2013 IFJM Participants List Has Started

Just a heads up in case you come to the blog and don't normally look around on the whole "page." I've heard from several fake journal keepers who have already started posting their entries from their fake journals for 2013.

I have put those names in a 2013 Participants List that is located in the right-hand column of this blog, just below "Pages" and "Contests for 2013." If you click on one of those names (listed alphabetically by surname) you'll be taken to their blog or Flickr site which shows their 2013 fake journal entries. You can watch them grow over the month of April (and into May if they get behind in their scanning, as I know I'm already behind in mine).

If you are posting your blog publicly please send me an email at rozjournalrat@gmail.com and include the url of your public site (blog, website section, or Flickr section) and I'll be happy to add you to the list. (Be patient as a lot is going on here so I'll probably only update the list once a week on the weekend.)

I've just decided on what the "contest" for this year is going to be but I don't have time to post about it and explain until later this week. Don't worry, it will make sense once I start posting.

Until then, get busy in those journals. I've enjoyed seeing the pages people are posting.

I'd also like to provide some words of encouragement to folks who are working privately. Some of you have already been kind enough to send me private emails with a spread attached and it has been very fun to see that you are participating and to see what you're doing. I think there are a host of reasons to participate privately and I want you to know I hope you keep going and let your mind and your character wander and that you embrace the exercise with gusto. You'll get a lot out of it working privately too.

Everyone keep working—I know I have to go back to painting RIGHT NOW!

P.S. If you don't see your name on the list and you sent me a note already please send me another note because I must have lost it! I want to be sure to list everyone.

2013 International Fake Journal Month Begins TODAY

Left: The button for the 2013 IFJM celebration. (Maybe, more details to come.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Welcome to International Fake Journal Month 2013!

Today's the day to jump into your daily fake journaling. If you don't understand what all the fuss and bother is, take a few moments to look at the introductory links at the top of the blog. Read the "Tips" category for selections on how to pick a journal to work in and how to hone your idea for your character and your project into something manageable within the constraints of your life!

Then jump in.

I'll have more to say about my own 2013 fake journal in a few days (at least by the end of the week). This year my journal isn't scan-able (that's a long story and you'll hear about that soon enough) so I'm going to have to take photos and process those, and so it goes. A little more labor intensive than what I like to do for fake journal month, but I think the plan is an interesting one this year.

As to the illustration in this post—that's definitely the illustration on this year's button, or it will be when they arrive. The slogan may change. I had a super chaotic week when prepping the button files and screwed up. I didn't put on my "new-er" slogan (I was going to save this one for next year). When the buttons arrive in the mail I'll let you know what's going on. (I wrote a little about the confusion for this year's button on Roz Wound Up. Basically it was a case of too much stress, not enough sleep!)

In the meantime you can get a button by helping me with the interactive aspect of my 2013 fake journal. You can read about all that at this link.

Eventually you'll be able to order a button—which means you can get a free button, but I have to charge for the postage and package I send them in. I can't tell you what that's going to be yet since the buttons haven't arrived and been weighed for postage. I'll update you as soon as possible.

Update on the Interactive Aspect of My 2013 Fake Journal

For reasons which will be made clear soon enough, my use of the interactive materials I asked you to send me changed slightly as I prepared for this year's celebration.

Because of that everyone who sent me materials as requested in my "Interactive" post, and which I received on or before March 29, 2013 is getting a button. (I'm not trying to be secretive, and since you're all being rewarded I doubt you'll complain.) There wasn't any way around this.

I'm still hoping that others will send in small paper items as requested.

Those of you who sent something in so that it would reach me by that date will get a button mailed out as soon as the buttons arrive (which if I didn't totally mess up means they will go out next week, but if I messed up the buttons then you'll have to wait a bit). I'm telling you this because one particular correspondent sent many packets of scraps hoping to win a daily drawing and get a button. (Dana, you're getting a button, you don't need to send anything else!)

Entries received from April 1 on will be in the regular daily drawing.

You'll see the how and why of all this when you see the first introduction to my 2013 journal.

That leads me to one last bit of "paperwork." Someone in El Paso, Texas sent me a sewing related item.  There was NO RETURN ADDRESS, and NO NOTE inside the envelope. If you are that mystery correspondent and you would like to claim your button please send me your postal address in an email to rozjournalrat@gmail.com. In the email tell me what sewing related thing it was that you sent me (so I know it's really you, because of course I'm going to be inundated with requests for buttons from the residents of El Paso!) I'd love to get a button to you.

Now get busy. And don't forget to let me know a link to where you are posting your fake journal so that I can add it to the 2013 list of participants.

You don't have to post your journal to participate in IFJM 2013. You can do your work privately.

I hope that either way you do participate!

The Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook Review Is Up

If you read my Friday, March 8 post about my 2013 fake journal prep you'll know I mentioned the Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook. This morning I put my review of this journal up on Roz Wound Up (so it could be easily accessible to the other reviews I've done on commercially bound journals).

