Artist's Journal Workshop: Creating Your Life in Words and Pictures [Paperback]

Cathy Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2011

Discover the Joy of Art Journaling

An artist's journal is a powerful creative tool, offering you a safe place to experiment, explore, consider and improve. Artist's Journal Workshop provides all the guidance, structure and inspiration you need to create a meaningful art-journaling practice. Starting with the question, "What do you want from your journal?" you'll build a sound journaling concept that will serve your unique creative needs and give you the freedom to practice, play and develop as an artist. Featuring rich visual examples on every page, you'll receive continual guidance and inspiration from:

• 27 international artists who share pages and advice from their own art journals
• More than 25 hands-on exercises to help you personalize your journal while developing new ideas and techniques
• Journal pages featuring travel sketching, nature studies and celebrations of daily life
• Prompts for visually commemorating life events and milestones
• Support for working through creative doubts and blocks
• A range of artistic styles and perspectives to study and admire
• Instruction for trying your hand at new methods and materials

This is the perfect opportunity for you to begin realizing your artistic potential--one page at a time. Begin the journey today!

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (June 27, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1440308683
• ISBN-13: 978-1440308680
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 0.4 x 10.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing
  • #68 in Books > Self-Help > Creativity

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cathy Johnson has written 35 books on art and natural history. She has been a contributing editor, writer and illustrator for The Artist's Magazine, Watercolor Artist and Country Living for over a decade, and was staff naturalist for Country Living. She has a popular group blog called Sketching in Nature, http://naturesketchers.blogspot.com. She also teaches online workshops at www.cathyjohnson.info and runs blogs at katequicksilvr.livejournal.com and cathyjohnsonart.blogspot.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (June 27, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1440308683
• ISBN-13: 978-1440308680
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 0.4 x 10.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing
  • #68 in Books > Self-Help > Creativity

More About the Author

Cathy Johnson, sometimes known as Kate, has worked as a naturalist, writer, and freelance artist for the past 30 years, and was staff naturalist and contributing editor for Country Living magazine for 11 years. She is a contributing editor to the Artist's Magazine and Watercolor Magic and has had a regular column in Personal Journaling magazine, where she wrote on a subject she feels passionately about -- realizing the importance of creativity in our lives. She has written and illustrated -- her own work and that of others -- for a number of national magazines, including Science Digest, Harrowsmith Country Life, Sports Afield, Country Journal, Muzzlelader, Women's History, Early American Life, Sketchbook, Woodworker, Woman's Day, Threads, Mother Earth News, National Wildlife Magazine, Sierra and others. Her writing and artwork have been included in a number of nature anthologies and art books.



She has written and illustrated 29 books, and contributed to a number of others, working with a variety of national publishing houses. Those include North Light/F&W, Time/Life, Sierra Club, Random House, Scholastic, Globe Pequot Press, Gibbs-Smith Publisher, Tehabi, Van Nostrand Reinhold, Walker Publications, Prentice-Hall Press, Penguin, Stackpole and others.



Many of these books have been published in editions overseas, as well, in Russia, Japan, Holland, France and England.



In 1993, she founded her own small publishing company, Graphics/Fine Arts Press, which primarily offers books of interest to the reenacting community or others interested in history and material culture.



Her paintings are included in a number of private and corporate collections in this country and abroad, including Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO; F&W Publications/North Light Books, Cincinnati, OH; Early American Life Magazine, Harrisburg, PA; The Kansas City Life Insurance Co., Kansas City, MO; and Newcomers Funeral Home, Kansas City, MO.



Her original jewelry has also found its way overseas, to Scotland and Great Britain, and is included in the Images of the Archetype Collection in Glasgow, Scotland..



Her green man and fantasy paintings and sculptures are currently in a one-woman show online at http://www.greenmanreview.com/gallery-kate/index.html.



She is a longtime member of the Author's Guild and the Costume Society of America. She was chosen Conservation Communicator of the Year by the Burroughs Audubon Society in l987, and won the Thorpe Menn Award for Creative Writing (AAUW) for The Naturalist's Cabin; Constructing the Dream (Viking Penguin) in 1992.



Her website is http://cathyjohnson.info

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

120 of 122 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Discover the joy of art journaling July 5, 2011

By Parka TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Length: 0:55 Mins

Artist's Journal Workshop is a wonderful book for anyone looking to start a sketch journal. It's a 144-page paperback with beautifully laid out pages.

It's packed with lots of tips on finding ideas, and from there, you can discover which style suits you. This book really brings across how fun sketching can be.

There are 27 artists who share their sketch pages in this book. Some of them are Danny Gregory, Nina Johansson, Liz Steel, Lapin, Cathy Johnson herself, of course, and many more. They also share their insights.

