An Illustrated Journey: Inspiration From the Private Art Journals of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers by Danny Gregory

An Illustrated Journey: Inspiration From the Private Art Journals of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers Reviews

• 
  Pramod Nair

  A well-placed travel illustration or travel sketch can always lift a travelogue into a new level of enjoyment for the reader. They always act as markers, which set the tone for the visualization that happens in the reader’s mind while devouring the author’s narrative. Travel sketches make narrations of locations or sights that are already familiar for the reader come alive in a fresh perception by allowing him to see the sights through the eyes of the illustrator.
  
  Danny Gregory brings the private art journals of 40 traveling artists, animators, illustrators & designers, in a beautifully designed volume titled ‘An Illustrated Journey’ brimming with charming, lovely and creative sketches. These selected pieces of talented illustrations provide the reader with a perspective that allows them to enjoy familiar landmarks and sights from around the globe through the creative and fresh vantage points of the artists mind. These incredibly beautiful sketches provide hours of enjoyment for a travel enthusiast while motivating their inner-artist to take-up the fascinating art of travel sketching.
  
  
  Cover of An Illustrated Journey: Inspiration from the Private Art Journals of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers
  
  Instead of quickly making up a book made out of a collection of travel sketches, Danny Gregory has gone into the pains of creating an inspirational volume filled with insider information on what makes these artists tick. By interviewing each of them he makes them reveal valuable insights into how they sketch, how they find motivation, what are their trade secrets and even their favorite sketching tools all the while giving us a glimpse at their personal travel journals.
  
  Danny Gregory has employed an equal balance for both the personal thoughts and the sketches of the contributing artists, which makes this volume more valuable. In this book you will meet artists who sketch stunning panoramas, artists who create dissections of thriving city life, artists who observe and draw sketches of natural and animal life, artists with sharp wit with their sketches full of incredibly funny caricatures, artists who make use of clever typography and even an artist who creates pastiches of Tintin cover pages based on his travel experiences.
  
  
  
  
  A sample page taken from the book brimming with art
  
  This is a book that is to be enjoyed slowly, one artist at a time. Even though it took me more than 2-3 weeks to go through the entire book, slowly devouring the works of each artist while gaining insights into their operational methods was highly entertaining and inspiring.
  
  By sketching instead of merely photographing the sights, the traveler involves more in the journey – just like an explorer – and allows him to capture the true essence of the travel. If you love drawing then spending some hours with this book will fill you with all the inspiration that is needed to arouse the interest of taking up sketching on your next travel thereby transcending you from being a mere tourist to a true traveler. You don’t have to be an artist to enjoy this amazing volume on Art with it’s hundreds of drawings, paintings and calligraphy artworks. Highly recommended for both travel and art lovers.
• 
  Elizabeth A

  Reread September 2018:
  
  This has been my bedtime read for the past week or so, and I love it as much as the first time I read it. If you are a fan of sketchbooks, travel, or keep a journal, pick up a copy, dip in and out, and see if you don't get inspired to document your travels both near and far.
  
  2013 Review:
  
  This book is a wonderful collection of travel sketchbook pages from artists all over the world. Packed with sketches, tips and materials used, this book got my sketching juices flowing, and makes me want to sketch everything in sight. Loved it.
• 
  Melinda

  This is a very great book, with lot of “behind the scenes” and cool tips!:)
  It’s so good to read stories from people whom I followed for a long time on social media, and always liked their art. 🎨☺️
• 
  Mel

  I am trying to draw more from life in sketch books and this provided some useful tips and inspiration. It is more looking than reading but there is a little blip about what inspires each artist and how they sketch the world and their travels. A nice glimpse into how people work and keep sketch journals. I would recommend this for people who are looking for inspiration on how to take a more journalistic approach to their sketch books, arm chair travelers, and people who like to look at well executed drawings from life and urban landscapes of various places. I read an e-book copy and probably should have splurged for the hard copy. A fast read that I am sure I will continue to look through.
• 
  Chris