You can read more about my tests using mixed media on the Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook here.

I will be using one of these books for my 2013 fake journal so you'll begin seeing pages from it here sometime in April. (It's a 9 x 12.5 inch book and finding time to scan the pages is going to be a bit difficult given my current schedule, so I'll probably start posting pages a week or so into April.)

I hope that your plans for 2017 are going well and the pieces are falling into place.

Later this week I'll post the new button design.

And I have to give some thought to this year's contest.

We are getting close!

New in 2013—Roz's INTERACTIVE Fake Journal

UPDATE: The Interactive portion of my 2013 fake journal celebration has ended as of April 18, 2013, at 11 p.m. (CST) when I filled my fake journal. Do not send any more entries. Information on ordering a button will appear in a separate post. Buttons to participants used on my pages will be sent out sometime next week (the week of April 22).

While letting the ideas of what my 2013 fake journal might be run through my head I had either a brainstorm or a mini stroke. I thought it would be fun to have my first interactive fake journal. That's right I'm going to involve other people in the creation of this year's fake journal—the creator/author of which still has not and may never have a name.

So here's the deal, as I so often say when explaining things—your task, if you'd like to participate in my 2013 fake journal, is to send me something in the mail which I can incorporate in my fake journal. (See below for a detailed list of criteria you'll need to follow.)

Each day in April 2013 I'll draw an envelope and use what's in the envelope on my page that day.

If I draw your envelope I'll send you a free 2013 IFJM Commemorative button (which is rectangle this year and really spiffy, but I haven't had time to post it yet!).

Here's what you can and can't send (there have to be some guidelines because I'm journaling with what you send).

Things You Must NOT Send:

1. No perfumed items of any sort. Sadly they won't even make it into the drawing pool. (I'm that allergic—and if I have to hover over the smelly journal for days while working on other pages, you get the idea…)

2. Nothing that has been sprayed with fixative of ANY type, or written on with any solvent inks.

3. Nothing that has been in close proximity to or stained by food (I just don't want to deal with the archival and bug issues). This includes fortune cookie fortunes. (I've got a ton of them I'm saving so there's no point.)

4. Nothing vegetative. (See item 3.)

5. Nothing animal—hair, fur, feathers, etc. (See item 3.)

6. Any original artwork of yours unless you are truly comfortable with my character totally defacing it and maybe obliterating it.

7. Nothing one-of-a-kind at all. (See item 6.)

8. Nothing of value, except that it is valuable because it interests you or you think it might interest my character. (See item 6.)

9. Nothing three dimensional! It must be flat and be able to be glued down. Cardstock thickness is workable, cardboard thickness is probably not going to get used.

10. Nothing you've already altered. (This includes everything from rubbing stamp inks on something to make it look aged, to dropping it in a puddle so the ink runs.)

11. Which reminds me—nothing wet or moldy!

12. Nothing commercial, unless it's simply paper scraps. So don't send store-purchased "fake" ephemera, but you can send a postcard, or scraps of marbled paper that you made or used on one of your own projects.

13. No photocopies.

14. No receipts for anything from your day—you'll probably need all that for your tax records anyway; and you don't live where my character lives so it would be difficult to explain how she came up with them.

15. Any personal records of any sort. My character doesn't need to  know anything about you.

16. Any whole or partial rolls of anything—i.e., no rolls of decorative tape which you could argue is flat, but which I would argue is valuable and excessive, and isn't flat in transit!

17. No shredded paper.

18. No chips of anything like paint or pottery, even if they are very flat.

19. NOTHING WITH ANY GLITTER or small micro beads on it.

20. No money or gifts of any kind—this is just about sending something I can collage with. If your envelope doesn't get drawn in April I'd never know would I?

Things I Think You Probably Should Not Send:

1. I don't know how I feel about scanned things that you then print and send the print of to me. Right now I think you shouldn't do this. But just maybe you're more in sync with my character than I am right now and you know she would love a scan of  the tread of your running shoe. Just know this is an iffy category to enter with.

2. I'm also not sure how I feel about very thin fabric swatches or bits of thin ribbon. The page I'll be working on isn't very supportive (thick) for thicker collage and this will be border line. But it might hit just the right creative nerve.

Things to Send:

1. FLAT, paper items like the following:
•scraps of paper
•scraps of decorative paper
•postcards
•photos (old or new, but if they are old they should not be one-of-a-kind, and they should not be valuable!)
•Newspaper or magazine articles or bits of articles from March through April 30th 2013 only. (So any day between now and April 29 because even if you live near me you have to mail it, you can pick up something, read it and send it to me.)
•Paper ephemera you picked up during your day—small handbills, flyers, etc.
•paint swatches from the hardware store, and anything similar to that, but flat. (Don't send any Pantone Swatches—that's like sending coals to Newcastle.)

2. Before you send anything please re-read the list of "Things You Must Not Send" and make sure your item isn't on that list.

