Best of
Journaling

2009

Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awakening the Journal-Writing Traveler


Lavinia Spalding - 2009
    Thus, the act of chronicling one’s journey has never been more popular, nor the urge stronger.Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awakening the Journal-Writing Traveler, will inspire budding memoirists and jetsetting scribes alike. But Writing Away doesn’t stop there—author Lavinia Spalding spins the romantic tradition of keeping a travelogue into a modern, witty adventure in awareness, introducing the traditional handwritten journal as a profoundly valuable tool for self-discovery, artistic expression, and spiritual growth.Writing Away teaches you to embrace mishaps in order to enrich your travel experience, recognize in advance what you want to remember, tap into all your senses, and connect with the physical world in an increasingly technological age. It helps you overcome writer’s block and procrastination; tackle the discipline, routine, structure, and momentum that are crucial to the creative process; and it demonstrates how traveling—while keeping a journal along the way—is the world’s most valuable writing exercise.

Daily Zoo Year 2: Keeping the Doctor at Bay with a Drawing a Day


Chris Ayers - 2009
     The Daily Zoo Year 2 offers more furry and feathered friends along with continuing reflections on his life as an artist and cancer survivor. And, as with Volume 1 and perhaps more so, regardless of your artistic experience, this book will leave you inspired to grab the nearest pencil, pen, brush or crayon and start drawing ... for fun and perhaps as a way to bring healing!

How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook


Susan Leigh Tomlinson - 2009
    Pages from actual field notebooks clearly illustrate what works and why. Hints and advice for outdoorspeople with even limited artistic skills. For nature-lovers, birders, and students of wildlife and biology, keeping a field notebook is essential to accurately recording outdoor observations. This unique guide offers instruction on how to do it--what to look for, what information should be recorded and how to organize it, basic drawing skills using line and color, and incorporating maps and charts, as well as advice on equipment to take in the field and using conventional field guides. A colorful book that will teach and inspire.

Journal Spilling: Mixed-Media Techniques for Free Expression


Diana Trout - 2009
    You're free to quiet your inner critic and spill color (as well as your thoughts) all over the page. Author Diana Trout offers a double-dose of encouragement for you to try out new techniques, to ask yourself new questions and to see how safe of a place your private journal can truly be.Whether you've been carrying around an art journal for years, or have been waiting for just the right push, in the pages of "Journal Spilling" you will learn new ways with mixed media as well as new insights about yourself. Step-by-step instruction will make the process easy and you'll explore such techniques as: Using salt, alcohol and wax paper as resists for watercolorSpilling" color over your page with the help of watercolor crayonsCreating unique lines and shapes with a fun ink-blowing techniqueMaking secret pockets and flaps for storing wishes and private reflectionsCarving and stamping with hand-carved stamps, making your pages even more personalGetting out of a writing rut with prompts and inspiring exercises and much more Find out just how fulfilling using creative expression in your personal journal can be and let "Journal Spilling" be the friend to offer you support for each page you create."

Teach Yourself Visually Collage & Altered Art


Roni Johnson - 2009
    This photo-intensive guide walks you through all the latest techniques, from aging paper and photos to working with image transfers, rubber stamps, fabrics, and more. Plus, you'll learn how to source inexpensive materials--as well as found objects around your home--to make everything from handmade journals and artist trading cards to decorative boxes, jewelry, and wall art.Concise two-page lessons show you all the steps to a skill and are ideal for quick reviewEach skill or technique is defined and described Detailed color photos demonstrate each stepStep-by-step instructions accompany each photoHelpful tips provide additional guidance