Book Review: Journal Spilling by Diana Trout

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite books to come out in recent years. Diana Trout’s Journal Spilling is about free expression but so much more. She says that every fear contains a wish, so scribble, scrawl and spill your innermost thoughts on the page of your personal journals to release those wishes and banish the demons. Diana’s voice of encouragement is strong in person, on her blog and through the pages of her book. But she doesn’t just deliver a kindly word and leave the rest to fate. She’s there to back you up with techniques, prompts, ideas and enough art ammo to keep you journaling into the future.

Included are lists of juicy words for spilling, a host of techniques like water transfer and wax paper resist, as well as acts of destruction suitable for journals. There are doodle spilling games and a variety of book form suggestions for composing your own daybook. Creating a lifeline journal, a wishing quilt or inner creature paper dolls will be a snap with her visual guides. Learn how to design a personal landscape and what to include in a field trip traveling kit. You’ll get to peek inside Diana’s own colorful mind as you browse through the bright, energetic illustrations from her own work.

Diana says “give yourself the gift of time to learn about trusting the process; it’s a matter of practice.” Art is practice, like any skill, and she dishes a host of fun and inspiring ways to make practicing transcendant and joyful. Before you know it, you’ll be creating delicious journals oozing with spilled color and content. I recommend Journal Spilling as a tasty treat for artists of all kinds.