Where To Send Your Bit of Stuff and How It Will Work.

1. All envelopes should be sent to me at  Roz Stendahl, P.O. Box 141434, Minneapolis, MN 55414. Nothing should be sent as an email attachment. 

I'm thinking that your item should ideally fit in a number 10 business size envelope or something similarly small. If you're sending a whole article you need to use a larger envelope, but then you might also want to reconsider what you're sending and just send me the headline to save postage!

2. Include your name and postal address CLEARLY printed on a separate slip or sheet of paper so that I can send you your commemorative button if your piece is drawn and used. (DO NOT WRITE ON THE ITEM you're sending to me.)

3. I will NOT be announcing receipt of any items in this drawing. You'll find out if your piece is used either because you are reading the blog and following along with my posts and spot your piece on a page, OR because you receive a button in the mail back from me.

4. Do not write on the item and don't send any explanation with the item.

5. Each day in April I'll draw an envelope, open it up and see what's inside. If it contains something on the "Things You Must Not Send" list it will be tossed and another envelope will be drawn.

6. Any envelope drawn from April 1 through April 30 containing a useable (as determined by the guidelines) item will have that item used on that day's journal page. The sender will receive a commemorative button for 2013 IFJM.


That's it! So if you would like to join in on the interactive journal now you know how to do it. Keep your eyes open! And mail early so I have something to work with. Thank you.

UPDATE: The Interactive portion of my 2013 fake journal celebration has ended as of April 18, 2013, at 11 p.m. (CST) when I filled my fake journal. Do not send any more entries. Information on ordering a button will appear in a separate post.

My Preparations for My 2013 Fake Journal

It's March and time to start thinking about my 2013 IFJM journal. What type of book am I going to use? Which media? Who's book is it? What is that person like? How does that person journal? Will the journaling be done out in the field or in the studio? (That might make a difference to the type of paints and inks I use.)

So with all those questions swirling around in my brain I start to think about what media and what paper I want to work on.

And a journey begins, which could be full of turns down cul de sacs, and retreating steps, until it's April first and off I go.

This year in life drawing I took some DaVinci gouache to a session and the next week, after being in a plastic bag the paints were still very soft. (My regular palette sits out and will dry out eventually, though I sometimes put it in a plastic bag with a bit of moist paper towel—a very little bit—to create a humid environment in the bag.) The DaVinci gouache is lower quality (in pigment type and load) from what I normally use, so they are much less expensive. I purchased 4 test tubes in February 2012(!) and never got around to testing them because I love the gouache I use every day. (Schmincke, and some M. Graham.)

Left: My first tester sheet, explained in the text. The page was torn out of a notebook and pasted into my current journal for reference purposes. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

But IFJM is a chance for me to bust up some of my habits, and I was intrigued that the DaVinci was still so pliable. I figured I could slather the stuff on and not worry about waste. (I don't normally worry about paint waste when I'm painting, but I tend to paint in a considered manner, with a bit of a plan because my PB60 is after all about $20 a tube! Also there are times when you want to use the best materials possible, and there are times when it doesn't matter what you use. My 2013 character doesn't care what she uses, I'm happy for that.)

I grabbed my DaVinci palette and did some quick ugly paintings, throwing color over quick ink sketches I'd done in a lined notebook during a vertigo episode. 

I wasn't concerned with realistic color. I was interested in two things. Could the notebook page take water media and did I like moving this particular paint around on the surface—like it enough to take it to life drawing again that night, and maybe use it in my fake journal.

The thin notebook paper buckled, but the paint didn't bleed or seep through the paper. It would be possible to work on the other side of the page. (I like working on lined papers or gridded papers when I'm journaling.)

Left: Another trial sketch. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I filled in another ink sketch quickly with the soft paint, not carrying about blending. I just wanted to move the paint around.

At that point I knew two things (or thought I did). I wanted to keep a fake journal full of 3 minute brush pen sketches that were painted with cheap gouache. I saw the pages as full of additional painting and sketches as well as ephemera and stuck on bits. I saw the thin pages barely holding up to the work and thought, yep, that will be a lot of fun.

Left: A quick try out of the triad of sample colors of DaVinci Gouache I had on hand. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I did a quick triad diagram to think some color mixing through before going to life drawing with the paints I had.

I went off to life drawing with the paints, knowing that I needed more than the 4 tester tubes for my April project. I didn't get to use any paint in life drawing that night because the format changed, but I went immediately to Wet Paint and selected a bunch of gouache colors in the DaVinci line. They don't have some of my favorite pigments in gouache (such as PB60) but I'm not keeping this journal right?!

Fake journaling is a great time to relax your usual prescriptions and phobias and rules!

I also purchased an APICA notebook, a large one that's about 9 x 12 inches (it isn't on the table so I can't measure it for you.

I thought I had a photo of it I could show you, but instead I found this post about selecting a journal for IFJM. This photo shows one of the company's other books (the red notebook, which I actually used in 2010).