  3.5 stars. I enjoyed peeking into all the different ways people use art journals to document their travels, especially as I saw common themes emerge. And I'm a sucker for reading about the different supplies artists use, especially when they're away from home.
• 
  jimtown

  This is the best and most useful art book I've read so far. I've not read a lot of art books, but I love looking at art. I often wonder how illustrators and sketch artists add the color to their sketches. Forty artists were interviewed for An Illustrated Journey and the resulting information from each artist shared a similar format. An unexpected surprise was how many of them said sketching or drawing things burned not only the time and place in their memory, but sounds and smells as well. It seems that drawing something, especially from life, is a much better way of remembering a trip than just taking photographs. Each artist has his or her own rules for their journals. They all also told what supplies they carry on trips, their favorites for traveling light but still being able to create art. The best part is probably the sample pages each artist allowed us to see. They all have a unique style and all are very, very good. They gave some encouragement to someone contemplating starting a sketchbook too. Just pick it up and draw seemed to be the consensus. They said I would get better...Great book, would love to have the physical copy of this but reading on Kindle has the advantage of being able to click to see their websites.
• 
  Karen

  5 for concept — 40 artists, illustrators, and designers share their work and talk about their process and their passion for sketching on location when travelling.
  
  5 for beauty — an absolutely gorgeous variety of styles and approaches are beautifully reproduced in this book. Don’t even think about buying an e-book version. This is a book that needs to be held and admired, even for the quality of the paper.
  
  4 for the text — There was quite a lot of text, otherwise I wouldn’t have included it in my Goodreads challenge. Since each artist answered the same set of questions, the text got quite repetitive. That probably wouldn’t have been a problem if I’d read the book slowly over several days or weeks, rather than in a six or seven hour gulp.
• 
  Megan

  Fabulous book that takes you on a trip around the world in various artist's sketches & paintings. There are many different examples of urban sketching and travel illustration.
• 
  Kris

  "When we document a journey in a sketchbook, we discover the difference between vacationing and traveling; we become adventurers, discovering new worlds through a thousand tiny details... the travel journal keeper clears his mind, refreshes his eyeballs, and builds a cache of enduring memories." (p. 7)
  
  "Drawing while traveling has made them more deeply in love with both, has rekindled their love of sketching and has made travel something they plan for and look forward to for years.
  They discover the differences and particularities of each destination through drawing: the unique flow of every city, the specific lines that make up each city's signature, the way people dress and park and eat and shop. They record thoughts and overheard conversations, as well as maps of their personal paths, phone numbers for hotels, restaurant recommendations, airline flight numbers.
  Eventually, they travel because they draw, rather than vice versa." (p. 8)
  
  "Drawing is also a great icebreaker, a wonderful way to meet locals who are used to ignoring the busloads in indistinguishable tourists. They want to know how our fresh eyes see their world, made all too familiar and unexceptional to them by routine." (p. 8)
  
  "...I gave myself the assignment of drawing Los Angeles, and I feel like an explorer, going into neighborhoods that have changed greatly since my childhood. I am finding a deeper connection with this city in which I was born, and I find that I'm documenting life in a city that is changing and evolving all the time." (p. 79)
  
  "One of the many things I'm excited about with the advent of the iPad is the GPS feature. I love being able to trace my exact route on a map and drop way markers to denote events, as an adjunct to the journal." (p. 90)
  
  "I wonder, does the act of keeping a journal inspire one to make his life more interesting? Does an interesting life lead to a journal, or does a journal lead to an interesting life? I find that I'm more conscious of living in the moment with my journals..." (p. 141)
  
  "...when I'm drawing there is also a physiological change in me. I am calmer, more alert (hyperalert) and filled with wonder. Drawing activates a direct switch to my sense of wonder." (p. 238)
  
  References:
  
  http://www.urbansketchers.org/
  
  http://urbansketchers-italy.blogspot.ca/
  
  http://france.urbansketchers.org/
  
  http://urbansketchers-japan.blogspot.ca/
  
  http://urbansketchers-london.blogspot...
  
