Day 16, We've Passed the Halfway Mark

Above: the April 9 page spread from my fake journal, which I've been posting chronologically so you can read along. Ziller Acrylic ink with a dip pen and washes with Schmincke Pan Watercolors. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

We've passed the half-way point in International Fake Journal Month. Fifteen more days to go. If you haven't started a fake journal there is still time to do so. Don't be overwhelmed with the project. Break it down into something simple that you can cope with easily. Perhaps you are needing a bit of a break after filing your taxes? Well set aside next weekend to go on a fake trip. Every 2 hours or so over the weekend take 15 minutes to make a quick sketch in a small journal. Say something about where your journal author is and what he's up to. All the regular guidelines for normal journals apply: don't worry if it isn't profound, don't worry about perfect, just keep moving forward.

In 2001 I needed to make a sample journal for a family class (adults and kids) I was teaching. We were going to use black text pages and gel pens. It was a simple pamphlet stitch book which you can see at the link provided. I ended up with a book filled with delightful, simple sketches of things that were happening or items that were around me, including a second Daily Dot for the day in GEL PEN!

Perhaps, if you want to use black text pages (I recommend Arches Cover black, Rives BFK black, or Somerset which also has a black) you could stick in photos you digitally altered on the computer and write fake captions about the day's happenings (hey, that sounds like a lot of fun, maybe I'll do that next year). Or put in newspaper clippings, things that are important to the journal keeper (not you!).

If you use white or cream pages maybe you keep it simple by only using pen, or pencil, or only using 3 colored pencils (a red, blue, and yellow) throughout.

The most convincing fakes are the simplest.

If you have been keeping a fake journal all month, fantastic, congratulations we're half-way through. If you're just starting, great! Happy plunge. There's plenty of time left.

Also, if you haven't already visited my regular blog today, go and see the cool IFJM pin my friend Linda made for me this year! I talk about supporting friends.

For people reading along the text on April 9th's spread reads:

Verso:

09.04.09 4 p.m. Back to the Target Parking lot at Minnehaha. Fleck came and collected samples.

It's official. I'm considered an albatross. It came out a[t] lunch. Alec let it drop. Explains how distant everyone has remained. People wonder about Gordie's death rather than ask. And I'm not the first artist to lose a partner. I'm surprised—the scientists are more superstitious than the artists. The safety officiers [sic] seem only slightly uncomfortable around me…perhaps because they deal in what they can control.

When Alec brought it up Chuck simply smiled and kept eating—shrugged it off.

He lets me get my work done, makes sure I have personal time. I can't ask for more than that.

[label] longer legs

Recto:

I borrowed a different nib from Ted. The other was clogging too much…this one isn't as responsive but I'll see what I can do with it on this paper for awhile.

[labels]
Stretching forward cawing—
really stretching the neck out.

These are too long.

Yes!!

Feet hidden by tail if made right length

white bars and dots on tail

use for bird above!

Eighth Page Spread in Roz's Fake Journal

Above: the 04.08.09 entry for my fake journal. Still working with Ziller acrylic ink, a dip pen, and Schmincke Pan Watercolors. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Here's a particularly ripply and crunchy page with every spec of it painted over. I couldn't resist letting great puddles of color slide down the water resistant pages. I'm going to do more journals in these Alvin field books!

For folks reading along the text from verso to recto page reads as a whole:

09.04.08 4:30 p.m.
It's 8:30 p.m. now. I sketched this male cardinal when Chuck took me out on my constitutional. So he has at least one redeeming characteristic—he'll wait patiently while I sketch even when we're off the clock.

This guy was puffed up and singing mightily to attract attention when we left. When we returned 45 mins. later he was up close and personal with a lovely beige brown female. He looked—if possible, even more full of himself.

At dinner Fleck informed me that Cardinals mate for Life. (So was this a first date today or a reunion?) Females, however, will let multiple males mate with them. DNA tests from eggs or chicks in one nest have shown multiple fathers. Clearly someone doesn't understand the whole "mate for life" concept.

I need access to a specimen for measuring before I can do any completed sketches of this bird. They aren't something I studied. I need to separate the feathers from the skeletal stucture.