Also if you go to my February 13, 2012 post on "Time to Start Thinking about Which Journal…," you'll find a photo of other notebooks (Clairefontaine) which I like because of the elaborate ruling found in some styles. All of this is something to consider.

Since I really like to use SEWN journals so they don't fall apart, it's the one thing I have pretty much always insisted on for IFJM. Even the APICA multi signature journals I've used in the past that are soft covered have been sewn so I'm OK with them.

HOWEVER, here comes one of the twists that always happens when you open your mind to creativity—I found out about a new type of journal (new to me) with a dotted grid pattern on it. The journal also had a hardcover. I really wanted to take my fake journal out and about with me and not have it just in the studio and at home (last year my fake journal never left the house because the keeper of the journal was under house arrest). I thought if I had a hardcover journal this year the fake journal, which was going to take quite a beating anyway, would be somewhat more protected.

If you go to the link for the Leuchtturm 1917 you'll find a book that looks a lot like a Moleskine. Except for the Moleskine watercolor books I don't like Moleskines much at all so I wasn't too excited.

But then I saw the dotted grid patterned pages and saw that I could get a large journal—9 x 12.5 inches—so I was intrigued.

A new plan began to form. I decided to order one of these journals. If it arrived in time I would weigh whether or not I'd use it as my 2013 fake journal. If it didn't arrive I would just start using the APICA journal I had on hand. 

The journal did arrive—and I did a test on it which will actually be posted to Roz Wound Up in the next few days (I'll come back and add the link here).

There are some great things about the Leuchtturm 1917 and some frustrating things, but after weighing the pros and cons last night I think it's safe to say that I'm going ahead with it as the structure for my fake journal. Because of the paper it contains, however I will probably do more pencil and paint work, and not use the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen as extensively as I thought I would. You'll see why when you read that review. I was on the fence for an evening and then just realized that it was actually a better project for me to use pencil and paints, or at least it didn't seem like an impediment.

Also I found that the acrylic markers I've been using lately worked well on my test pages.

We'll see how I feel on April 1!

In the meantime I know little about my "character" except that she is female and she likes to slather on paint. 

I also got the impression, through the fog that separates us at this point that she's a bit more messy than I am. And mess is a good thing in this case.

Which brings me to yet another twist in media—I went to visit my friend Diane who is recovering from foot surgery. She told me about Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plates. (We even called around town to see if we could get one—I was going to go pick one up for her since she was housebound and I know that can be frustrating! Alas no one had one in stock.) I looked at the ads and a couple videos when I got home that night and decided that it was just the thing that my character would want to use in her journal.

Go to YouTube and Google Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate and you'll find a ton of videos with people using these to make mono prints. I found out today that a friend has been using one since last fall and she made a lovely short little video about them, but it's not up on YouTube so I can't send you there—I did however invite her to come and talk and demo at the MCBA Visual Journal Collective so if you're in town, keep your eyes peeled for details because Briana Goetzen is going to speak at the August 2013 meeting.

(You can see Briana's old blog Courageously Creating here. and her new blog, Orange Spiral Arts is here.)

The point of all this, I think you can see, is that it's an evolution of sorts. I carry the intention of the project always in my mind, usually starting in January, but this year starting in March. And then I sort of ping questions out to my character, waiting for answers to return—answers which tell me the type of book and materials to use.

All of this is of course fueled in part by what I might want to work on in my own art projects at the time. 

I know one other thing about this year's fake journal—it will take as much time each day as it takes. I've given myself permission to make heavily ladened pages and just wade around in the book. I have no expectations that a story will be told or that any of the journal will be understandable or even decipherable to anyone else. I love that. (I know in part that comes out of my own ongoing balance of public vs. private—because I have taught so much in past years my journals are way more public than they have ever been and to protect myself artistically I've shown less and less of my journals publicly.)

Whether I end up spending a luxury of time on the fake journal or not remains to be seen. So much is slightly off kilter in my life right now (by that I mean a huge amount of change is happening) that it seemed right to relax any constraints on the fake journal. Normally I suggest that people participating rein themselves in to something in the 30 minutes a day range so that it stays doable. 

For me, right now, it seems appropriate that I use any and all of my spare time for the project in April. Which means little other journaling, few stand alone paintings, less writing, maybe even less TV viewing (gasp).

I'm OK with that because I also know it can evolve off into another direction at any moment.

I hope you'll start thinking about your fake journal for 2013 and let the process evolve and take you in new directions. A huge part of the fun of this project is all the prep, which most of the time is swept away on April first when your character shows up; opens the book; says, "I'm in charge"; and gets busy working.  

First Some Old Business from 2012

Pressing family obligations in April and May 2012 delayed my write-up of my 2012 fake journal experience. Sadly in a move of colossal stupidity I wrote my wrap up post on a scrap of paper not in my regular journal. When the dust settled it was nowhere to be found. I kept thinking I would rewrite it and more family obligations again came up. That's sometimes how things happen. Moral of that story: always write your write ups in your regular writing journal where you can find them!

