Roz's 2014 International Fake Journal Month Wrap Up—With Gigapans!

Today I’ve written my complete wrap up for this project. I write about the project parameters and supplies, the goals, and the results. I also write about what happened after the project ended.

But before you read my final write up I have three GigaPan videos for you to look at. They are GigaPans taken by Tom Nelson a local photographer. You’ve seen the “fake” show before as smaller jpgs. What you see today are images that you can zoom in on, as closely as if you were in the room, standing in front of the images. You can see where I picked up my pen and put it down again, you can see where I smudged on some rubberstamp ink. You can see where I applied acrylic paint with markers and glued down decorative papers or applied tape. It’s all there if you want to poke around.

I had hoped to embed these videos here in blogger. Tom provided the code for me to do so. But when I put them in the html they didn't show up.

Instead I'm providing you with three links so you can view each image on the GigaPan site. When you go to the Gigapan site you do not need to sign in. It's free. Just click inside the image and start scrolling around. Use the controls at the right to enlarge and reduce your view. You'll be able to zoom in so close you'll be able to see the wall texture, the paper texture. Really, it's pretty cool. Click on the little icon "snapshot" at the bottom left of the image's window and a line of snapshots that I've created for you will come up. When you click on one of these you will automatically zoom up to the portion of the image I wanted to draw to your attention. And there will be a caption that explains something to you. If you couldn't be present at the "show" (and you couldn't, that was just me and Tom) then this is the best way to see the images.  

April 1 to 12, 2014

April 13 to 24, 2014

April 25 to 30, 2014

The Wrap Up

In my last post I wrote about my windfall purchase of 22 x 30 inch printmaking paper for 20 cents a sheet. I wasn’t sure what I would do with it when I bought it. I thought I’d take it to life drawing; I knew immediately upon testing it that I could NOT use it for bookbinding for myself or in my classes because it allowed inks to seep through; but I knew I’d have fun with it.

My original plan for 2014 was to work on a portrait each day from life. Before April rolled around I had already contacted several friends and made dates to sketch them.

The serendipitous part of my IFJM project was that I’d asked blog readers to send in photos and enough people responded with really fun images, that I was able to still draw portraits even though I was house bound (I got ill on March 30 and sick through May 31), I just had to adjust my plans and draw from photos.

Before I got ill I had a few other goals:

Goal 1

I wanted to get back to writing down thoughts when they occurred to me.

For several months leading up to IFJM 2014 I found that I was leading a rather frantic life, pulled in lots of directions, dealing with shoulder issues, coping with eldercare demands. The pain from the shoulder issues changed my sleep habits and that impacted my memory. I’d think of something in the middle of work, and decide to wait and note it down later, return to work and forget it.

The fact that I forgot so many deeply unimportant things shouldn’t bother me, but every so often I have a thought which leads me to my next project and I found that because I was forgetting to follow my usual practice of writing things down everything was being lost.

So that was definitely goal number 1.

Goal 2

I wanted to return to keeping reading notes. In the frenetic life I was leading in the months before IFJM 2014 I was reading a lot of books and articles but I was usually too tired to write my typical notes. Again, I was missing out on reminding myself which things were catching my interest. It’s from that pool of things that I formulate new plans and discover new long-term interests. I was feeling decidedly cut off from my creative process even though every day I might have been drawing for a couple hours, reading, processing, whatever.

It seemed to me things were not sinking in.

Goal 3

I wanted to experiment with large scale drawings. I’ve mentioned already on this blog and on Roz Wound Up that my sketches have been getting larger and larger. And I like to experiment with different ways to scale up my line when the drawing size increases.

I’m not sure exactly why I’ve been drawing larger and larger sketches. I suppose it is a function of going to life drawing and working on a really large sheet of paper, but that doesn’t really explain it.

It could also be an outgrowth of working in larger sizes of journals. Because I have had first one and then both shoulders injured for over a year now I haven’t been able to bind any new books. I do have some journals that I’ve held back for personal use, but since I can’t carry a journal with me (because of the shoulders) I’ve been working on slips of paper when I’m out and about. Then when I return home I glue those drawings into a commercially bound journal like the 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia I have going in the studio. Also, because size of journal doesn’t matter when working at home I sometimes have another larger journal going, like the 11 x 14 inch Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Paper Hardcover journal. And in that journal I can sketch very large heads with the luxury of all that space.

