Welcome to International Fake Journal Month 2013!

What is IFJM?
Please read the page "What Is IFJM" for details.
Learn the difference between Faux, Fake, and Fake Historical Journals.

2019 IFJM Celebration
IFJM has been suspended indefinitely. Please read the pinned post about this below.

Participants who Post Their Journals
A list of 2018 participants who are posting their fake journals this year will appear near the top of the right side bar of this blog around April 6. Lists of participants who posted their pages in 2010 through 2017 appear lower in the same column. Please pay them a visit and check out their fake journals.

View a Couple of Roz's Past Fake Journals
Roz's 2009 fake journal takes place in an alternate Twin Cites, where disease has killed the human and bird populations. (It ends up being an upbeat tale of friendship.) Watch a video flip through of Roz's 2009 fake journal here.

Read an explanation of Roz's insanely complex 2011 fake journal.

Tips on Keeping a Fake Journal
Click on "tips" in the category cloud.

Remember, "Life's so short, why live only one?"


Friday, April 19, 2013

Papers Used in Roz's 2013 Fake Journal

Above: Three "notebooks" that I scavenged paper from for my 2013 Fake Journal. Top left: APICA Notebook, ruled; top right: Fabriano notebook with gridded paper; bottom center: Quatro pad, gridded. All pages are approximately 8.75 x 11.5 inches. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

This year I fell in love with a commercially bound journal that had lightweight paper. But I wanted to use it anyway. Right away my character's mind started thinking of ways to use the book despite this impediment. (The book was the Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook.)

Drawing on other sheets of paper, painting on those sheets sometimes, was what my character ended up doing. It led to some interesting "events" which included the reactivation of gouache when the moisture of the PVA seeped through the paper I'd painted on and was gluing down and caused some of the paint to lift off on the wax paper I was using to burnish the paper in place; and with a lot of wrinkling of the moist papers I was gluing.

But I had a ton of fun. I love drawing on gridded and lined paper so my paper choices were perfect for sketching on in a variety of pens. And the top three items shown above all took gouache well, though the Quattro is the least fun to paint on with Da Vinci gouache. (I used Da Vinci gouache because my character wanted to use an inexpensive lower quality gouache.)

Left: here's a scan of one of the final sketches in the book, this one done on the Fabriano gridded sheets. That's washi tape down the center holding a couple sheets together. (I'll have more to say about that on another day.) I was working with a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. This sketch remained unpainted. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

The last few sketches in my fake journal, which I'm showing you in this post, were completed on Thursday, April 18 and scanned before I glued them to the final pages of the journal. I haven't shot photos of the journal yet (it's too bulky to do it on my own). I wanted you to have some examples of what I am writing about so I used these.

Left: The final sketch in my 2013 Journal before it was glued down to the page. It's Fabriano gridded paper with washi tape holding pieces of paper together. The sketch is done with a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and then painted with layers of Da Vinci Gouache. In this piece you can see heavy layers of gouache, and you can see light washes. While the paint seems to bead up on the washi tape here, I could, when I was using thicker applications of paint, cover the tape successfully. Even in this image, when the paint dried on the tape it stayed put. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Sometimes I did paint right on the page of the journal. In those instances I typically had previously applied some acrylic paint or a thin sheet of mulberry paper on which I'd made a monoprint with acrylic paint. Sometimes I painted over other sheets of collaged materials.

Above: Here's a detail of the last sketch so that you can see the gridded paper, the washi tape, and the thick and thin layers of gouache. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

But I wanted to show you these sketches and write about my choice of these papers. I was working on the Quattro paper, sketching with the PPBP before IFJM 2013. But I ran out of it when I started doing this in the fake journal and that's when I turned to the other papers that I had on hand. If you want to sketch and work in gouache, and don't mind a little bit of buckling I recommend these papers as an economical choice for doing a lot of studies and working out your ideas.

I also used the following extra papers in the way explained below:

• Office Max Yellow Legal Pads—for sketching with various pens.

• An 18 x 12 inch pad of Sumi paper (which I printed on with acrylic paint and glued over an entire spread as seen in this peek into the journal or which I cut into smaller squares and sketched on—which you'll see in another post).

• Pack of Black Ink Block Printing Paper from Blick (multiple colors) used to make monoprints with the Gelli-Arts Printing Plate and acrylic paint. (I think this paper is excellent for monoprinting with this plate and it is lightweight and easy to collage. The darker colors are particularly fun to print on. It is economical and I recommend it.)