It's been a mad dash through the months to today. More clutter has accumulated on my desk (which is unusual for me, but this is the way things seem to be). During a recent illness I had time to sort through all the accumulated pieces of this and that. I found many delightful tidbits. Alas I didn't find my 2012 write up, but I did find a couple pages of brief notes.

So here, before we move on to preparing for International Fake Journal Month 2013, are some notes that wrap up my 2012 experience.

Oh, and you'll note that there was a darkness to these ideas. There tends to be a darkness to my fake journals, perhaps because there isn't much darkness in my actual journals. I think these are all good ideas to explore. They just might not be journals I would like to post for public consumption. My regular journals have been shifting into private mode again in the past 3 years. It came as no surprise to me that my ideas for IFJM 2012 were all rather private as well.

Notes (from a beat up piece of paper found at the bottom of a pile)—

• Originally I had huge plans for IFJM 2012. I was going to go to a particular corner every day and draw. I had a vague notion that this was somewhere someone close to the journal keeper had died. 

• The idea morphed into views from a particular bridge. The idea of working with architecture appealed to me. It seemed at first that the character might actually commit suicide at the end of the month.

• I decided I didn't want to do my musings on death in public. It's not how I work as an artist. I muse in private and then go public with what I think is useful or helpful to me and my relationship with the world. For me a big part of fake journaling and the aspect of posting hinges on maintaining healthy boundaries within which I have complete freedom to create. If it isn't something I want to post I might hinder myself in the actual creation, unless I decide that it will be a non-posted year.

• IFJM is also about growth in skills so the task of architecture was a good one…

• My project morphed into a happier one when I met Frank, a character to whom I alluded to in my prep post in 2012.

Now as to what actually transpired:

I found that my initial plans really would be too time intensive. They were abandoned for a closer look at the life of a character who had simple goals—to look at the clouds every day. (For reasons readers will understand.)

Here's what I firmly believe about IFJM and fake journals. You have to sit with ideas for even a short while (more than a couple days) to know if they fit for you and your current life—are the ideas actually doable given the current demands on your time and the responsibilities in your life?!

During last IFJM I was enrolled in 3 classes at the Atelier (trying to reconnect my brain, eye, hand). If I were going to go ahead with either of the architecturally-based ideas one of which included a character named Frank, I would have to carve out at least 90 minutes a day and that wasn't possible.

Sometimes you have to push yourself. You also have to have a clear assessment of your limits. 

That applies to your regular journal practice—if you're obsessive about journaling to the point of exclusion you have no life. 

It made perfect sense for me, therefore, to focus on one simple page spread a day, and work on mixing blues and whites to create clouds (the skill building portion). 

I ended up spending 15 to 30 minutes a day on my 2013 fake journal and that worked out to be just about right. Useful, but not burdensome given other constraints in my life.

Through a process of sitting down and casting about for ideas and then looking carefully at those ideas I found one which I wanted to explore; an idea I was happy exploring in a public forum; and an idea I could execute in a brief amount of time.

This is something that I encourage you all to do whether this is your first time keeping a fake journal, or you've done it before.

I want you to have a positive experience.

That's my wrap up for 2012. 

In the next few days I'll post about prepping for 2013 to jog your memory and get you planning a doable concept.

I will also introduce this year's button, slogan, and my own plans.

I hope you'll check back during March to see what I'm up to, and for help in your own planning. I look forward to seeing what you do in your 2013 fake journal.

Wrap-up Notes from Some of the 2012 International Fake Journal Month Participants

Above: Some small Japanese double pamphlets I created for the participants who sent in wrap-up comments about their posts. I was making sample pamphlets for the May MCBA Visual Journal Collective meeting and realized that I had enough of my cover paper to make little booklets for these folks. I used Arches Text Wove for the paper to create these 6-3/4 x 5-3/8 inch books. ATW, now called Arches Velin (but I'll never get used to that name) is a great paper for visual journaling. It's light weight, but strong. It takes watercolor washes. It loves being bound into books! I write a lot about it over on RozWoundUp. The cover paper is a Fabriano paper I can't find locally any more and used it because it was such a wide sheet I could have fore edge flaps on these booklet covers. I decorated the black paper with metallic rubberstamp ink before cutting them down. I hope that these will be little tester journals, portable and compact, will be a way to experience a paper they might not have tried, or to revisit an old friend; maybe even a book for next year's IFJM?

I think a hugely important part of a project like IFJM is the wrap up. (Scroll down the posts in that link to find wrap ups written by a variety of people, not just me, as well as thoughts on wrap-ups.) 

The wrap-up is as important in my mind as the actual creation of the journal. I've written posts in the past detailing why I think it's so important, but briefly I just want to say that by looking back at a completed project and comparing it to the goals you set out to begin with is a great way to judge the successfulness and usefulness of the project. But most important it is the ONLY way to then set even more specific goals for your next project, to take you to the next creative place you hope to travel.