Fluctuations in vision also play a part. It's easier to pick up a brush pen and sketch large images than to find which pair of glasses works for "today" and work with a fine tipped and small nibbed pen.

Whatever the reason for my ever growing drawing scale this project did allow me to work large.

In fact to create these pages I had a piece of corrugated cardboard that was 4 inches larger than the paper sheets on each side. I would hold this piece of cardboard in my lap with the piece of sketching paper on top. Then, if I was working from the photos that people sent in, I would sit at my computer with the photo open on my screen, balancing the edge of the cardboard on my computer desk and sitting back to sketch as quickly as possible.

Almost all the sketches in this project were made in less than 10 minutes.  I worked directly in ink.

Some images were made from life like Oswald and also the giant toad. To sketch them I sat holding the large cardboard and paper as well.

Sketching this way created some distortion problems for me. I would become so tired (because of the coughing) that I couldn’t maintain the same position even with the light cardboard, and the faces began to stretch and bloat.

I’d like to say that I had less trouble with the subjects I drew from life, but sometimes they were actually worse—executed at time when I was exhausted going into the sketching time.

Besides using the fine-tipped Pentel Brush pen with pigment black ink and the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, I used some Bienfang Watercolor Brush Pens (they didn’t deform the paper much as they didn’t have a lot of water in them) and the Montana Markers that contain acrylic paints. While I mostly used the latter for backgrounds I was able to do some sketching with the markers—often with the 15 mm wide tipped ones. Those were all fun experiments.

I wanted to do more with color, using more collage and rubberstamp ink, but most days I found that after doing a quick sketch and adding a little color I was ready to stop. I was simply too tired. I’m OK with that. I had a lot of fun flicking the brush pen ink about to compensate and cope with the frustration.

Goal 4

I hoped to read a chapter a day of a book on composition I’ve been meaning to re-read for ages. I thought that would be a nice way to get a bit of extra learning in for each day of IFJM. Sadly this goal didn’t get met at all. I found that initially I felt too ill to concentrate on absorbing or reinforcing any concepts about composition. Reading that book will have to wait until another time.

Goal 5

In the last half of 2013 I was drawn to lettering books—I read a bunch of them. Most were disappointing and didn’t offer any interesting discussion of design, composition, or theory. But all of them had interesting examples so they were fun to look at.

I decided after working on my pre-IFJM paper tests that I would let the lettering goal go. The pens that I tested on the paper either didn’t work in a way that I liked, didn't scale up to the size I was working at, or didn’t have enough fun factor. I also found that by day 2 of the project thinking about lettering was beyond my feverish brain’s abilities. The goal became just get something down each day.

Goal 6

I wanted to spend more time each day painting because I missed getting the paints out on a regular basis.

Painting has been difficult for the past year (since June 2013) because of the shoulder issues. I can’t reach easily with my brush to the palette, no matter where the palette may be resting.

Because of the paper that I selected painting was off the table. Paints severely warped the paper and I didn’t want to deal with the extra issues of flattening each page before photography.

Goal 7

There is a short distance between my character’s work, fantasy life, and real life. I set this up intentionally because I wanted to work on very specific issues that were currently impacting my own journal practice—however the distance was too short. (See below for more on this.) 

Goal 8

No explanations. I wanted to keep what was text in the journal devoid of any explanations. I explain enough in my life as it is, whether it is explaining issues of elder care to other family members or issues of health to the folks’ doctors, or memory issues to the folks, or materials and process to students, or just explaining to myself how I’m going to get through the stack of stuff that’s piling up!

I think this aspect of the project was totally successful. However there was one horrible error that I’ll write of in a moment.

Goal 9

I wanted to make one page for each day. No more, no less. I met that goal even though I was sometimes a little punchy from fever.

Since I’ve created so many fake journals over the years and had so many daily projects (some lasting several weeks, months, or even years) I knew that I could meet this goal. I also knew I could forgive myself in advance for each piece not meeting the standards I’d hoped to meet.

Getting ill and knowing you can still produce work is a great gift to give yourself. I’m grateful for that. But I’m also grateful that what is most important to me is process and getting something done, rather than perfection. So despite the various setbacks of this project it wasn’t painful or difficult but actually quite fun.