• 
  Afreen Aftab

  I've always wanted to try sketchbooking and journalling. It's something I used to do as a kid; drawing about the places and things I've seen instead of just writing about them and I didn't know it's something you can develop and make a skill out of. Even if it's not some great work of art, it is still an essential part of the process of loosening up, studying textures, lighting, and shapes, and also just having fun.
  
  The artists featured in this collection had some interesting takes. I got some good tips out of it, some of them just sounded really snobby about their sketchbook art, some...had a weird choice of word usage (see: offensive) to describe places and stuff and some had opinions that just pissed me off
  
  So here are some tips that I personally found creative or useful and maybe you would too:
  

  
  Introduction
  I discovered that when I drew something, I remembered it in deepest detail. I remember the way the light fell on the building, the sounds birds made as they flew overhead, every item in a shop window, conversations I overheard, and life all around me became richer and more vivid because I was doing this simple thing: drawing with a pen in a book.
  
  Chris Buchholz
  There’s something cool to me about being able to fill your brush with water from a beautiful fountain in Italy and then paint that fountain.
  
  Nina Johansson
  I don’t think that much about composition, I just begin with the most important item, put it where I want it on the page, and continue from there
  (good advice for drawing complicated scapes)
  
  Andrea Joseph
  I actually lay the object on the paper and draw around it. My friend says it's cheating but I don’t think so. The thing I like about this method is that the drawing is the actual size of your subject. And, in some way, I feel the object and the drawing become even closer. The object becomes part of the drawing, more entwined.
  
  Kolby Kirk
  Sometimes I’ll take out my GPS and write down the coordinates
  
  Steven B. Reddy (he had some really good advice and stuff instead of just bragging about stuff)
  I still do a gray ink wash version first, then “glaze” the watercolor on top of that. It’s more work and takes more time, but painting in gray first helps me make sense of the overwhelming amount of data I’m looking at. Then, once I know where the darks and lights are, I can put in a little color.
  
  When I draw, many things that happened while I was drawing get “locked into the picture.” I don’t mean in a figurative sense, like, “Oh, that was a beautiful day …,” but very specific details: the conversations I had while drawing, the song I was listening to on my iPhone, the TV show that was on the background. It’s weird, but I’ll look back at a drawing of a cup of coffee and Mad Men will pop into my head. Or a glance at a drawing from a Chinese restaurant will elicit a shouted, “Laoban! Laoban!” because I heard a patron call out to the waitress while I was drawing.
  
  Asnee Tasnaruangrong
  Sometimes I also get a very effective result by adding soft pastel (the type used by professional pastel artists) very sparingly over dry watercolor sketches.
  

  
  
  And some are just funny or interesting quotes
  

  
  Tommy Kane
  Tommy Kane is a squirrel who grew up on Long Island and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Yun.
  My name is Tommy Kane, and I am a drawaholic
  My wife and I make a good couple because she has lots of ideas and I nod my yes to all of them head
  
  (You have these artists swearing by Moleskins and then there's..)
  Miguel “Freekhand” Herranz
  I don’t like Moleskines. They are the worst and most expensive standard sketchbooks in the world, an example of a great marketing strategy selling a poor product
  
  Hannah Hinchman
  I like interacting with people when I’m drawing, generally. The most common comment is “I wish I could do that.” They can, of course.
  
  Some artists are really all snobby criticizing their companions for seeing places and taking photos (yknow that's what being a tourist is about) instead of sKeTcHiNg because "you capture memories better that way" and then there's...
  Olivier Kugler
  When I am traveling I don’t want to spend a lot of time sitting on my bum or standing around sketching—I want to get out there. Explore!
  