In this post I share comments from participants you sent me a final wrap up or a link to that wrap up on their blog. Check the participants list in the right-hand column for links to the various posted fake journals.

Dana Burrell wrote the following detailed write up about her process, goals, and progress. To me her experience shows the benefits we can derive from projects like this when we focus intensely for a month. Dana set goals, yet remained flexible when she ran into time and energy constraints. I also love that she overcame her fear of screwing up the "whole journal," as she started each new entry.

This emotion is one shared by many. A project such as this, more than regular daily journaling, forces you to overcome that fear and just keep going. 

I'm especially glad that Dana has found aspects of the IFJM process that she is going to take into her regular journaling. I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next year. 

Dana Burrell wrote:

My character was a 50-something gardener and designer.  She keeps a small journal with her and sketches people she sees during the day.  She was to journal minimally to document her gardening activities but she somewhere around day seven she developed a personality.  She’s torn between work and family and it’s reflected in her journaling.

My goals were to:

1. Use a folded maze journal I made specifically for this project.  It’s made from one sheet of Fabriano Artistico HP.  Each page measured 5.5” x 7.5”… portrait orientation.
2. Work daily, allowing approximately 30 minutes per session.
3. Carry journal with me everywhere.
4. Sketch people’s faces, capturing them fast, in less than 5 minutes.  Live.
5. Sketch directly to pen with the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen I’ve had for a while but hadn’t gotten used to.
6. Add color with a set of ten Neocolor II watercolor crayons.
7. Journal minimally.  People drawn can be people she’s working with or people she finds interesting.

The journal went with me everywhere which certainly helped me sketch my subjects. I had enough on my plate so when the crayons became more of a bother than I planned I changed to my small palette of twelve M. Graham paints.  I was able to work daily although a few days were so busy all I wanted to do was to go to bed.  Even the short 30-minute allotment seemed too much then. On those days I forced myself to quickly sketch someone from TV and finish the page.  No DVR at my house so the sketches were done quickly out of necessity.  I scanned and uploaded to Flickr everyday… not one of my initial goals but one that helped me stay on track… I felt accountable.

My main goal was to sketch faces working directly with the PPBP.  I’ve always admired gesture drawings and wanted to try my hand at capturing personality with a minimum of detail.  Since I’m relatively new to watercolor journaling I’ve been doing more detailed drawings of small objects… drawing people was a huge stretch for me.  I thought it would help me to loosen up and learn to edit the details. The journal size was perfect.  It easily fit in my purse along with a small pen case and my mini watercolor kit.  I found the PPBP easily bled if I hit it with watercolor too soon so I often would sketch at lunch and add watercolor later. I found working directly to pen was freeing.  Every day, just as I went to draw my first line, I felt the fear I would screw up the page and therefore the whole journal.  Once I committed to that first line the sketch was easier to complete.

I had a minimal plan when I started.  I was amazed my character developed her own story.  I’ve often heard authors interviewed say this happens but I’ve never believed them.  About a week into the project my character surprised me!  Suddenly she was getting wordy and developing a family I hadn’t planned.  I plan on doing IFJM again next year but don’t expect a return of this character… she’s moved on in more ways than one.  I will keep my goals of sketching direct to pen… from life… and I’ll keep my time limitation to 30 minutes.  I don’t want to put so much pressure that I stop working on the project.

After I take a short break I’m going to be continuing my exploration of faces and the PPBP… maybe even all bodies.  I’ve wanted to attend life-drawing sessions but have been afraid of baring myself (my art… not me) in front of “real” artists.  I know this is my internal critic talking… this year’s IFJM has helped me muffle his argument.  IFJM has been a great start for a daily journal practice and to help solidify it I’m going to sketch along with the Every Day in May project.  EDiM has great daily drawing prompts that I can weave in with my journaling.  It fits in with my 2012 new year’s resolution… If not now, when?  Or in other terms… Carpe Diem.

Other participating artists wrote wrap ups on their sites.

Chris Wise has posted her wrap up on her Flickr page. She also set out her goals for the project. She used the project for experimentation and revisiting an actual trip she'd taken before! The one negative she related was that she only had time during April for her fake journal.

Every April, each of us who participates in IFJM faces the same issue of time constraints. I know personally it's very difficult for me to give up my regular journaling so I make a plan for my fake journal that will take as little time as possible and fit in my day. Last year I allowed my journal to expand into all my available time. It told me a lot about myself, my daily structure, how I use journaling in my life, and also about how many layers of fake I can juggle! I love to see people pushing their own boundaries by allowing the fake journal time to expand!

An equally valid and valuable approach is to journal as much as you can during the month, in your fake journal, allowing in advance for the reality that you won't journal every day, but will complete the entire month. (That's kind of a metaphor for life.) Dianne Carey found that is what happened to her. You can read Dianne Carey's wrap up here.