I know enough about my rhythms when ill that I quickly found “ideal” times during the day when it would be a good bet that I could get a reasonable page completed. Because of this you’ll notice that many of the pages have very similar times on them. Often I would do one when I finished other work, or when I had a burst of energy in the evening.

I believe that one of the great things a month-long project like this can give the participant is a better understanding of their own process and creative rhythms. You can take this knowledge and turn it to productive use.

Who Was My Character?

I have to admit that this year’s character was my least “concretely” realized in my head either in advance of IFJM or during, and certainly since.

A 50-something female who sketches people for her “work,” which I conveniently never tied myself down about. Is she doing portraits and these are her studies and throw-aways? Is she making illustrations for books and these are her studies? Is she doing something else visual for a living and she is just able to convince people to pose for her at the end of the day so she can make a giant drawing and then write something snarky on the drawing?

It’s all unclear.

What I do think became clear as I worked through the month was that Goal 7 was being met. This woman wrote down whatever she was thinking at the time she was sketching, and because the thinking and the sketching had nothing to do with each other most of the time she had absolutely no inclination to explain anything.

How freeing.

But That Brings Us to the Horrible Error, or as I Like to Call It: The Near Fatal Misstep

I think it’s important to keep as much distance from your character as you can—especially if certain aspects of your life and work already over lap.

On day 1 I was so anxious to get going on this project that I mentioned a sore throat on the page. I actually had a sore throat, and I allowed the character to have one. (Oops, but I didn’t even realize the trap I’d stepped into yet, that’s how slow my brain was moving.)

On day 2 I actually mentioned the 4 stages of the cold! I had a cold the character had a cold.

That was it. Now that my character had announced she was ill I couldn’t go merrily about and sketch people about town, and do all of the interactive things I’d hoped to do.

She was stuck. Stuck inside her home and studio just like I was. And that was a little too close for comfort.

Given that closeness I’m actually surprised I got through the month unscathed. I didn’t shy away from the insights she had (though of course they really only mean something to her and to me because I know the explanations), but I did avoid further mention of the progress of my own illness.

How Do I Assess the Project?

While I couldn’t complete the project as originally conceived (sketching large portraits of people from life) I was able to work with most of my 9 goals, stated before the project began and examined in this post.

I met most of those goals and was able to have some sort of balanced and healthy response to the frustrations of the others.

In those ways I feel this is one of my best fake journals. Not because it has a narrative thread (it doesn’t); not because close reading exposes an interesting character (it doesn’t); not because the sketches all turned out (they didn’t).

This was a successful fake journal because of its aftermath.

Following the end of IFJM 2014 I was sick for another 4 weeks until the end of May. I was frustrated more than I can even bear to write.

But something wonderful happened. I started working in a Japanese Lined Notebook that I’d finished a couple pages on earlier in the year and then set aside as other projects pulled me towards them. When I picked up this totally-unsuitable-for-visual-journaling-notebook I found that in my frustration (over still being sick) and my “laziness” about getting up to fetch painting materials and other items to sketch with, I entered the most creative period of visual journaling I have experienced since I was 20 years old.

Everything mixed together and my desire to take more notes is everywhere evident in the two visual journals I filled next through May and June. And my desire to write everything down right when I think it was made manifest in those two journals because I always had the current Japanese Lined Notebook right with me wherever I went in the house, so there was no reason to not write something down immediately.

And the goals that didn’t get met on my IFJM journal project were easily met in those journals—I now had two pages on a spread to play with composition and started fiddling more with it. I played with lettering in a loose, non-structured way, which didn’t yield great results except a sense of fun, which is always good, and a good starting point for future exploration. 

I have been reading more of my art theory books and taking notes and asking the right questions. I’ve been watching videos of watercolorists whom I admire, and taking notes and asking questions. Through this exploration I’ve been making plans to paint again as soon as my shoulders can stand it. I’ve been asking questions of myself and taking notes and making plans and allowing the promise of new projects to flow through me.

But most wonderful of all, the thing I have been pushing for the past 4 years, the thing I have wanted more than anything since probably 2008 has happened. I have ease and privacy in my journals again.

It seems an odd thing to say, since I put my journals up on the Internet. But I only put up selected portions. When I teach journaling my journals are brought out to share, and in that sharing I had started to hold back portions of myself from myself. There are clear boundaries in my life over what I will share and won’t share with students, strangers, even friends, and probably especially family. Because I knew the journals would be handled by others I found myself sometimes not writing what I really longed to write because it would break those boundaries.

