New mini-video on using a single watercolor pencil to sketch with...

A fun technique I use a lot for sketching...a single pencil in a neutral shade for value, then either just blending that or adding a bit of watercolor!

The squiggles on the right are just to show the variety of lines and values you can get with one pencil...this one is my favorite Derwent Blue Grey 69, which goes EVERYWHERE with me.

My 'trip prep' journal

Been enjoying the posts here and especially Kate’s post recently on how you use your journal and public vs private... I wish I could say more about that...but instead I have my head down preparing for another trip.

I have a dedicated sketchbook for my ‘trip prep’ and this year I am trying to use it to contain everything associated with planning...there are so many ways that your journal can be useful in the planning stage and I am trying to make my pages visually interesting without too much planning...so here are a few pages – starting with COLOUR first (never too early to start thinking about this as I have used the last month testing a few combinations)

Trying to make my ‘list’ pages a little more interesting (but don’t worry I do have pages of scribbly notes and no images as well)


I have lots of fun deciding on what clothes – I ALWAYS take more than I need so I use my journal I the hope that I will eliminate a few items.

The big decision on which bag to take – this rating system was a lot of fun and had some interesting results.

For more random prep check out the set on my flickr or blog.
As for using your sketchbook to lose weight... I will have to find time to share all my secrets there in the next week or so....

Watch for Interview #12--Laure Ferlita!

Laure's got a lot going on...and a lot going for her!  She's an astounding watercolorist (check out her work HERE) and she's the driving force and creator of the very imaginative and very popular "Imaginary Trips" classes online.

If you've ever wanted to go to Ireland, England, Italy, Paris, or other locales around the world, or you miss the beach, or the garden, but just can't swing the travel, you will LOVE these classes! 

This is one of the Paris images Laure shared for the book, Artist's Journal Workshop--I love the serene, intimate mood.

Laure also offers foundations and explorations classes on journaling as well as a mini-journaling class, seasonal mini-classes, events and more!

Don't miss her videos and tutorials...they're terrific!

If you've longed for a chance to go somewhere in person with Laure, here it is!  Imaginary Trips Made Real will take you to New Orleans in person, this fall!  Read all about it at the link...

....time to sketch and paint at each location;

....immersing yourself into your art without the everyday distractions;

....honing your skills through feedback from others and one-on-one critiques;

....making new friends and memories in beautiful locations around the world;

....taking the path less traveled and letting the adventure lead the way;

....experiencing culinary pleasures in exotic locales!

And of course Laure's Painted Thoughts blog is one of my favorites, full of inspiration and honesty. I learn a lot from Laure...you will too.  Thanks for being willing to be next up!

Black and Red--all I'd really need...

Black and Red, a photo by Cathy (Kate) Johnson on Flickr.

...plus a journal, of course! There are notes on the image, if you click on it, to tell you brand names. Need to take another look at the red pencil...

This is my favorite reconditioned, reloaded Prang box I found on eBay for almost nothing. They're better made than a lot of the new metal boxes with nice rolled edges so you won't cut yourself, but they're light weight. And it's FUN using the same paint box I did as a kid (loaded with good paints, of course!)

Changing continent = changing palette?

I just returned from a trip to Europe and all the colors look different to me at home. Perhaps it's time to change a few colors in my palette? Or it will pass as I adjust to bright sun?

How do you use your journal?

What do you want out of it?  What do hope it will do for you?  What goes into its pages?

Is there a difference between art journaling and keeping an artist's journal?

For me there is.  I am an artist, and I've kept a journal  for 40 years or so.  It IS my journal, in every sense of the word; a record of the journey of my days.

To me, art journaling is more about making the journal itself a work of art, and if that's what you enjoy, wonderful. Some people even sell their finished journals; I would as soon give away a piece of my soul--it would amount to about the same.  I go back to my old journals frequently...for a variety of reasons.

Just like the variety of reasons I keep one in the first place. They're reminders and learning tools!