As Dianne focused on Japanese philosophy of art and sought to simplify her approach she also approached the idea of abstraction. She followed these inclinations in her fake journal, and unintentionally created a story progression. (I love when that happens.) She commented that she did "fall back on" her normal pen and watercolor technique, but I see that as the creative ebb and flow of the process. She pushed using a brush, and then switched, so she got to do both. I think it is important to listen as we work through the month, listen to what our mind says we need to work with.

As to working on flat pages to make scanning easier, and binding after the fact, Dianne seems a little apologetic—I'd just like to say, if it makes life easier during April it's fair, and I'm often making "journal card" journals myself throughout the year.

Iona shares her wrap up experiences on her blog. Her fake journal is filled with sketches of buildings and building details—a wonderful focus for the month. I hope one day to focus on buildings but I know I'll need a lot of time each day!

Her main goal was to journal every day and despite the roller coaster month of April she only skipped 3 days. I hope she'll join in again next year!

You can find Liz Nowell's full wrap up on her blog. She used this time to do a creative project and focus on moderation! She wanted to avoid the "fanatical" approach that often accompanies her creative projects.You'll learn in her write up how she moderated herself and her character, and worked out a flexible way to keep going with her project even though her initial plans for drawing when socializing with friends didn't occur.

Liz Nowell's tactic of giving her character a "vacation" from scanner access was a great way to keep on track with the project and not worry about blogging.  For some artists the choice might be to suspend posting at all until the completion date of the project.

I know for me since I spend most of my day at the computer, having more stuff to scan is a bother. I let my pages build up and scan them in a clump. The scanning process also becomes a reminder of what went on the week before. Whatever you decide works best for you may be different. The goal is to keep journaling for the entire month.

Liz Nowell also found things in the experience that she'll be taking along into her regular journal—and she's already looking at aspects of the process she had resistance to. I hope she joins in again next year.

Michelle Himes found that she loves the idea of journaling but realizes she don't "have the discipline to be a daily journaler." She writes about her alter ego Flat Mickey and her efforts this year at this link. It's all good information gained when we can rethink our projects to better fit our creative needs.

Mary Harper wrote to tell me that her job is to provide creative work for clients all day, and this project allowed her to take hold of her own creative desires again. She wrote the following:

My world--accessed by creating someone else's!  I majored in drama back in the ancient history of my college days, so I was familiar with submerging my personality and letting another created one come to the fore.  But I hadn't done it in, well, forever.  I picked someone completely different from me (an 11-12 year-old boy), and a medium that is very far from what I normally use (colored pencil with ink on ledger paper).  I know I wanted to start with the drawing of the treehouse, but not much beyond that.  I found your entry on handwriting interesting--I picked all caps for my journaler partly because I never write that way, and partly because my beloved dad always did. 

I really had to push for a while after that first day, to make myself sit down and think like Sam, my journaler.  I decided to make many of the drawings of objects related to his late father (a number of these objects actually belonged to MY father), but this choice became somewhat problematic with the story that began emerging, so I just kept that idea as a major, but not absolute, component.  I think next year I will try to come up with a character AND a drawing subject together, somewhat like what you did this year.  I just spent too much time figuring out what to draw.  I included objects drawn from life, from memory, and from imagination, so the quality varied quite a bit.  I also got pressed for time on several occasions, making the drawings quite hasty. 

I really came to feel I knew Sam (both of them!) after a while, and that was a treat.  By the end of the month, I also found that I could wrestle my mind into a creative, dreamy mode once a day without so much angst.  That's the biggest plus here.  I am planning to do more challenges for a month now, to keep this going.  

What a great gift to discover—to turn on that creative dreamy mode! 

Denise Clardy wrote to tell me that she "had a blast." 

The author of my journal, Ursula, shares my fear of journaling:  never write anything down someone will read it and will know of your failures and vulnerabilities and will be able to take advantage of that information.

The Fake Journal format allowed me to set aside those fears.  After all it would be Ursula's mistakes and shortcomings not my own.  When she discovered that it was easy for her to write about her observations and about other people but did not write of her own thoughts and feelings - that was my light-bulb moment.  The realization just kind of snuck up and hit me between the eyes.  Unexpected insight but valuable.

Did you guess that Ursula IS the  'You Are Here'  sign?  Ursula Rae Here (U. R. Here).  She isn't in the weekend pictures because she isn't working.  I have no idea where she went when she left the 30th Street Station!  

That unusual approach allowed her to have a valuable insight into her own journaling process. I hope that she will take advantage of that insight to dive into her regular journaling with renewed passion and attention.

I heard from some other participants who elected not to write wrap ups. Their goal was to keep the conceit going. I wish them good fun with that and continued insights and creative adventures. I know from their emails to me that they have created mental write ups of what worked and what didn't work in the process for them.

From the wrap ups shared here I think you can clearly see that how a given artist approaches a fake journal is going to vary significantly based on the artist's goals for the project and their circumstances and interests. 