Seventh Page Spread in Roz's Fake Journal

Above: the April 7 entry in my 2009 fake journal. I'm still using Ziller Acrylic ink with a dip pen and applying washes of color with Schmincke pan watercolors. This scan was made the day the page was painted and it no longer looks like this. Paint from a later page spread has spread onto the page through the gutter, adding a rorschach test of changed colors. Click on the image to see an enlargement.

On this page spread there is a poem quoted in its entirety. We don't know if this is something the author just read or something she had in her mind because of the events of the day. Inclusions like this are another way to add elements to your fake journal that tell us something about its author.

Depending on your author's access to media you might include newspaper and magazine clippings, or comments about internet or television news. What info does your author have access to?

The text on the page spread reads as follows:

Verso Page:

NOT THE BIRD
but the shadow of the bird
flying
poem by Ken Mikolowski
[note the poem is quoted with attention to c/lc and line breaks]

American Robin thought to be extinct (Detroit—November 16, 2008)
And I saw one today! bobbing all over the vacant field outside the compund fence. Even Chuck allowed that this was quite an event. Glad to be in Minneapolis now.

Recto Page:

09.04.07 5:30 p.m.

Sixth Page Spread in Roz's Fake Journal

Above: the entry for day 6 of my 2009 fake journal shows pigeons. Ziller Acrylic ink and dip pen, with Schmincke pan watercolors. Click on the image to view an enlargement. Read below for a transcript of the text.

I'm posting my pages in order so people following along won't be more confused than necessary. When you read the text on this page you'll see that the person writing the journal has work relationships and a hierarchy at work.

While it makes sense in the situation in this journal, for her to have a note about this, because she is in a new place and just meeting these folks for the first time, remember that this is a useful way for your author to bring in information about his work situation.

You will have to be a bit more subtle about it if your author has been in a situation a long time, i.e., an organizational chart isn't something we just write down everyday in our journals. But we do make comments about our colleagues and through those comments you can get in the information you feel is important.

Why incorporate these types of details? Well first of all it makes the process more satisfying. Journaling of any kind is always best when details, observed and written, abound. Keeping a fake journal is actually training for keeping a more useful real journal!

Next, incorporating these types of details helps get onto the page the thoughts that are swimming in your head about this character, so that years from now you won't sit there and wonder what was up with that author.

Even if you intend to have no one else ever see any portion of your fake journal take a few minutes today to find subtle ways to work in more details about that author's life, people in that life, his attitudes, etc.

We don't tend to note down things that are stable and unchanging, so your push to include such details might propel your author to a turning point in his life. Working through that turning point for him might tell you, when the dust settles and the book closes, a little bit more about your own attitudes, goals, thoughts, life. So give it a try.

Text on the page spread is as follows:

Verso page top to bottom (note: I can't do tables in this window):
09.040.06 5:30 p.m.
Rober made final assignment of teams today at orientation wrap up:
[listed as artist, safety officer, science officer with team number]
1 Ted Miller, Burton (Hopper) Crane, Angie Reed; 2 Morgan Wright, Lou Letz, Alec Grant; 4 Bill Barra, Michelle Kennedy, Nelson Witney; Chuck and I stay together and get Fleck (Fletcher nelso) for science. We're 3

Ink keeps bleeding and muddying up the irridescent colors.

Recto page top to bottom:
Ted said I could keep the supplies I've been borrowing as long as necessary. He's got enought paper for final projects. He always travels with his materials, for just this reason.

I don't know what to make of Fleck, he's 20-something and full of a false bravado…evident in the way he stays close to whatever safety officer happens to be on hand. Chuck seems to like him, they already have code words and shared jokes.

I took a break before dinner to sketch some of the pigeons in the old park on Erie. They cluster together…watchful. Their cooing reassures me. Their red-orange eyes have a yellow core, mesmerizing…or would be if they didn't seem so vacuous.

eyes bulge out

Chuck: "They're flying rats." I don't see it that way—messengers.

Keeping Your Momentum Going

Above: A photo of my fake journal at the end of day 11 (yesterday). You can see how the pages are rippling beneath the watercolor use, but unlike other lightweight papers this water resistant paper is really sturdy. The book won't even close unless you put something on top of it. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

We're on day 12 of International Fake Journal Month. Time to talk about momentum.

