Journal Bliss: Creative Prompts to Unleash Your Inner Eccentric by Violette
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Violette’s book has been in my to read stack for awhile. I was finally able to read this book when I took it with me on a trip. I found that it was a quick read. It might have been a quick read, but it was a powerful read as well. Violette, in this book, is a cheerleader, life coach, therapist and art teacher. She mixes in the right amount of words with pictures, the right amount of encouragement and support.
She dives in with a discussion about the reader’s inner critic. I was a little surprised that she would start out with this, but it was the right way to organize the book and she didn’t go on and on in that chapter.
She clearly describes a lot of techniques and a lot of different ways to do small but effective bits of embellishment. Her writing style makes the reader think that s/he can create borders, backgrounds and any of the techniques described. The one part that really intrigued me was the part about faces. Reading this section and looking at the pictures gave me confidence She makes drawing faces seem simple. I don’t mean simple as in stupid looking, but simple as in with a little practice everyone can do faces as well as she can.
Violette provides lots of examples of her artwork. The book is mostly drawings and examples of her written creativity. The majority of the book is not typeset, but embellished, drawn and colored. This style provides lots of examples of her. She shows it is simple. The drawings are not simple, but if the reader breaks them down and looks carefully at the lines, there is nothing tricky going on and the style is quite do-able.
One great suggestion Violette gives is to do a Gratitude journal page using a list rather than prose. I think that is a great idea for any kind of journal page, not only a gratitude page.
I really liked this book and think that it is one that will be a great reference book. I would like to try the various drawing techniques to spice up my journal pages, especially the border ideas. I also want to try making the faces.
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thank you so much for the kind review of my book Journal Bliss. You know you can always print your favourite journal pages onto cotton or image transfer paper and incorporate them into mini quilts or art quilts! That would be fun!
Love, violette