What seems never to vary is that everyone walks away with at least a little bit of insight into their creative process and what is or isn't working for them. Sometimes the insight is as simple as "fake journaling doesn't work for me." Other times the insight comes as a series of questions, "What if next year I did this, and then tried that, and only worked with this media, and had that for a subject…Or what if tomorrow…"

Again, I'd like to thank everyone for participating, for pushing their own boundaries and limits, and sharing the results with others. Your generosity encourages others to push their own boundaries and "just see" what might happen if they do the same, maybe not for a month, but maybe just a day, or an hour, or a few minutes of creative endeavor.

(I'll have a brief wrap up of my own 2012 journal in a couple days. I've been stuck in meetings.)

2012 Prize Drawing Winner Announced

Sunday all the participants' names went into a big bowl. I ran upstairs to Dick's study where he churned the slips around and pulled out the winning slip: Congratulations to Miss T. The journal prize will be coming your way.

I hope to post the wrap up comments and links later today or tomorrow, so please check back in a couple days to catch up—there's another small end of project surprise coming at that time.

Thank you all again for participating.

Before We Wrap Up International Fake Journal Month 2012

First thanks again to everyone who participated. And thank you for your patience while I got my internet connection worked out and started posting pages again.

Before I move onto the final wrap up I've been trying to sort through my emails for the wrap up notes and links people have sent to posts they wrote wrapping up on their own blogs.

I hate to ask this, but everything is in such disarray because of the internet failure, and there is so much missed mail (based on what friends are telling me), if you were a participant and you sent me an email with wrap up notes or an email with a link to a blog post of yours with wrap up notes would you please RESEND that email to me?      rozjournalrat@gmail.com

I wanted to post a wrap up post with your thoughts and experiences. I had asked for that info (or link) to be sent before May 12. I remember getting several but because of the internet problems I can only seem to find two (from LizzieBo and Dana). I couldn't go and look at any of the "links" because I didn't have internet so I can't draw out from memory, "Oh, yeah that was the person doing such and such in her journal." No detective work possible.

So if you sent wrap up notes or a link to your blog where there is a wrap up post please resend, and I'll really get this thing wrapped up: thoughts, contest drawing, and the whole deal.

Thanks.

NOTE: Update May 14, 2012—I got the resent posts and am putting the wrap up post together. Thanks for being so prompt!

April 30 in Roz's 2012 Fake Journal—the Final Entry

Above: April 30 in the 2012 fake Journal. This entry extends onto the endsheet of the inside back cover. I've cropped the image so that the boards of the cover can be viewed around the edges of the open book. Click on the image to view an enlargement. Read below for details.

Transcript:

April 30, 2012 6 a.

Samantha, I pondered this morning the idea of mug shots. None of us looks good in them. Not me, not Ronnie Biggs—I leave this sketch as a memento for you. I hope that they let you have it out of evidence.

Since we both know that you knew that I knew that you would have access to everything I wrote here are a couple parting points:

1. Police response time is easy to test with an ankle monitor—but yes I really was sketching clouds—I haven't burnt a pot of rice since I was seven, however.

2. Martha Stewart was right: ankle monitor removal is easy—especially if you have a "refrigerator repairer" friend who brings in tools. (You were busy searching so I didn't introduce you.)

3. Karl's note wasn't in code. The only really useful code with which to send notes is to have no code—to be the code. His message was to leave.

4. You were never going to find Jimmy Ping's list, no matter how many times you tossed my house. I'm the list. Hidden in plain sight. I keep the catalog of every fake Jimmy signed. I've been his memory since I joined the firm in 1984. He's dead now—if you'd been less rigid I might have shared…

5. Keep looking for the real "Boy in the red vest," because the recently recovered one is a fake…the worst I've ever done. Jimmy and Karl have never let me live down that awkward arm.

6. Tampax tubes make a great hiding place for rolls of cash. No one ever searches them—it's easy to make the wrappers look untouched.

One more thing. The truth about mugshots—we change. I don't look like mine at all any longer…

In some ways it's easier today to disappear than it was in Bigg's day (Especially if you're non-violent). And I have more internal resources than he did—since I don't crave what he craves.

Thanks to all those miles on the trainer I'm fit. I have a destination. (Help yourself to the resistence [sic] trainer wheel upstairs. It's top of the line. The Robbie Ventura "Race Day" video is great.)

Don't expect to see me again…but I expect you'll look.

Please turn out the lights when you leave. Thanks. SNT

[Note at base of back cover where bookbinder's signature is located: RMS 07.04.09] 

4.12.12 I really like this book and would get more but someone said you can't have hard covered books in prison because you can make skivs out of the boards. It will be a learning experience.

The journal is a 7 x 10 inch handmade journal containing Nideggen paper. The pen used is a Preppy fountain pen. The sketch was made with a 2B mechanical pencil on T.H.Saunders Waterford 90 lb. hot press watercolor paper.