Handmade journals

I have used store-bought journals for my sketches for years, but they've always fallen short of what I really wanted, which was to be able to bind pages with a single theme together. Last year I started taking book-binding workshops so I could do this. Here is a selection of my handmade journals to-date. Where I learned to do this was at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, where I teach Illustrated Journaling.

Painting with gouache

Watercolor is the medium I use most often for my illustrated journals and for painting "en plein air" -- that is, painting outdoors -- but often I want to paint in a less delicate, more robust style. Lately, what does that for me is gouache, an opaque watercolor. Here's a little scene along Minnesota's Gunflint Trail, created in gouache on museum board.

More desert sketches

The desert journal is taking shape. Here are some more sketches, iconic desert images. I've started writing the text that will accompany the sketches and begun to think about how to bind this new journal.

Desert journal

I've been working on a new "Illustrated Journal" of Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas, following our visit there in February. The winter landscape under pristine and limitless cobalt skies was truly breathtaking. Here are a few samples of that desert world.

Sketch Crawl #22

Another sketching marathon -- this time at Atlanta's historic Oakland Cemetery. But the day was short-lived: a bitter wind and chill temperatures sent most of us scurrying for home after lunch.

WELCOME TO MY STUDIO

I've been working on a series of sketches of my studio.  Come on in and have a look around.

My drawing desk is my planning center.  I make a lot of sketches here and plan future paintings.

                  I have a separate table set aside for creating paintings in acrylic and casein.

Here's my watercolor table.  This is where I make many of the sketches that appear on this blog.  Note the big windows behind the table.  They look out on my back yard and provide steady north light throughout the year.  Right now I'm waiting for the azaleas out there to bloom -- just a few more weeks!
My watercolor sketching kit is pretty minimal.  That makes it easy to carry .....and use!

I've always got coffee going in the studio, but I keep tea and hot chocolate handy too.

My matting and framing center was handmade for me by a local craftsman.  What a godsend it is!  It holds loads of matboard and all my tools, and it's just the right height for cutting mats and assembling frames.

SKETCH CRAWL #21

This is the third time we've participated in Sketch Crawl, the international drawing marathon.  Eight of us started the day at the International Pancake House; nine others joined us later.
 
Thanks to the wonderful staff of the Atlanta Water Gardens, we were able to work inside, where fountains of trickling water and soft background music made for an idyllic sketching experience.