I have always maintained that these boundaries are healthy. And I have always had these boundaries in my life to protect my creative life. As I taught more and more journaling from 2000 to the present I found myself sometimes sketching something in my journal but not writing fully about it because I didn’t want to share those thoughts with others.

I like to keep my creative energy for myself to use it to bring projects forth that are fully conceived. I like to encourage my students to do the same.

But when you have to bring your journals to a class as examples even the best will of getting everything down gets challenged.

And in the two months since IFJM 2014, in two Japanese Lined Notebooks I was able to totally wallow in privacy (even while knowing I would post some of those images).

There was the cheap paper that allowed me to run full steam ahead. (Normally I don’t have a problem using up art paper for notes, but because I wasn’t painting due to injury I found myself hesitant to run through journal after journal of $6 a sheet art paper only writing and maybe sketching a little with black ink.)

There was the cheap paper that took brush pen ink so marvelously. The fun factor was incredibly high.

There was the texture and “happiness” of the completed pages, crinkling and crunching as I turned them, while holding the book in my lap. (This brought up memories of my childhood and college days when all I could afford were books with cheaper paper.)

And there was the pent up energy from being ill for two months. All the things I wanted to do and think about and work on were just pouring out of me.

I said to Dick one night: It’s like being nineteen again—except I can stay up as late as I want because I don’t have a 7:30 a.m. class.

A certain journal type or book structure will always influence the journey you take with it. But there are certain types of books and book structures that will take you in a totally new direction with materials, thoughts, projects, and your life.

The change might not even look different to anyone else, but that’s part of the point—it doesn’t have to. You only have to feel it in every cell in your body to know that it’s real and something fantastic has happened.

That’s one (just one) of the fabulous things about journaling.

And one of the great things about keeping a fake journal is that you can use the fake journal as a directed and customized tool to move towards the goals you want to achieve.

This was a very good year for me, even though I spent two months of it housebound with little contact with the outside world.

2014 THANK YOUS

I want to thank all the participants from 2014 for trusting the process and jumping in this year. I hope whether you participated privately or publicly that you received something positive from the experience and a new sense of where you might go creatively.

Thanks to all the folks who sent in photos of themselves for me to sketch from. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, you saved my life, my attitude was pretty sucky when the month started! I am working on prints to send out to all of you as thank yous. They will be coming soon.

I want to thank Tom, for his patience and for his skill in photographing my work so that I can share it with others and communicate with others using the work. When we were taking the photos of the pages hanging on the walls Tom said, “It’s like parachuting into your mind.” He was chuckling and shaking his head at the time, reading some of the entries.

I shook my head and reminded him, "It's my character's mind." And he shook his head and chuckled.

Yep, I guess he's right. And he also knows that 90 percent of the time my fake journals are my most personal. 

I’m so grateful to have a friend who helps me share my work. It's so fun to spend time with Tom that I hope he never realizes how boring I am!

And of course I’m grateful to Dick who took up all the slack for two months, kept the house full of chocolate, and who sent me back to Wet Paint in the first place to buy all those luscious 20-cents-a-piece sheets of paper. I’m going to enjoy using the rest of them in life drawing and other projects.

Spy Girl: Thoughts on Fake Journaling from Anne M. Bray

Left: An image from Spy Girl's 2010 fake journal. Image ©2010 Anne M. Bray. 

Anne M. Bray is a two-time fake journal keeper. You can find the 2010 fake journal of Anne M. Bray here. (Sorry for the clunky name repetition but I want my links to be "complete.")

I asked Anne if she would write about her experiences with fake journaling now that her second year was finished. I think that people new to fake journaling can benefit from reading about her experiences with fake journaling in part because her 2009 and 2010 journals differ from each other in media and in approach.

I recommend you read Anne's experiences with fake journaling in her own words. Her journey will be an inspiration for people who aren't "hard core" journal keepers. Fake journaling has actually spawned additional blogs for her! I would suggest that those are journals and that Anne is actually becoming a "hard core" journal keeper after all! (You need to check out her delightful blog Cupcake Safari. The delicate colored pencil drawings of cupcakes are delicious.)


