A World of Artist Journal Pages: 1000+ Artworks | 230 Artists | 30 Countries by Dawn DeVries Sokol

A World of Artist Journal Pages: 1000+ Artworks | 230 Artists | 30 Countries Reviews

• 
  Shelli

  It'd be impossible to give A World of Artist Journal Pages any lower than four stars, simply because of the absolutely dazzling array of talent, creativity, openness, and bravery of the artists featured within; the journal pages themselves trump any other complaints I might have about the book itself. I really appreciate how the author/curator included a wide variety of styles and voices, and often included multiple spreads from a single artist. There will mostly be pages that you love and a few that you won't, but there won't be any that you don't appreciate on some level!
  
  HOWEVER…
  
  The actual design of the book gets about a negative 6 stars from me. Honestly, I can't think of a single thing that was done right, except maybe having an index. In roughly descending order of annoying awfulness, my complaints are as follows:
  
  1. What an unbelievable waste of space. Housed in a fabulously huge 9" x 10" format, the overall layout and the breakdown of each individual page manages to waste most of it on white space. White space is important in busy texts or multimedia-style book design, but A World of Artist Journal Pages is much more akin to a museum catalog: Picture, caption. Picture, caption. Lather, rinse, repeat. The captions, which include the name, location, occupation, and URL of the artist as well as materials used (all under a fairly useless numbering scheme that would not have been necessary with better design) do not need to take up the same physical space as half an entire journal page image. And the margins do not need to take up a fifth of the page.
  
  2. The "Featured Artists" sections are uninspiring. Aside from another excuse to show off the extremes to which large margins can be utilized, the extras included for the "Featured Artists" are dull and poorly executed. It's just a list of frankly very unoriginal questions that each of the featured artists answered; the list was the same for each of the artists. Almost every answer is included for all of the featured artists, no matter how rote and uninspired the response, or how many times other featured artists answered the same question the exact same way. It would have made much more sense to have excerpted only special and unique answers. The way it is, I can't remember which artist gave the answer, "Just lay some paint down!" to the question of "What do you do to get over the blank page syndrome?", because literally like 75% of them did.
  
  3. Where are the boys? There is a perception that art journaling is a creative form utterly dominated by women, and collections like this just codify and therefore exacerbate the situation. Seriously, as much as I love them both, Seth Apter and and Tracy Moore are not the only men who work in this medium. The exclusion of
  José Naranja is downright criminal, and is made even more egregious by the inclusion of several artists who are clearly knocking him off.
  
  4. And speaking of knock-offs… I'd like to have seen more originality, and less glorification of those who have managed to convincingly copy someone else's style. As I went through this volume front to back, I came across no fewer than five Teesha Moore spreads before I got to the ones that Teesha actually did. Don't get me wrong; there is nothing wrong with emulating – even downright copying – one's favorite artists in order to learn their techniques and processes. Believe me, I have more than a few Teesha-esque spreads of my own! But that copying should just be a phase, a stepping stone on the road to finding one's own authentic artistic voice. It should not be enshrined forever in a published collection of what are supposed to be notable examples of the form, especially next to truly original work, and really especially not in the same publication, as if meeting the same standard, as the exact artists they're copying. Save the spaces in collections like this for artists who have progressed past being only the sum total of their influences, and have learned to bring their own expression to their art.
  
  5. I don't even like the cover. But now I'm just nitpicking. 😁
  
  There are many of these types of collections, and frankly, I have some combination of these same complaints about all of them. So pick this one up (but from the library!), get out your magnifying glass, and enjoy the pretty pictures, but don't assume it's necessarily fully representative of the state of the art form. (Many artists who are among the movers and shakers of art journaling are notably absent, and I wonder if some of the things I've mentioned here have anything to do with it.) But as I said, I just can't give A World of Artist Journal Pages any lower than four stars, out of respect for the artists that deserve to be in here, and deserve to be seen!
• 
  Janet

  I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway. I wasn't sure what to expect because I am not familiar with the art of journal pages. However, when "A World of Artist Journal Pages" arrived, I was AMAZED, DELIGHTED and MIGHTILY IMPRESSED. I enjoy studying the detail of each journal page as well as seeing where each artist is from. They come from all over the world yet there is a common thread, the art is imaginative, stunning...absolutely stunning...insightful and thought provoking. These works are a gift to the world from the artists who created them. I am grateful that this book found it's way to me.
• 
  Elizabeth A

  This book is a collection of photos of art journal pages from journals around the world - 230 artists from 30 countries to be precise. As one would expect with a collection like this one, there is wide range of styles represented, and I certainly liked some better than others. If you are a fan of art journaling, this is a fun book to dip into when looking for some inspiration.
• 
  Hayley Shaver

  This book is from goodreads-first-reads. I got it for free. I liked this book. I would have liked it more, however, if the beautiful pictures in the book were larger. I could hardly see the pictures' details.
• 
  Melinda

  Moving infinitesimally closer to trying to do an illustrated journal . . . well, reading about it, anyway! I liked this one slightly more than the first because there was some commentary on the journal pages and they were reproduced in a larger format. I HATED the canned interview questions for selected artists. Why not give them 30 questions and let them choose five they want to respond to? Who wants to read the answer to "What do you do when your blocked?" a dozen times? Still, great compendium and inspiration for when I do actually start that illustrated journal.
• 
  Kristi

  This book was right up my alley. I loved seeing all the different journal pages and especially appreciate the artists opening up their pages, which can be so personal. This book is so inspiring to anyone that wants to create an art journal or just be inspired.
• 
  Deborah Davis

  This series is just so brilliant to get a really close look at so many different styles and ideas for art journaling. A great resource and a fabulous idea for all those interested in this area of creativity.
• 
  Laraine

  I’ve started to research journaling to see how it could help organize my thoughts, life with ultimately using my time preciously. This journal was fabulous with images. It is great to get ideas from if you do not have that creative ability.
• 
  Heather

  Inspirational. Motivational. Moving. Beautiful. This book made me want to look up the artists and find a nugget of time in my schedule to create on a regular basis. Next task: finding the nugget.
• 
  Keishua

  Lots of yummy inspiration.
• 
  Nadia

  A 3.5-star rating.
• 
  Caroline

  So inspirational. Loved that she included non-artists as well. Anyone can be creative & art journal.
• 
  Danielle Valles

  Such a beautiful and inspirational book!
• 
  Kate

  Enjoyed!! Loved seeing everyone else's work for the inspiration alone . . .
• 
  Jessica

  I really want to buy this book! It's so inspiring and great.
• 
  Kristy

  So much creativity & talent in one book!
• 
  Trish

  This is a cool a book showcasing people's art journals.
• 
  余馨

  these are not artist journal pages they are the work of samey copycat scrapbookers. it hardly matters how many people's gluing, gessoing and gel-penning are depicted, they are unvarying in materials and method and only strive to outdo one another for cloying sentiment.
  
  for actual artist actual journals, see the lovely Drawing from Life by Jennifer New for diverse delights on every page.
• 
  Megan

  So much inspiration!