Yesterday was International SketchCrawl day and to celebrate I met with a bunch of "sketchy" folks at the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. You can see a photo of the group and as people get things scanned, some sketches from the day, at Twin Cities Sketchers. (Later today you'll also be able to see some of my thoughts on SketchCrawl at Roz Wound Up.)

I bring up this event here to make an encouraging point. It was a long and busy day of sketching—I participated in the full day, arriving at Como at 9:50 and leaving just minutes before 4 p.m. so I could get to Cafe Latte for cake! Despite the refreshments at Cafe Latte I returned home at 6:45 p.m. a bit dehydrated and very, very tired. (I've been recovering from an ankle and foot injury—walking and standing all day was a bit strenuous.)

I had one more task to do, however, before I could rest: I still had not done a day 11 entry in my fake journal.

I believe in being kind to yourself. Sometimes you just have to say "enough." But there is also a point where you have to push yourself even if you think you are really tired, even if you know you aren't going to get the best page ever. Sometimes it is just important that you work through the task, accept the results and move on, because all of those steps make you more prepared for the next task, better prepared. (And this is true of things beyond journal pages.)

That was the way it was yesterday. I had a page spread quota to meet and I was going to meet it. Instead of diving right in I drank 3 glasses of water and put my feet up for 30 minutes. Then I drank some more water and launched into the page spread.

I actually turned to my real journal for help in accomplishing this task. I needed a reference for a penguin and I had just spent time at the zoo sketching them. I based my fake journal sketch on my penguin work earlier in the day (I'll write about this later when I am showing page 11 in order).

I ended up with a drawing I was really pleased with, and more time to really absorb what I had seen at the zoo, when I was sketching the penguins.

So, I want to encourage you, even if you are exhausted from other events during your day, even if your family has been pulling you in all directions, even if you think you are too tired to draw one more drawing, just go for it. You'll be pleasantly surprised. And your internal critic will be very pissed off.

Something to think about, when that internal critic starts harping on you about your fake journal (or any project for that matter that plays out over time)—how can you talk back?

If you look at the photo of my fake journal at the start of this post you can see that the pages are starting, at day 11, to add up. Take heart in that. Point it out to your critic if you have to.

When I am involved in a long-term daily project, whether it is a year-long project (like my Correspondence Labs project when I wrote a letter a day), an on-going project like my Daily Dots (which after the first year I had no idea how long it was going to last), or a month-long project like A bird a day painting project or the IFJM journal, I break things down into to component parts—weeks, months, even hours if it is a weekend project. Then I look at what I have already accomplished and tell myself, hey, I'm 1/8th of the way finished, or I'm 1/3rd of the way finished, or whatever.

Last night I looked at the fake journal sitting on the scanner where I had left it, sprung open, unable to keep itself closed. My first thought was how yummy the pages were with all the crinkles. My second thought was, that's 10 days down, I'm already 1/3rd of the way through. If I do my 11th spread today I'm over that hump.

I didn't need to talk to myself any more about it. Sure, I can think of a couple scenarios where I would have given myself a pass, but I'd really have to struggle to think one up.

Here's the deal, and I want you to think about this if you are working in your fake journal (or any journal for that matter, or any project) and thinking about stopping, and letting it go:

It is always easier to just do a thing than to spend any time talking yourself out of it.

In other words, in the amount of time you might spend talking yourself out of doing your project you actually could have finished it.

Which would you like to look back on at the end of the day? All of the time you wasted talking yourself out of something, or all of the stuff you finished?

Don't worry about the quality of that stuff. There are good days and bad days. There will be days when you look at your work table and want to cry because it all looks like crap. But don't cry on those days. (In fact don't cry period.) Just keep on going because all those pieces are merely the cost of keeping current, the price you pay for doing a little bit better tomorrow. The entry fee which is non-refundable, but does pay back with interest even if you don't notice it a first.

If you put in your time there will also be days when you look at your work table and want to cry because something there is more beautiful than your last piece, better than anything you have ever done. (Don't cry then either, just keep working!)