I love two things about Anne's 2010 fake journal. First she let the idea flow from a found object—a sketch she found under an oleander bush outside her house. This ties in beautifully with her involvement in "Found It (Urban Artifacts), a Facebook group. But it also speaks to me of the way in which creative minds look around and find something (either an idea or a physical object) and allow it to expand and give life to a whole other creative project.


The other thing I enjoyed learning about Anne's 2010 experience was that she let the fake journal serve for two creative projects she wanted to participate in. ArtHouse sponsored a March/April project for work in a small black moleskine themed "this is where I live." Anne's Spy Girl journal documents what she wore during April. 


Sometimes we have a lot of desire to participate in several projects at the same time. Finding a way to satisfy that urge without busting our schedules is a good skill to work on. It can also help you focus on what is truly important to you about each of the projects that you take on.


OK, there's a third thing I loved about Anne's 2010 fake journal: the inclusion of found items in her "confidential" envelopes on each page. In so many ways this simple approach allowed her to combine so many of her interests. When projects are structured that way we have a higher possibility of completion and an even deeper satisfaction in the final product or outcome.


Take a moment now to read what Anne has to say about her experiences with fake journaling. Then think about how her discoveries and approaches might be useful for you next year when you are getting ready to jump in to your 2011 fake journal! 


Thank you again Anne for your active participation in this year's celebration!

To Prep or Not To Prep…

Left: The graphite test page in the first APICA book I purchased and tested. All the images were simply sketched from memory—more or less doodled. More about this image below. Click on the image to view an enlargement

Maybe you’re one of those totally spontaneous sorts who’ll jump up at 11 p.m. on April 1, decide to participate in International Fake Journal Month, grab any blank or alterable book at hand, make an entry, and proceed to have a rollicking good time the rest of the month. If so, I’m happy you can do this, but I know that approach doesn’t always work out well for me (and I’ve been journaling for a long time) or my students who are juggling the task of learning new journaling habits with the time constraints of their lives.

It’s my goal to get as many people as possible participate in International Fake Journal Month. Additionally I want people to have a fun, satisfying, and enriching experience so that they grow as journal keepers, and return next year for another round of fake journaling in April 2011!

Today I am going to run through my prepping process. Already this year I have talked about selecting the book you are going to use for your fake journal.

Last year I used the Alvin Field Book. I first tested the Alvin Field book with pen and watercolor. After that test I knew I wanted to use dip pen and watercolor on that paper. That is exactly what I did as you can see from the posts on this blog covering my 2009 fake journal.

This year for the longest time, I wasn’t sure what type of book I would use. Then I started testing some commercially bound books and began to lean towards the APICA notebook. (In the link’s image you’ll see the book with a red cover. The watercolor page shown is also in a book of this type. You can also read about the characteristics of the paper in this book in that review.)

Note: remember, if you are going to post or publish your fake journal images consider how easy it is to scan or photograph your host book. Is it too large and thick to work well on your scanner? Is it something you can photograph easily? Do you intend to photocopy it for any reason? If so, how will the media you select fare with black and white or with color copying?

With several weeks until April remaining, I still hadn’t decided on the author of my fake journal, or the type of images that person would create, or the media I would use. Selection of the APICA notebook made me confident that I wouldn’t be using watermedia. Also I almost always use watermedia and ink and I wanted to spend time with pencils of some sort.

Once you select your host book questions like that will begin to pop up. I recommend that you spend a few moments thinking the answers through. You are going to spend 30 days in this book and you want to be productive during that time.

So for me the obvious question was which type of pencil. In the first example in this post I tried out a .9, 2B mechanical pencil lead. It moved across the paper of my book in a lovely way, but ultimately I couldn’t get the dark values I really love.


Left: My doodle test page using various colored pencil brands. Read more about this page in the text. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

That same evening I turned the page of my test book and experimented with a variety of colored pencils, including a metallic pencil from Lyra. I also experimented with doodling. I don’t doodle much at all. I don’t doodle in my journal or on sheets of paper. I like to look at things and then draw them. While playing with the pencils and doodling I thought, “What it would be like to spend a month doodling every day? What type of person would do that in a journal?” (I had several ideas pop into my mind—high school student for instance). I considered what a doodler might write on the same page or the opposite page.

I had already decided that I wouldn’t worry about any smudging of materials. I knew that I wanted to break away from the usual approaches I have to my regular journal pages. I don’t plan my regular journal pages, but force of habit and occupation (I design a lot of books with features in columns) creates a certain approach in my regular journal. Someone working all over his/her page in a random fashion, and perhaps with no explanatory notes (I’m always writing notes to myself) would create several departures for me and help push me more towards the “character” who was creating the fake journal.

