International Fake Journal Month 2015 Closes with a Look Back

Image ©2015 Ellen Ward, from her 2015
fake journal. 

At the end of each IFJM I ask participants to look back at what they have created during the month and do a bit of a project assessment. Some look at their goals and what were met and what stretched them, others look at how they mentally dealt with flopping in and out of character, others examine how time management got the better of them or how they fit it all in. The wrap-ups help us all by letting us have a peak at their process. It enables us to look for similar traps when we set up our own long-term projects, and allows us to savor their successes even as we plan new projects.

The following artists have all posted their fake journals publicly and listed their wraps ups in the same location. I encourage you to go and check them out and see what they have created, the characters who have come to live, and the discoveries the artists are sharing.

I hope you'll leave messages for the artists to let them know what you think.

And I also hope that next year you'll consider joining in on April 1, 2016 to begin creating your own fake journal!

In the following days there will be posts from other participants who didn't post their journals publicly but who nevertheless have completed a wrap-up. These will be shared here, with a couple images from their journals. Please check back to read those wrap-ups as well.

Participants with publicly posted wrap ups:

Ellen Ward (one of her journal entries starts this post) has returned to International Fake Journal this past April to create a color-filled journal "wandering through Breugel's Hunters in the Snow." You'll enjoy this exploration of another world.

Jan Blencowe joined the project for the first time in 2015. She made a journal full of media and color exploration. Her wrap up includes a list of her goals and a point-by-point examination of those goals. She also writes about her regular artistic process and how that process shifted during IFJM and what she hopes for going forward. She also has a video flip through of her journal at this post.

Lisa-Marie Greenly provides an explanation of her process and approach at this link in Facebook. She spent the month moving about the Cities seeing with new eyes and capturing what she saw there and the interesting folks (I can't say more without a spoiler alert). She spent April with another focus as well:

My go-to medium for the last year has been drawing with my handheld device [Galaxy Note2 w/S-Note program & stylus].  It fits my needs of being with me at all times, fits in my pocket, and has the added benefit of being a camera as well as being hooked to the internet for easy posting of images.  I am trying to explore the device to a stage where I feel fluent with creating on it .  Galaxy Note2 Phone= sketchpad, pens, pencil, highlighters, camera, and laptop.. The only thing to add is I have to remember to bring a charger cord with me at all times.  Having my drawing pad run out of juice makes it useless for actually making a phone call [remember... It’s also a phone.. Sometimes I forget].   

It's fun to see some digital work in this project!

Dianne B. Carey is another returning artist. She blended collage and sketching into daily pieces that departed from her usual aesthetic (again I don't want to have to do spoiler alerts). She thinks that the specific format and goals helped her complete more work in this year's journal. I found it interesting to see how she avoided the items she usually incorporated in her work in order to get into the character's mindset. And she embraced the "I have to fit some art time into my day," perspective.

©2015 Dana Burrell. The Wrap-up page in her 2015 fake Journal.

Dana Burrell has also been participating in IFJM for several years. You'll enjoy reading her illustrated wrap up which covers supplies, goals, and her approach.

Another frequent participant is Michelle Himes. You can see her wrap up for 2015 here. She kept her goals simple—completing a page for each day and using a medium she wasn't accustomed to using. She took a fun virtual trip to Hawaii. The project also allowed her to come to a decision about watercolor pencils. I think that's always a great insight we gain from fake journals—more information of media we use for an extended time!

Lily White joined in with a project that limited her media to new choices. She further immersed herself in these new choices by restricting herself to "unusual tools" like credit cards, plastic utensils, bottle caps…no brushes. And she ended with a new fun piece that I think qualifies for Journal Infiltration! (See below.)

Check back this week for more artist's wrap-ups of their 2015 International Fake Journal Month Journal!

Update May20, 2015: Katie Powell wrote a wrap up on her blog that can be found at this link. Despite some health issues, which she writes about, she was able to continue work on her fake journal and follow through on her focus and goals. She took frequent notes about her process along the way and I'll think you'll enjoy reading those reflections. If you would like to see all the pages from her fake journal she has a dedicated page on her blog here.

Joan Tavolott returned to the project this year after a "leave of absence" (my term not hers). She worked with flowers and has some interesting observations about how the whole project went for her on her blog here. I hope that you'll go and check it out.

"Thanks Roz for creating IFJM! What a brilliant idea!" writes Lily White writes on her wrap up collage. (I'm going to need to get some green glasses! I like them. (Image ©2015 Lily White.)