  Bryce Wymer
  Working in a sketchb617-1ook or writing in a journal is a physical and mental exercise. It’s not necessarily meant to be hung on a wall or handled with white gloves. It’s one of those rare places in this world where on one page you can totally geek out and experiment with abstraction and on the next page you can work through a refined portrait where there will undoubtedly always be something wrong with the fucking nose (lol!)
  
  

  
  
  Then the old man yells at cloud artists. Like why can't they chill about artists choosing to draw using photographs? I get the point that nothing prepares you for Plein air sketching other than the experience of it but it's okay to finish stuff or enhance them back home using photos like it's not a big deal. Do art the way you want to. You shouldn't have to conform to too many rules and good photography is a skill in itself. And If you're traveling then enjoy the sights too. It's okay.
  

  
  Introduction
  Unlike those who hide behind a pudgy mystery novel and a piña colada while plopped in a poolside lounge
  (it's okay to relax once in a while like chill)
  
  Ken Avidor
  A lot of people sketch buildings and streets without people. What a mistake.
  (ken seems to have missed Bob Ross' memo)
  
  Kolby Kirk
  A book seems much harder to destroy than art created in Photoshop or a video.
  (Umm nope. when will traditionists stop putting down digital art)
  
  Virginia Hein
  I have to remind myself that it’s OK to make bad drawings! If the sketchbook becomes too precious to experiment in, then it’s not a good sketchbook.
  (i mean the first parts ok but it's okay for sketchbooks to be treated preciously, to plan compositions, etc doesn't mean it's a bad sketchbook. some artists in this very book would agree)
  
  Liz Steel's whole rant about cameras too (meh) and there were more but I got bored of them
  
  

  
  And the weird:
  

  
  Fabio Consoli
  Africa has its own smell and forest sounds. I’d like to imprint them in my notebooks forever; this is why I often use food or fruits like coffee, wine, soy sauce, some fresh herbs, berries or tomatoes for coloring. This is some way, even for a short time, I can infuse the smells into my drawings; this gives my Moleskine a nice garbage smell.
  
  Jean-Christophe Defline
  Asian trips are my favorite travel experiences. There are so many amazing subjects to draw on the continent that I feel like an oversexed guy in a harem, as Warren Buffet would say.
  
  An Illustrated Journey
  "The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” (yeah sorry Saint Augustine but not all of us have the means)
  For those who want to sketch but can't travel watch those tour videos on youtube, use google street view or even just sketch what is out your window, at different times of the day, year, or month. sketch your pet, your tools, the rack of condiments literally anything. It's okay to do what you want.
• 
  Parka

  
  (
  More pictures on my blog)
  
  An Illustrated Journey is a delightful collection of travel sketches from 40 contributors all over the world. They draw on location, they record their thoughts, and they share their stories in this book. The presentation style is similar to Danny Gregory's previous book
  An Illustrated Life, a book that I still refer to regularly.
  
  This book is somewhat similar to
  The Art of Urban Sketching. The sketches are all done on location. In this book however, the focus is on the contributors themselves and their thoughts on places and sketching while traveling. The writeup is longer with more depth and you really get to feel their love for sketching.
  
  I really enjoy looking at the beautiful sketches and reading the scribbled notes on the pages. Sketches have the charm and personalities that can't be found from photographs. I guess that's why I love sketchbooks so much.
  
  This is an inspiring sketchbook for travel and art lovers. It's definitely one of my favourite books for 2013.
  
  Highly recommended.
  
• 
  Darren Hester

  I'm just getting back into sketching and recently discovered Danny Gregory's blog. He has many books on drawing and they all seem to have favorable reviews. I thought "An Illustrated Journey" would be a good place to start and I wasn't disappointed.
  
  The book profiles 40 different artist, illustrators and designers. They each discuss how they use their sketchbook to experience the world and appreciate the beauty in simple things. Each artist shares a few sample pages from their sketchbook and you learn what gear they use to create the images. I found it very inspiring.
  