Doodling, however, I decided was not the approach I wanted to go—too much of a departure. Also I wanted to stick with black pencil not graphite or colored pencil. That led me to my third example, completed the next night while I was getting ready for bed.

Remember you don’t have to attack all these issues at once. Put the questions to your brain in March. Over the next several weeks let the answers emerge while never spending any real accumulation of actual concentration on those questions.

Left: A test page using a black Stabilo All. I also used an olive green Pentel Color Brush for in some areas. Read more about this page in the text. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I like the Stabilo All black pencil: a waxy, watersoluble pencil which creates a dark rich line. It can feel a little scratchy on even some smooth papers, but it does allow you to create a textured line not unlike the look you get with graphite, but dense. I can get my darkest darks easily with this pencil. It is simple to reproduce work with this pencil, either in color or black and white. It has much to recommend it. The same evening I tested a Pentel Color Brush (these are watersoluble inks that are NOT lightfast. (Read my review and comparison of the Pentel Color Brush with the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen here. The post includes a chart which shows the fading inks.)

I tested the Pentel Color Brush on this paper because for my fake journal I also wasn’t going to worry about using archival materials. I thought I might be using some collaged elements from the newspaper (highly acidic). So fading ink weren’t an issue for me. However, the ink seeped through the paper—that meant immediate elimination.

Left: A test page using a litho crayon. Read more about this page in the text. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

My next test was several days later. I was still focusing on using dry media and a black pencil. I decided to give litho crayons a shot. While you can get dense rich blacks with this medium I find that it is too smelly for me. Daily proximity to the oily slightly chemical odor of the litho crayon would prevent me from enjoying my fake journal time. I could rule out the litho crayon.

Note: You might wonder why Roz is drawing pigeons in almost all of her tests? Well when testing you should draw something that you are comfortable drawing so that your discomfort at drawing a difficult or new subject does not interfere with your assessment of the ease of the materials you are using. Birds and dogs are my default mode.

At this point I set my test notebook aside for about three weeks. I didn’t even think about International Fake Journal Month consciously during that time.

Last week, however, I started outlining items I wanted to post on the blog for this season. That process reminded me I needed to focus on my own preparations.

Consider Time Commitment and Subject Matter!

Last year I focused on birds, which I love and which are a pleasure to draw. I also know where to find birds, and last April was warm enough that doing so wasn’t a difficulty.

Left: A test page using a black Stabilo All and focusing on a face as subject matter. Read more about this page in the text. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

This year I knew I wanted to focus on drawing something other than birds. I don’t draw people as much as I would like. Thirty days of practice drawing people might be a good choice.

I’m a big advocate for blending improvement goals with fake journal goals.

I also knew that I had an extremely busy April scheduled. I needed to devise a way to limit my time involvement with my fake journal. Late one night when I hadn’t had a chance to sketch yet I got out the Stabilo All for another test run and opened a book of photos of facial expressions for artists. (These books show people of all shapes and sizes in all sorts of facial contortions. You can of course run to the bathroom and make faces at yourself in the mirror, but I find that hard on my neck!) I opened the book to a random page and started sketching the first face that appealed to me, working quickly, with no attempt to capture detail.

Next, I knew I would want some text on the page, even just a few words. I blocked out the first thing that popped into my head. Then I wanted to test how I liked filling a large area with the Stabilo All so I scribbled in the black panel. I had something that is different from my usual work, yet extremely fun to do. It was also quickly achieved—solving the time constraint problem. Additionally I took a paper towel and rubbed the dark areas testing how the pencil smeared. (You don’t get a blending like you do with the Stabilo Tone so this operation is something I will just omit in future.)

I went to bed with the feeling that I was on to something that might prove fruitful. I didn’t know who the keeper of this journal would be, or why they would work in this way, but that didn’t matter.

The next morning I woke up and instead of playing a game of Sudoku which I am trying to wean myself off of, I opened the facial expressions book to a new page, and started sketching again.