Since this book is about journaling, the examples are mostly about illustrating what you see. It can be drawing people, places, animals or food. It's very inspiring to check out all the artists' work, even the seemingly mundane stuff look interesting when illustrated.

Highly recommended, especially to sketchbook lovers.

(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars great for anyone who wants to keep & create any kind of art journal!!! July 28, 2011

By MJB

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book gives any journal keeper or wanna be journal keeper some great ideas to help inspire you or figure out exactly what you want to do with your sketchbook journals. The book includes suggestions for travel journaling, daily journaling, nature journaling, spiritual etc and not just samples of what others have done, but questions for the reader to explore and think about to help develop individual journaling that means something to you. I especially love the "Try This" exercises the author included in each chapter such as "describe your day," "abstract the scene," "travel-record the details," "sketch family mementos," "map family moves" and lots of other fun ideas to explore.

While showing some useful, beautiful and inspirational examples of ways other experienced and talented artists have kept journals, Ms. Johnson's book expands on the examples and gives tips for developing content as well as some guidance on materials that are easy to use and portable. She presents things very simply for beginners, in a completely non-intimidating way. However, those who have some art experience will appreciate the fact that she didn't over do the "how to paint with watercolors" section, but rather includes a discussion on how to use a variety of materials that work together and are easy just to throw in your purse or art bag. I haven't ever used colored pencils or acrylics because they seem too complicated of a medium to work properly for me, but after reading her suggestions I may experiment with some of these other mediums for fun in small sketches in my journal.

Ms. Johnson's book is easy for anyone at any level to use, skim it for ideas or read it cover to cover. It's a beautiful book and one that is clearly going to be a new classic on the topic of sketchbook journaling.... Others I highly recommend are any of the Danny Gregory books, Everyday Matters, The Creative License, and An Illustrated Life; The Decorated Journal by Gwen Diehn; Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles Roth. Also recommend DVD Beginning Watercolor Journaling by Gay Kraeger and Christina Lopp. Drawing from Life, the Journal as Art by Jennifer New has some interesting examples of how a variety of journal keepers approach and keep a journal. Highly recommend the Urbansketchers website and blog, [...] for excellent examples of art journaling from all corners of the world. Cathy Johnson is one of my favorite contributors to that website. Read more ›

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE this book!!!! June 24, 2011

By Pamela Lance

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was exactly what I hoped it would be and more. She is inspiring and encouaging. It also has some of my other favorite artists in the book. I will go back to this book over and over again. Every single page has something beautiful on it. I highly recommend it. Pam

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 10 Stars! July 6, 2011

By DianaD Artist

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am addicted to thumbing through art books for inspiration and to provoke me to DO ART! Usually I get a book, look at all of the photos and how-tos and then add it to my collection for future reference.
Yesterday I received my copy of the Artist's Journal Workshop. The photos are amazingly inspirational & provoking. What truly has me shocked/delighted is the written content.
I read Cathy's introduction and became hooked.... reading EVERYTHING! I soaked up more and more outstanding and practical tips & discussions. This may be a truly life-altering book for me. Having always, as an Artist, intended to keep an Artist's Journal, I now feel I have the tools of knowledge to make this a part of my everyday.
You can get hundreds of books to discuss materials and beginner techniques, this is a book that goes into the heart of the person who desires to make this practice of Art Journaling a very real part of their life.
From simple doodles to elaborate renderings of moments in time, you can start right where you are now, with what you have. Pack a ballpoint & little notebook, or take your art studio with you! This book will inspire you to start and provoke you to make it your own.
Thank you Cathy! This is my favorite art book of the hundreds I own! Easily.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational! June 30, 2011

By Marva Plummer-bruno

Format:Paperback

This is an awesome book! I've painted in watercolors for years but just started journaling a few years ago. This is an informative and inspirational book, with new things to try, information on paints and watercolor pencils and more! I highly reccomend it if you're just starting out or if you've been painting for years!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST Book I've Found on Sketchbook Journaling July 8, 2011

By Leslie Fehling

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm an avid sketcher and am always on the lookout for another book on sketching and art journaling. Cathy Johnson's "Artist's Journal Workshop" is not just more of the same - it has so much more content than any other title on my bookshelf, and the pages are loaded with inspiring artwork showing a wide variety of techniques and styles. I loved every page! I enjoyed it so much that I wanted the experience of reading it to last, so I rationed the pages and only allowed myself to read a few every day. As I saw the end coming closer, I kept thinking, "No, not yet!" When I read that last page, I did something I've never done before - I turned the book over and started again at the beginning! I'll be rereading this book for years to come and learning something new in each reading, I'm sure. I'm already putting into practice some of the great ideas presented in the book. THANK YOU, CATHY!!!