  It's not a how-to book, but focuses on how each artist started sketching and what their sketchbooks mean to them. One thing that every artist seemed to stress is how much more personal and meaningful a sketch is compared to a photograph. The process of sketching requires you to focus on many details for an extended period. You see light, shadows, and textures in ways you just can't appreciate with a photo. When you look back at a drawing years later, all those details come flooding back. I found this very interesting. Something I'd never considered before.
  
  Although I enjoyed reading it on my Kindle Paperwhite, all the sketchbook images were small and monochrome. So I'd recommend reading it on a color display or a paper copy.
  
  I ordered two more of Danny's books: "Art Before Breakfast" and "An Illustrated Life". They arrived yesterday and are in vivid color. I think I'll enjoy them much better in the printed form.
  
  
• 
  Timothy Neesam

  Artists and graphic designers explain how and why they create their travel journals. Lots of fun, with explanations of what leads to particular styles, use of different tools and tons of examples from the journals. A great, inspirational read. I enjoyed it enough to renew it twice from the library and I'm off to buy my own copy. Recommended for those who like art, travel, and explanations of creative process. 6 stars.
• 
  Kaśyap

  An interesting collection of art journals from around the world.
• 
  Penny

  This is a fun book made up of several artists each talking about how they got into urban sketching, their process, their relationships with travel and their art, and showing some of their work. I enjoyed the book and it got me to put together my watercolor sketch kit that I can carry around with me and went out to my front stoop to paint my personal view of the freeway interchange, hauling myself down the hall and the few stairs I have to fight with to get to the front stoop, then finding a place for my cane and sitting down.
  
  Normally I would rate something that got me to start something I'd wanted to do but hadn't thought about too hard five stars. Here is why this is four: I looked at who was missing from the book, and found that while there is great racial diversity and there are about as many men as women - great! - but while many people mention having a partner, no one talks about a same-sex partner: the men have wives, the women have husbands, and I am left to wonder if LGBT people were asked not to include this information or if we were just not included in the book. Similarly, while many people talk about walking, biking, hiking, and even camping, no one talks about dealing with a mobility disability, about having limitations in getting to know a new city and how they deal with that, or other disability issues and how they impact the experience of urban sketching. Were we asked to leave that out, or were we just not included at all? I don't know. Four stars.
• 
  Jessie Ruth

  Overall, excellent book to get inspiration and exposure to urban sketching. I really loved this book. If you are a beginner artist and are sick and tired of tutorial books, this book gives that extra push of opening your eyes to the mostly-unseen, raw, beautifully honest art that amazing illustrators and artists produced in their own quiet time with almost always no intention to sell. When I was reading it, I had the impression that all artists were sent a standard set of questions -- the transition from the artist's story/background didn't always flow smoothly into the next question. But all information were kept concise with some sample drawings at the beginning and end of each artist's section of the book. They say honestly why they draw, and what materials they love using and not love using (with brands and colors and all!).
  
  Note: it's not meant to be a tutorial book, so don't expect to learn anything on how to draw. But this book will definitely inspire you to draw to your heart's content. :)
• 
  Carolina

  Artists interviewed:
  
  Ken Avidor
  Roberta Avidor
  Chris Buchholz
  Suzanne Cabrera
  Lisa Cheney-Jorgensen
  Fabio Consoli
  Jean-Christophe Defline
  Benedetta Dossi
  Bob Fisher
  Enrique Flores
  Wil Freeborn
  Carol Gillott
  Virginia Hein
  Miguel “Freekhand” Herranz
  Hannah Hinchman
  Kathrin Jebsen-Marwedel
  Nina Johansson
  Cathy Johnson
  Andrea Joseph
  Tommy Kane
  Stéphane Kardos
  Amanda Kavanagh
  Ch’ng Kiah Kiean
  Kolby Kirk
  Olivier Kugler
  Lapin
  Veronica Lawlor
  Don Low
  Prashant Miranda
  Steven B. Reddy
  Melanie Reim
  Lucinda Rogers
  Felix Scheinberger
  Pete Scully
  Richard Sheppard
  Ian Sidaway
  Liz Steel
  Roz Stendahl
  Brenda Swenson
  Asnee Tasnaruangrong
  Earnest Ward
  Bryce Wymer
  Suhita Shirodkar
• 
  Sebastian Radu

