Illustrated Journals...

My own journal writing usually lasts a few days/weeks before I get bored or frustrated and chuck it in a drawer with half the book empty. When I was ill once, a few years ago, I ordered a couple of books by Danny Gregory. Now, I have to say I find him quite annoying; there is a kind of superiority of tone that he expresses because he and his family all gallivant off to the country with journals in hand. I also think, for all the practice, he's not that great as an artist. Perhaps I'm being unfair. There are some very good aspects to what he preaches, one being, that drawing things as you go through life does make you look and remember that much better.

Taken from his blog, see link

I bought "An Illustrated Life" which compiles the journals of various writers and illustrators. This is quite fun to flick through, if a little bit samey - there is not a lot of variation. The other one I got was "The Creative Licence" which is where I did get slightly irritated with Mr D.G.

Link: Danny Gregory's books

I also got one by Dan Price called "How to Make A Journal of Your Life". Now, this one may have been interesting but the quality of the book was so poor (and I mean terrible) that it fell apart when I first opened it. Every page came loose. 

I'm not so sure what I think about journaling really. Perhaps it's because the two I've mentioned upload theirs to make a living. Does that make it a bit soulless? Perhaps not. Everyone has to make a living. I also find that artists like Gregory tend to draw just for the sake of it without any thought or purpose. This then verges on the mundane. 

However, I think that when I have a little bit of time (this summer perhaps) I shall start journaling again just to get some ideas down and improve my sketching skills. We shall see. 

Do you know of any other illustrated journal writers? And, what do you think of it?