - each as different as they can be in their approach to the art journaling subject. They all appeal to me equally - just to different parts of me! You are bound to find something to love. If you wish to purchase one through Amazon, just click the book cover (current Amazon pricing is given at the end of each review).
Gwen is widely considered one of the pioneers of the artist journal as popular contemporary art form, and her book approaches the subject from many angles.

She tells the story of her first visual journal - created as a biology assignment in college - to keep a journal about a particular tree on campus. Gwen’s orange tree gets the short end of the stick in the end, but her story explains clearly just what a visual journal is, and what it can become.

She goes on to recommend materials and tools, explain how to customize a blank book to suit your needs, and how to overcome the fear of blank pages by preparing backgrounds on many of them - before ever knowing what might be put on them later.
The rest of the book teaches techniques, shows samples and offers insights to the artist’s creative thinking processes. It becomes obvious that Gwen takes this genre seriously and has done a lot of research on the subject which she shares through short articles explaining and illustrating some of the historical heritage of the visual journal. (New$17.95, Used $10.98)
This one will get you going even if you are a true devotee of the fact that you can’t draw a straight line. I didn’t find a single straight line in this book! Katherine Q. Revoir is a working artist, spiritual counselor, and creative mentor (from the book jacket), but all that aside, she has a great sense of fun.

This book is about exploring yourself with “art” riding in the back seat. Do you remember the excellent series of Anti-Coloring Books that came out some years back? Instead of putting outlines on the page for kids to “stay inside of”, they posed questions which could be visually explored on blank pages or pages with borders to suggest what might be drawn - like a circus tent or an empty stage.

Well, this book is like that - but for grown-ups.
Here is a book you can really, really alter - and with the author’s wholehearted encouragement. All of the text is already handwritten, so the pages aren’t blank and scary. Rather, they are embellished with cartoon representations of everything from your inner “voices” to a “negative belief map” of your brain. This stuff is so much fun, you forget that you are actually learning very valuable things about yourself until later - when it dawns on you that you have “played” your way into a new attitude about one thing or another. And, I found it impossible to “stay” inside the lines. Although there is plenty of drawing room inside this workbook, it also functioned as a book of prompts and ideas for me - that I developed more fully in my journals.
This page is typical of what you will find inside Spiritual Doodles . . . This three page spread invites you to draw people jumping off cliffs - and in the process, explore what drives you to the edge - and what keeps you from going over it!

I can’t recommend this little treasure enough. It cheers you up, it makes you laugh, it makes you think - and it makes you draw! All in the pursuit of a happier, healthier you.

(New $16.95, Used from $11.87)

Page © 2002 Katherine Q. Revoir
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