Favorite Art Things #3: Art Journals

Favorite Art Things

Journals for Art Journaling

Here are two of my current journals. I "live" in the little black one for art journaling and playing with art supplies.  I "live" in the slightly larger red one for all my bright ideas, notes, thoughts and what ever I need to work out through writing (rather than images). The red one has a book plate I got from Staples and its an easy way for me to label my books for easy reference. I still refer back to many of the workshop notes and ideas from years gone by and its great to have the books labeled.

I'm really funny about the journals I use for my art journaling work.

My favorite Journals are  Global Arts Handbook Journals  for my art journaling and Moleskine for my bright ideas

I know every artist has their journal criteria, 
so if you like my criteria you might like these journals too.

For my Art Journal, I like ...

• Hard cover (solid black or red)
• Small-ish in size (5X7 or so...small enough to fit in my purse)
• Bound like a book (I'm not a fan of the spiral bound. I'm too messy an artist and I often loose pages with spiral bound books)
• Rectangle or Square shaped book ( I prefer square, if I can find it, it makes every page look like a framed work of art. :)) 
• Moderately thick pages (but not too thick or heavy to make the pages hard to turn)
• Pages textured like watercolor pages. (This is often called "tooth" - thanks Andrea)
• Pocket in the back to capture bits and pieces

For my Bright Idea Journal, I like ...

• Hard cover (solid black or red)
• Horizontal Lines
• Small-ish in size
• Bound like a book 
• Rectangle 
• Smooth pages 
• Pocket in the back to capture bits and pieces
• A ribbon book mark ( to easily mark the spot where I can continue journaling)

So here is my favorite art journals and my criteria for selecting a journal.

 What's your favorite journal and what makes it special to you?