Sometimes I just want to PAY ATTENTION to my life, to sketch the moments and days--whatever I see before me.  I don't wait for "inspiration" or for a grand subject...I just sketch.  It's who I am.

Sometimes I use it to reward myself, or take time to kick back, to get away, to create an oasis of calm in an often crazy life.

Joseph was undergoing tests to make sure he didn't have a blood clot developing in his leg.  Not a BIG deal, and he didn't, but it helped me to sketch him, and the technician and all those machines!

Sometimes I use my journal almost as meditation, or to calm myself in a stressful situation by getting outside of it.

As our friend and fellow journaler John Payne noted in this post, journaling helps us keep track of things.  If I don't remember when that medical test was, or what I used to create this or that effect, or when I tried that recipe or went to the Ozarks last, or saw godchild Molly Hammer in that play, or when Finn's birthday party was, my journals can tell me.  If I need to know what years we moved away from our old farm, it's there too, in my 30-year-old journal.  It's a wonderful memory enhancer.

Lapin remarked on one of his reasons for keeping a sketch journal in our recent interview #11--""I like the way sketching every day what I have in front of me keeps me curious and attentive to the most simple details of my life...  "

This is one of my recent writing journals...the pages may have sketches, they may not, but the paper has to take ink well!  I was using my watercolor journal for everything, but I discovered it was a bit frustrating to write on some pages with cold pressed paper...the nib wanted to skip.  When you're processing, musing, thinking on paper, you need to be able to write as easily as possible!

Sometimes I need to process...an event, a feeling, a project.  My journal's the perfect place to do that.  It's safe, it's non-judgmental (if I can silence that Inner Critic or Parent!), it's private, and it's a great sounding board, odd though that may sound.

Someone wrote "how do I know what I think until I see what I've written?"  I can understand this.  I've had some real insights, breakthroughs into my feelings or attitudes...or tendency to procrastinate...once I write things down.

This may be a list, or a chart.  I can graph these things, or just write, free-association, till I'm all written out.  I can do rough sketches that express what I feel--it doesn't have to be beautiful, it doesn't have to be good, it just needs to get down on paper and remind me!

I can choose to share, or not...if it's personal, very likely not.

Somehow sharing something you're working through with someone else may not have the effect you were hoping for.  They may not understand the background, and you can dissipate the energy without action.  (Authors often say they can't talk about a current project, even with other writers, because then they won't WRITE it!)

I've recently found an old journal of mine from the 1980s...and I'm very much enjoying seeing where I was, then.  Some things have changed a lot, some seem to be constants.  But it's such a good tool for growth and contemplation...and sometimes laughter!

One of my observations was  "If you truly want to be alone, you won't have much competition for available space!"  That made me laugh right out loud, 25 years later!

(This particular journal had perhaps two sketches in the whole book...it was still an artist's journal, because--wait for it!--I'm an artist.  I wrote a lot about what I was painting at the time, or what shows I'd entered, but at the time I had a separate sketchbook and just added a drawing if I REALLY felt the need.)

What I find myself doing more and more these days is working with my journal more like I did 20 years ago...as a tool for sorting things out, looking at my life, taking "compass readings," as our dear friend Laura Frankstone talked about in this post. 


The book we mentioned earlier, The New Diary by Tristine Rainer, has been a great help in this, but most of it is just doing it.

I'd shared that I felt overwhelmed by going off in too many directions, so I'm working through what IS important to me, what I need to do, have to do, want to do...and seeing it in black and white I am far more conscious of what I need to do.  And what I don't!  What works, and what doesn't.

Sooooo...how do you use YOUR journal.  What do you want it to do?  What do you give yourself permission to do?  Is it important to you?

Please comment, we fellow journal-keepers want to know!

A fern and a clay beetle by Gay Kraeger

I love the Noodler's flex pen that came in the mail yesterday. I have been super busy at work, but I have decided to try and work in my journal more than I have been lately. Maybe this will help with more balance in my life. The flex pen delivery was a great incentive for a journal page.