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.

April 1 in Roz's 2012 Fake Journal—with Background on How Her Project Evolved

Above: The first page spread in my 2012 fake journal. Read more about the journal, as well as a transcript of the text, in the post below. The journal is a 7 x 10 inch (pages slightly smaller) journal I handmade with Nideggen paper. The ink I used is just the normal Preppy Pen cartridge. The drawing is made with Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer Watersoluble Colored Pencil and gouache. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I can truthfully say that the two weeks before the start of IFJM 2012 were two of the busiest of my life: classes to teach, a talk to prep, classes to attend (in which I was a student), work to complete. I'm happy to report, that despite all that I started my IFJM journal as planned on April 1 and have been able to work in it each day since. 

However, the journal is not at all what I had planned earlier in the year. I am going to write about how all the changes from my original intention came about so that people who are interested in the decision making process can see how I go about it. 

But first here is the text you'll see on the page spread above:

no anger. just numb. no regret. They want you to feel regret and shame. There's none of that. Just silence, an empty silence, as if I'm waiting for what's next—but it doesn't matter if I wait because everyone else is planning, fighting, jostling over what is next for me.
And I am waiting, in this silence—listening to the purr of the fridge from the pantry and the soft chucking whir of the cable box…no television to drown it out, to mask it. I thought I was a bit addicted but I don't miss the TV at all, which is just as well. I may be giving in prematurely but if I lose it will be just as well to be accustomed to the silence. That type of silence. What I feel isn't defeat. It's just calm. A muffler in the distance. A large truck…so long to approach. A train reverberating on the tracks. There's a great deal to hear.

[Image Caption] April 1, 2012 6:48 p. window #4

So Where's the Stonehenge Paper and How Did I Arrive At This?

In an earlier post this year I wrote about selecting a journal for 2012 IFJM.

By the end of that post I knew I was going to be working with Stonehenge paper and it was going to be in a long, landscape format. But then life happened.

I want to write about it today to demonstrate that change doesn't have to mean you give up a project or goal. You can adapt your projects in ways that will retain their meaning and usefulness.

Briefly (because the details would be overwhelming and I want to get on and post my other pages), I started thinking in February that I would work on architecture this month. To accomplish that I started thinking what type of character would look at and draw architecture on a daily basis? How could I accomplish this task in a very limited amount of time. (At that time I thought I had about an hour to spare each day for this project.)

I began to feel a character speaking to me. She went to the same spot every day and drew. It was a corner near me. I sat for a bit wondering why she did that. (I was also considering if I could sketch on that corner all month long.)

Then my thoughts shifted. Because of the nice weather and the desire to have a bit of a walk each day as part of the process, I found myself thinking about drawing a particular bridge within a short walking distance.

There was at first one reason for why this person would return to that spot each day. She was waiting for someone. Or, immediately another reason popped into my head—she was missing someone. My mind has rather a dark turn to it (I did after all kill off my author last year). This idea quickly spun into simply missing someone. I knew I couldn't go a month with a sad topic like that. I've done sad topics before, but this one would be very dark. It was getting darker by the minute. (I decided to save this idea for a time when I was under less personal stress, and also not making my IFJM journal public. I do believe there is value in the resultant idea that needs to be explored.)

On March 1 I met Frank. He's a lovely little plastic toy chipmunk—actually he's about life-size. You'll see him in my regular journal at some point. On that evening, while out with friends, I decided that it would be hilarious to have the author of my fake journal sketch Frank wherever she went. I could still sketch architecture, but I would be moving around more, I wouldn't be focusing on something sad, and Frank would be interesting.

My goal of working on architecture could continued as you can see, but the topic and focus was shifting to Frank. And to fun. 

On March 2, however, I looked at the reality of sketching Frank and architecture every day for a month and realized that what I envisioned was a 90-minute-a-day project at minimum (without counting walk time). I knew I could not squeeze that time commitment into my days in April.

Frank was scrubbed and the long landscape journal was scrubbed.

At least I knew I wanted a somewhat upbeat topic and a very minimal amount of drawing time.

I began to get a bit nervous—what type of journal and paper would I be using; what topic; what medium? I put the whole project to the back of my mind and focused on pressing tasks at hand.

Then, frustrated one night I started to scribble with a pencil and drew the first of many fantasy people in pencil and light washes of gouache. 

The playful approach freed up my mind and my ideas.  I didn't want to work with fantasy people all month, but I knew I wanted to work with watercolor or gouache. I also thought I would work with toned paper and gouache. So I got out a pieces of Nideggen, Designo, and Kraft Stonehenge.

I tested all those papers for various painting techniques with which I might want to play over the next month. One by one the papers "fell" to the wayside. Nideggen was left standing. 

Nideggen doesn't come in commercially made journals. Each year I use a commercially made journal for my fake journal because it helps me distance myself from my character (and gives me a chance to try an new sketchbook). But I loved the way my experiments were working on Nideggen. Nideggen was what I'd use, I'd work some reason out for how my character had that book.

One evening a couple days before the end of March I looked out the window and saw the early spring sky, the bright clouds…I've always been interested in clouds. There is always a bit of sky around isn't there? "I think I could draw clouds for a month," I joked to Dick the next morning. He laughed and agreed.

By that evening I knew who my character was, why she had one of my journals, and why she was drawing clouds.

I'll not give the "mystery" of what's going to happen away. I only have a sense of what is going to happen because I let things evolve. But I'll have more to say about "evolving" in my next post.

In the meantime, if you choose to read along you'll find out about my character in the next several weeks. Now you know, that once again, what was thought of as a straight path to a straightforward project actually contained many twists that both my conscious and unconscious mind worked out because I gave it some breathing room.

Oh, and my daily time expenditure is under 30 minutes—perfect for right now. (Though that doesn't include scanning time—hence the back up.)