When I started using sketchbooks, I used the hardbound covers. I remember a number of my art teachers telling us to always keep a sketchbook and that it was a good habit to get into–and so I did. I brought it everywhere with me and I mean everywhere. I sketched and wrote notes on it.
doodle paint on sketchbook cover
I replaced my sketchbook every couple of years however I noticed the binding was beat up by the time I filled it. To make the binding last longer I decided to glue fabric on it.
It was the beginning of something else (circa 1995).
glued fabric and painted on sketchbook cover
For several years my sketchbooks were used for drawing and writing. When I traveled I also used it as a travel journal, and eventually started gluing ephemera.
I think I initially saw the term “art journaling” online around 2007. When I realized my sketchbooks are art journals. I fell in love with the name “art journal”–it opened up a whole new direction and gave me license to do anything and everything in my art journals.
So now my art journals are so much more as you can see on these front and back covers.
mixed media on front cover
mixed media on back cover