Left: A test page using a black Stabilo All, focusing on a face as subject matter, using collaged papers, and incorporating text. Read more about this page in the text. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I had in mind the idea that I would divide the page vertically with a black panel (there are hatch marks at the top and bottom of this paper—perhaps for ruling lines for the Japanese writers who use these notebooks to keep their vertical writing aligned; or perhaps to convert the pages to lab notebooks?) and I wanted to use them in some way. I also wanted to think about ways to alter the background somewhere else on the page, after I had completed my drawing. I was looking for something quick. I could paint a solid color panel and live with the buckling of the paper (well the author of the journal could live with the buckling). But then I started thinking about papers, decorative papers and colored papers and, immediately I knew I would cut away a portion of the page and replace it with decorative paper.

The decision to draw only on the right hand pages had already been made (because of the smudgy nature of the medium). If I did draw only on the right hand page and cut away a portion of the page I would loose the interesting number and date detail at the top of the page. I cut away at an angle at the top of the page to preserve this feature. I cut the rest of the page away using an X-acto and cutting board. I flipped the page over onto waste paper and glued it out with Uhu gluestick (I like the purple variety as it doesn’t smell enough to bother me). I flipped the page back, rightside up, onto a piece of Canson Mi Tientes paper that I had cut slightly larger than the journal page, with the grain running vertically. I pressed it all under wax paper until dry and then trimmed the edges of the Canson Mi Tientes to the page size of the journal.

Note: I always recommend gluing paper in your journal that is larger than the page you are placing it on if you want that paper to go all the way to the page edge. It is easier to trim than it is to line up a pre-cut page accurately. Always let the paper and journal page dry completely before trimming so that you don’t get any tears trying to cut wet, stretchy paper!

All that remained was text. I thought of my Pictionary Game. In October last year Zander Cannon had explained to me how he uses Pictionary in creating his 24-hour comic. I loved the idea and was waiting for a project to try it out on.

I ran into the other room where I kept the used game I had found last year. I drew a card and wrote out “Pocket Change” on gridded paper which I then tore out and glued to my page on the Canson Mi Tientes portion of the page.

Time elapsed: 30 minutes. I was really liking this idea. I know I will use a rubber stamp to add page numbers and will pick up a date stamp (I don’t have one with 2010 on it) to add the date at the top of the page.

So to quickly review the positives about this approach:

1. 30 minutes a day is doable even in the clogged scheduled I’m facing.

2. Using black Stabilo All works on this paper, and meets my goal of using a dry medium.

3. Focusing on drawing faces will be a useful practice.

4. Using my books of photos of facial expressions for artists as references will ensure that I won’t need to find someone to draw everyday. Since I work by myself I can’t be asking the UPS delivery people to model for me. Going out each day to find faces would be time consuming. Using the books will aid the thirty minute a day goal. How I tie the use of these faces into the final journal remains to be seen—will they be characters about whom the author is writing and sketching or are they “jobs” he/she is working on?

5. I get to play with my Pictionary game.

6. I get to use collage elements and decorative papers in a quick and minimal way, which I can expand if that’s the direction my “character” pulls me.

7. I get intellectual stimulation and get weaned off sudoku at the same time.

8. I get to let go of my issues with “smudging” by throwing messy materials in my face.

9. None of the choices I’ve made so far have locked me into an approach that is rigid—I can still make messy, multiple drawing pages; I can still write text all over the page.

10. This approach gives me a chance to work with minimal text on a page if I want to continue with that.

11. Using the date stamps and page number rubber stamps will give me a lead in to using word stamps if I decide I want to do that on any or all pages.

12. This approach is really fun to do. Because of that and all the above reasons, I know it will be sustainable for 30 days.

Now what are the negatives:

1. I don’t know who the keeper of this journal is and why he/she would work in this fashion.

The good news: the negative doesn’t bother me. I always start International Fake Journal Month with only a vague sense of who the author of the journal is. It will come as I start to make the pages.

I have my selected notebook. I have extra Stabilo All pencils. All I need to do is get a date stamp and buy some more dark colors of Canson Mi Tientes.

This may seem like an intense preparation, but there is less than 3 hours of time spent in all this. That time was spread out over several weeks. A thirty-day project deserves some consideration. Last year I did one trial sketch and knew my direction immediately. This year I needed a little more exploration. Exploration my character would have completed before April 1 comes around if this indeed were his/her journal.

One sketch or several, now I can step out of the way and let the fun begin.

On Thursday I will post a checklist of questions and points to ponder as you attempt your own prep.