  What a delight! Love it when a book reveals itself to be exactly what I expected and much more. It's a great collection of snippets from travel journals, along with insight from these artists about their background, work, process and kit. It is a fine source of information and a great inspiration for anyone who wants to draw, paint and especially sketch and journal more.
  
  I particularly loved this quote from Virginia Hein, who actually journals beautifully: "I sometimes make lousy sketches. (..) it's OK to make bad drawings! If the sketchbook becomes too precious to experiment in, then it's not a good sketchbook."
• 
  Terrie

  40+ artists/sketchers share pages from their journals and their individual journeys to drawing/sketching their way thru life. Some familiar names from Urban Sketching, lots of different styles represented. No drawing or painting tips but most shared what's in the go-to sketching kits. The overriding takeaway for me is that EVERY SINGLE ONE said, take a sketchbook with you everywhere, all the time. Sketch while you wait instead of checking your phone. Draw your everyday life. Draw. Draw. Draw.
  
  I'm looking for inspiration to get back to my drawing/sketching, and this may be just the push I need!
• 
  Katie Nelson

  "When we document a journey in a sketchbook, we discover the difference between vacationing and traveling; we become adventurers, discovering new worlds through a thousand tiny details." - Danny Gregory.
  
  This book is going to be a great ongoing resource for me to refer to. I love all the artist submissions and I especially enjoyed reading each one of their individual stories as well as learning about their techniques. I'm happy that I purchased this on Kindle because I can use all the links to go straight to the artist websites.
• 
  JoAnna

  Three-line review: This lighthearted and interesting collection of stories from traveling artists was a great book to pick up here and there over the last several months. I enjoyed reading about what drew their attention and inspired them to create, though their lists of art materials didn't mean much to me. I would have preferred to read this one in print rather than e-book to better enjoy the illustrations.
• 
  Melinda

  Enjoyed browsing through this collection, but enjoyed An Illustrated Life more. This one seems to polished, too professional for an amateur like myself to take inspiration from. Many of the journal pages are too composed, a constant reminder that they have been done by professional illustrators and designers. I also did not like the pages that were cropped from journals; I prefer seeing the entire page or spread, not a cropped piece of art in a book of this type. Still, a fun and colorful read.
• 
  Maryana

  Una maravillosa colección de artistas de todo el mundo que tienen en común dibujar mientras viajan.
  
  Un libro de lo más inspirador. Cada artista muestra sus materiales, sketches y cuenta cómo llego a dedicarse al arte, diseño, ilustración, etc.
  
  Después de leer el libro, entran muchas ganas de coger una libreta, lápiz, pluma, pintura de acuarela y ponerse a dibujar la vida.
  
• 
  Randal

  Enjoyable but ultimately too repetitive
  
  I enjoyed a lot of the sketches, but after a while most of the artists seemed to be saying the exact same things. The repetition became boring, and I ended up not finishing the entire book.
• 
  Karen

  FANTASTIC! Great read. Introduces you to many different artists and styles. Lots of tid bits to improve your art. Made me more comfortable with the idea if sketching. Not ALL drawings need to be perfect, finished or smooth works
• 
  Valeria

  This book successfully insipired me to sketch, in this case is Urban Sketching. I bought this book to see beautiful sketches from visual journalist but how shock I am when I was inspired more by the writtings.
• 
  Barbara

  Urban Sketching Palooza
  
  This is a great book for novice and seasoned urban sketchers!Talented artists, great art, tools and tips abound. Checked out at the library twice and finally purchased.