{"id":2918,"date":"2018-05-17T22:26:19","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T19:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hagitaz.com\/?p=2918"},"modified":"2018-05-17T22:46:59","modified_gmt":"2018-05-17T19:46:59","slug":"choose-art-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hagitaz.com\/en\/choose-art-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Choose an Art Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"
Before I give your some tips on how to choose a journal that will suit your needs, let me stress that a journal is just a technical tool in which you can make art. However, the most important part of making art is… making art! It’s not about the journal, or the materials, or having the perfect studio.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nJournals handmade by students in my workshop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing you can’t work on. Throughout my teaching and art career I’ve done art on used school notebooks, brown paper bags, magazines and catalogs. Everything works, as long as you have a drive to create. Don’t let technicalities stop you from starting to make art, ok?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nFrom my first art journal in 2007, a simple, lined notebook from a dollar store<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
So… now that you’ve understood all of the above, you still might want to buy a good journal. One that you can toss in your bag and won’t crumple or stain anything, one with some good paper and a nice cover. So here are a few tips, and some of my favorite journals.<\/p>\n
Size<\/strong> \nDon’t buy large journals. They take forever to complete, and are too bulky to carry with you. I like to have 5X7 journals for my everyday art journaling, and some bigger, 8X8 or 8X11 journals for when I need the extra space. Choose a size you’re comfortable with, something you would enjoy taking with you, and can complete in less than a decade, because part of the fun is watching your journal fill up! Standard journals will have 32 spreads, I wouldn’t buy any thicker than that.<\/p>\n
Cover \n<\/strong>I’ve used both soft and hard cover journals, I like both, but there’s no doubt that hard cover journals open flatter and are better to work in. The soft cover ones will lose their form as you fill them in, and will therefore not open as flat.<\/p>\n
Opens Flat<\/strong> \nThis is the most important thing for me – make sure your journal opens flat! You need a journal that opens flat, otherwise it’s not as nice to work in it. For a journal to open flat, it needs to be\u00a0stitched<\/strong>. That means that when you open the journal right in the middle, you can see the thread that bind everything together. Personally, I hate spiral bound notebooks, the spiral kind of cuts the art right in the middle, and paint gets stuck in it…ugh, I don’t enjoy working in them, and took me 3 spiral notebooks to understand that. If you look closely, or enlarge the photo below, you’ll be able to see the stitches running through the center.<\/p>\n
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Page Thickness<\/strong> \nIf you like to use paint, and don’t want your pages to tear easily, choose at least 90-100 gr paper (most journals will have this information on the cover). Most quality journals will have 180-190 gr paper, but I’m not too picky about paper thickness, I’ve tries some very simple notebooks and flimsy paper, and it’s all fine. You might have to gesso some pages before working on them, or stick 2-3 pages together for them to be sturdier, but I’m fine with that.<\/p>\n
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My favorite store bought art journals<\/strong> \nBlank, white hardcover notebook. This is what I use in my art journaling classes. It doesn’t have too many pages, it’s sewn and opens flat, and the pages are nice and sturdy.<\/p>\n
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