• Strathmore Toned Paper (Tan) torn from a 9 x 12 inch spiral bound book and used for monoprinting. (Excellent.)

• Various letterwriting papers from Paper Source and Paper Depot (for printing and collage).

• Scraps of watercolor paper (both 90 and 140 lb.) that I had painted on with acrylics or printed on with the Gelli-Arts Printing Plate.

• Indian Block Print decorative papers.

• Scrapbooking pre-printed papers purchased in the bargain bin (35 cents each).

• Crescent Graffiti Paper 7 x 10 inches (Bleedproof for markers, smooth, used for printmaking in this book. OK for that, but a bit thick.)

• Text pages from an archival book—printed on and used as collage.

• Heavy weight tag board of the type used to cut stencils. I used it to cut stencils and to print on and use as collage material.

• Collage scraps package—package of decorative Japanese paper scraps that I purchased last year (no longer available) on which I printed, or which I just used plain for collage.

• Paper ephemera sent to me by people participating in the interactive phase of my journal this year. The papers received ranged from tissue weight to cardstock.

I was happy with all the papers listed in this post, for the uses I describe here. I will continue to use them in the future.

I also want to thank the folks who took time to send me something for the interactive portion of my journal creation. You all selected wisely! Your pieces all fit easily. We were often working in the same color palette. It was great fun. Buttons will be sent out to those whose pieces I received before April 17, 2013. Thanks so much.

4 comments:

Margo said...

So, what are you going to do now that you finished you journal, start another or call it a day. I'm struggling along with mine, I started on one book but the paper was defective so I switched to another, but it is huge and difficult to hold in my lap and work on, struggling on though, no doubt there is something I will learn from this, like maybe how to paint large again.

Roz Stendahl said...

Margo, the first thing I did was sigh in relief. It has been a very stressful past 4 weeks in my family and I made a math error when I started the project so I really went in trying to do too much. In normal circumstances it would have been too much.

But I only ever fill one journal a year for this project, so the fact that it's full, means I'm done.

In a way that's good. I can use the rest of my free time this month writing about the project and I hope that will inspire others to keep going with their own.

As you'll read soon enough when I write about this project, when I decided on using the book I used it was March 18 and I immediately knew how the character would work on the book and so some "pre-work" of the type she is always doing was started at that time, so I've had my month's taste.

Also, since I knew I was going to stop when the book was filled I didn't do any prework in a new journal so a transition to a new book wouldn't be seamless.

Time to close the book (which actually you can't do, wait until you see it) and look at what I've learned.

I'm sorry to hear that you have been struggling with yours. If the paper is defective you might want to take a page out of my book this year. The paper in my journal wasn't defective, but it wasn't suitable for mixed media work, which was what I was going to do. I ended up collaging all over the pages with papers I could paint on.

Perhaps that's something you could do. OR you could get some Daniel Smith Watercolor ground and coat the pages and then you could work on the pages???

Huge books are a problem. My book this year was 9 x 12 inches and it isn't scan-able without many passes that I don't have time for (because of other work and family obligations) so I've had to simply take photos.

My large journal was always meant to be an in-studio journal so that hasn't been a problem for me.

Towards the end it did get difficult to hold in my lap when I was sketching on the pages. I would have to prop it up against something as I sketched.

I hope your character can struggle through and find something positive out of the experience, perhaps a new way to work?

Good luck.

Margo said...

Never fear, struggle through I will. The defective paper book got tossed aside and am using the largest Strathmore mixed media paper hardbound. I didn't have the character utterly thought out this year, I did that last year and my character became herself and very different. This year was meant to be done mostly outside and the wind has been incessant so it's hit or miss whether my journal will be ripped out of my hands. I learned a lot in last years IFJM and know that I will again this year. I'll probably love the size in another page or two and then be lugging the huge things everywhere! Thanks for all the effort you put into this for others to join you. This year it must be extra hard with your stress leve.

Roz Stendahl said...

Margo, I'm glad I didn't go with an outside plan this year—I would have been standing in snow! Last year I actually discarded an outside project because I didn't have time but the weather was beautiful. This year I'm glad I had a studio project.

Hope it goes well for you and that you're soon loving those large pages.