Today, even if you are tired, even if you are busy enjoying the wonderful spring weather, take 10 minutes and work in your fake journal (or your regular journal). Make an investment.

Fake Journals: Jana Bouc Sent in a Sample!

Above: journal page artwork ©Jana Bouc. Read more about her fake journal adventure below. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Jana Bouc has written to share her fake journal with me and enter the contest. She has a great idea on how to build her fake journal. I think it is always a great idea when you can make the fake journal have a game or playful aspect to it and she has found an interesting exploration tool, linking music and self-discovery that will help to keep her fake journal author motivated all month. (I love that all the songs have the same title.) Here are Jana's comments:

I’m filling a journal this month as a woman who doesn’t know who she is and is trying to find out. (Maybe she’ll learn how she lost her memory too.) I started by Googling “Who Am I” and clicked the first link, a YouTube video by Casting Crowns which inspired the rose and waves besides my pondering self.

Since Google led me to a song, I followed that lead to iTunes and found more than 100 songs named “Who Am I.” I shall play detective, listening to each song, reading the lyrics looking for clues to who “I” am. I'm looking forward to Snoop Dogg's "Who Am I" day. As I write and draw what I learn I’ll fill the journal and by the end of the month may have discovered my true identity.

I'm also pasting the lyrics to the songs in the journal and have exported the list of songs and artists from iTunes to an Excel spreadsheet to better track which I've used.

If the text is unreadable it says:

"Who am I? I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean, a vapor in the wind."

Fifth Page Spread from Roz's IFJM Journal

Above: Day five in the month and it's an image of a dead Downy Woodpecker. (Ziller acrylic ink with dip pen, Schmincke pan watercolors, in the Alvin Fieldbook.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.

As the caption says, this is my journal entry from day 5. I've been doing a page spread a day and as of today (April 10) have nine completed, with plans to sketch later today. If I keep the one-spread-a-day pace I will completely fill the book, which would be fun.

I will post a photo of the completed journal at the end of the month because you really need to see this thing, it is warped and bulging beyond belief and makes the most wonderful crinkly noise when I flip the pages. (OK, I'm easily amused.)

For people who are reading along the text reads as follows:

Top of the page spread, across both pages:

09.04.05 4:30 p.m. Brilliantly sunny but he breeze makes me feel the chill. I'm still wearing my fingerless gloves when I'm outside.

A day of rest for Chuck means practice at the shooting range. He was pretty snide when he reminded me safety officers always trump artists. What do I resent most—the time spent on target practice developing skills I don't want and don't need if I have Chuck? The exposure to loud noises? The exposure to Chuck's dried fruit farts—he lives on dried fruit! All of the above?

I do like the 38 he picked out for me. It's light enough. I'm accurate with it. "It's hand-eye coordination," he said, "I'd expect it. It's what you do all day long." But my hand was still shaking when I drew this woodpecker…but I had to get some drawing in today. Used my loupe.

Hope it stands up to freezing.

Additional side notes Verso page:

JD-MPLS-090405A
requested held in freezer
until released.

Dead Downy Woodpecker found on sidewalk at 635 Erie. (Male symbol.)
Yellow ochre bits with gray black flipside. Need my gouache to work on this properly…Downy white feathers lining lower lid and part of the upper lid. Eye socket all skin.

Additional side notes Recto page:

Need to lay in a gray base and then layer feather pattern in. Wisps of white some very dark shadow areas.

grayish.

An IFJM Contest

Left: T-shirts and a button will be awarded in the IFJM Contest. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Today I'm celebrating 6 months of daily posting on my blog Roz Wound Up.

It seems the perfect time to have a contest related to International Fake Journal Month. And that's exactly what I'm doing.

Please go to my post on Rozworks today, to check out the procedure for entering. It's not complicated, but there are some very specific guidelines you need to follow.

Whether or not you take time to enter the contest I hope that you are enjoying your fake journal experience. Take a moment to keep me posted on how it went at the end of the month.

A Look into Anne Bray's Fake Journal

Above: A page spread from Anne Bray's 2009 Fake Journal, ©2009 Anne M. Bray. Read below for details. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Anne Bray sent in the above page spread from her 2009 fake journal. (Note that when you visit her blog, some of the page spreads will have adult content. Her entries have been inspired by the poems.)

