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

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. The artists featured are: Ken Avidor Roberta Avidor Chris Buchholz Suzanne Cabrera Lisa Cheney-Jorgensen Fabio Consoli Jean-Christophe Defline Benedetta Dossi Bob Fisher Enrique Flores Will Freeborn Carol Gillott Virginia Hein Miguel "Freekhand" Herranz Hannah Hinchman Kathrin Jebsen-Marwedel Nina Johansson Cathy Johnson Andrea Joseph Tommy Kane Stephane Kardos Amanda Kavanagh Ch'ng Kiah Kiean Kirk Kolby Olivier Kugler Lapin Veronica Lawlor Don Low Prashant Miranda Steven B. Reddy Melaine Reim Lucinda Rogers Felix Scheinberger Pete Scully Richard Sheppard Suhita Shirodkar Ian Sidaway Liz Steel Roz Stendahl Brenda Swenson Asnee Tasnaruangrong Earnest Ward Bryce Wymer - I wanted to recommend a few more travel related sketchbooks but realize that there are too many. So instead, I'll post a link to the list on my blog in the comments section below.

I totally recommend this book to anyone and everyone that needs inspiration. The artists describe their habits, design style, how they travel, who they travel with, what supplies they use and how they approach travel journaling. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, a novice or a dedicated artist, you will get something out of this book. I had to read it slowly and thoughtfully. While I will keep this as a resource and read it again and again, you only get the pleasure of reading a book for this first time to realize it is going to change your universe. Just say Yes, I am going to read this and share it with everyone!

I am so glad I bought this book. Although I've been journaling off and on for years, I've not been great about including illustrations. I had no idea it was such a wide spread practice. I pick up this book almost everyday and glance through it for information, i.e. what kind of gear is needed for journal sketching and inspiration from page after page of great examples of illustrations. The difference in styles leads one to believe that he/she can create an illustrated journal and indeed they can. There is a recurring theme to the information given: Draw, draw, draw and the feeling they get more out of their trip by taking time to sit, draw and make notes. Cameras are great but it's so easy to just snap and run. When you get home you have a camera full of photos but if you haven't really spent some quality time at a site, are you going to retain the sights, sounds, texture, etc. years later? Because of this book, I am now drawing more, just things around town for now but I'm getting ready all the time for when I do travel. I can't recommend this book highly enough. If you're truly interested in illustrative journaling, pick up this book and be prepared to be seduced by the shear beauty and volume. P.S. Why isn't there 6 STARS

Danny Gregory's eagerly awaited book, An Illustrated Journey: Inspiration from the Private Art Journals of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers, came out a few weeks ago, and after all the anticipation, it does not disappoint. The book is a rich treasury of travel sketches and personal profiles of many inspiring artists. Very similar in format to Gregory's 2008 book, An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers, his latest book profiles 43 travel journal keepers from many countries. Each artist has written a first-person account of his or her background in art and travel, how travel sketching is inspired, and techniques and tools used. Photos of some artists are included, showing them sketching on location. It is particularly illuminating to see the common threads among nearly all the artists - that drawing what they see while traveling enriches their travel experiences, bridges gaps in understanding about other cultures, and evokes memories like no photographs can. It's clear that sketching and traveling have become integrated creative processes for these artists: Seeing new places motivates drawing, and drawing motivates observing more carefully the new places they experience. The meat of the book is a beautiful collection of large, full-color reproductions of art from the artists' travel sketchbooks. These unique, spontaneous views of the world make me want to hop on a plane right now to fill my own sketchbook with the places I visit. Most of the artists included - Miguel "Freekhand" Herranz, Nina Johansson, Cathy Johnson, Tommy Kane, Lapin, Veronica Lawlor and Liz Steel, to name a few - are well-known in the blogosphere of the urban sketching/on-location drawing community. A few are less-known discoveries with fresh, surprising perspectives. In fact, if I have any complaints about this beautiful book, it is a tiny one: I wish it had included more travelers who are not professional artists, illustrators or designers, and who are perhaps less well-known. Almost every participant either has an art degree or makes a living using their artistic skills. I have seen online the amazing on-location sketches of so many people who work at "regular" jobs and do not have any kind of art background. I would have loved to see more of them included. Better yet, a whole volume devoted to the on-location work of non-professional artists would be equally inspiring as this one. How about it, Danny?

I purchased this book on my kindle for android before leaving for an extended road trip. What a treat it was to read slowly and casually each artist's section at the end of a tiring day. It was a great way to unwind after a day on the road. I appreciated the way Danny Gregory followed a similar outline for each artist's story. Each artist listing their favorite materials for sketching was also enlightening. The only thing I disliked is the illustrations do not enlarge on my tablet. That might not be a problem on a real Kindle. I like having it on my tablet, and just the other day found myself going back and rereading some of the passages. I would recommend this to persons interested in sketching and keeping a journal, although as a mostly armchair traveler I did like seeing each artist's interpretation of the various places they visited.

"An Illustrated Journey" is what Danny Gregory's book, "Creative License" has grown up to become. If you love to see what is in someone else's art bag, you'll get a great glimpse here. The contributing artists have listed the supplies they carry on their travels. The photos of the work are rich in variety, giving one inspiration to go forth and make art. The narratives that go along with each artist are great information, as well. The best part about this book is there are no instructions and no judgement on what a journal is supposed to be, just the information for the reader to glean what one needs to get. Inside the pages you will only find great pictures, nuggets to harvest and plenty of creative energy to catch; how refreshing!

Can't say enough about this book. Happened to pick it up in the local library, and was just captivated. 44 different artists capturing their travels and environs with so many different styles. And pretty much none of it in an overwrought or stilted "fine art" manner, it's all personal sketchbooks mostly not intended for galleries or for sale. So refreshing. Captured quickly, so the artists have all developed methods to grab the essence of their perceptions quickly. It's inspired me to develop a sketchbook habit, and to learn more about adding color to my drawings, which most of these artists do so effectively yet in a spare and easy style. Some of the artists are professional illustrators, but many seem to be just very devoted amateurs who do it for the love of drawing. This makes it very much more approachable for an aspiring artist, makes you think, yes, you can do something like this too. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece. Also bought the Illustrated Life book by same author, also good, though I think I prefer this one over the earlier one. Will be buying another copy as a gift for an artist friend of mine.

I got this book on loan from Amazon but will be buying it, I found it inspirational to look at all the sketchbooks and read the thought s of the artists. I just returned to drawing and painting after a long dry spell, caused b y an accident, and this book clicked with me. I really enjoyed seeing the different ways artists use their sketchbooks. The book is like an exhibition, rather than a how to do it book , although there are hidden nuggets of information on drawing supplies and technique scattered through the book. Mainly it's the pictures from the sketchbooks I enjoy.