She explained she is

repurposing Leonard Cohen's "Stranger Music" while "I" [the author of the fake journal] follow his spring 2009 tour—"I" may even continue this into the summer when he goes to Europe. This was my 2nd page spread, I am still working out media—I found the gel stick pen is a little too harsh and bleedy for writing on the back side of pages, though it looks good.

I’m having a blast going on a fantasy road trip. So far, the tour is on roads I’ve traveled many times—when they get to Canada, it’s to places I’ve never been, which will be even more fun. Journaling a parallel life has given me permission to draw from my memory or imagination (saguaro scene)—something I never do "normally." I’m also allowing myself to do "whatever"—doodles, patterns, illustrations of Leonard’s poems, experiment with media—all very liberating.

It's great to hear that the experience has been a positive one for Anne. I loved seeing the first page spread she put up on her blog. I love the simple and free sketches that she is doing in the pages of this book of Cohen's poems. Anne will finish the month not only with a fake journal but an altered book journal. Double fun!

Some More Thoughts on Fake Journals

Above: the fourth page spread in my IFJM journal. Ziller Acrylic ink with dip pen; Schmincke pan watercolors. Alvin Field book with water resistant pages. Click on the image to see an enlargement.

Something to consider as you go along in your fake journal—what are things that you can include which are "normal," and give a sense of life as usual even in unusual circumstances? For instance the person keeping the journal presented here is a voracious reader, frustrated by the lack of reading material. This isn't stated in the journal yet and perhaps won't be. But one of the things this person does is note down quotations from material that she is currently reading (e.g., a quotation from the New Yorker on April 2).

What do you do normally in your journals? What types of things do you note down? Weather, books, news items? Are these things of interest to the author of your fake journal? If so consider including some of them from time to time. If these items don't interest your author, what items do? No one keeps a journal without pet interests (even if that pet interest is a pathological self-interest). Consider what those interests are for your author and let them appear in your fake journal. This creates "normalcy" and creates a new reality.

You'll also notice in my pages that I'm not concerned about misspelled words or crossings out. Of course this doesn't bother me in my real journal either, so maybe that's not saying much. My point is, don't let worries about spelling and such slow you down.

At the start of this post you'll find the next spread in my fake journal. I didn't plan on posting all my pages from this year's fake journal, but I'm having so much fun with the paper in the Alvin Field book—then I thought, if I don't post them in order people won't get the sense of what's going on…So today at least I'm posting another in order. I would like to create a little "movie" with the pages turning at the end of the month. Maybe I can work that out. I'm buried beneath too many other projects and the idea of new software bothers me right now. Regardless of what happens at the end of the month, here at least is another installment, with a close-up crop at the end of this post.

The text of the page spread:
Across top of the spread: Roger, who looks totally worn down and used up (I read in his bio in the handouts that he's been in the corps 6 years), told me this morning there's still no word on my missing supplies. I gave him a list to send in for replacements. He laughed and said, "It's scratch as to which will show up first, the lost of the new." I just count mentally to ten and remember to breathe. I came out here to take my break with the turkeys. This guarantees peace and quiet because everyone else avoids them…even the other team artists. Maybe it's just the gruelling [sic] boredom of orientation but no one here seems very friendly—not at all like Chicago—but since I'm sitting here alone with the birds maybe I need to ask if Chicago was all Gordie's doing?!; Second lunch bell—better jump. There's always fresh bread. The luck of drawing a Paris-trained cook!

Verso labels top to bottom: some kind of skin horn sort of wattle? look up… is this an immature tom?; splotchy skin and fine "hairs"; sun shining threw [sic] throat where stretched; *look in the old records for info on this flock and turkey related facts; 09.04.04 11: 55 a.m.; Outside the compound 2 of 6 turkeys feeding now.

Recto labels top to bottom: more stiff feathers and brown…less blue face skin; 12.05 p; not standing as still much more cautious very dishevelled—everything here is dishevelled. Is the fluffing of the neck fear? warning?

Right: Cropped close up of the turkey on the verso page. The watercolor use is clear. Also the bending of the paper which causes shadows when I scan. Click on the image to see an enlargement.