Above: Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and gouache. The background of this page spread was prepainted with acrylic ink (the reddish brown color). Next, while watching "The Dog Whisperer" I sketched his pit bull Daddy. Then I used zinc white gouache to cover the background around the dog. (Titanium white would have provided a more opaque coverage but I had zinc white out on my palette.) I wrote in the quote from Cesar Milan (the statement is true for people as well as dogs). The notation at the side about this being the last sketch in the journal was made as a memory aid for me because this spread had been skipped over and I did many sketches that night. Click on the image to view an enlargement.
On April 30 I wrote an initial wrap up for International Fake Journal Month. (Initial because I hadn't finished the contest yet or posted all my pages.) As usual, the completion of a fake journal causes me to think about journaling in general. I wanted to share with non-fake-journals here a bit of that wrap up. I wrote the following as encouragement to participants, but it captures my view of the journaling process, the goals I have for my journaling, and why I think it is important to journal—
Every page of your fake journal might be complete shit. You might have just created 30 pages of the ugliest sketches and paintings and idiotic writing on the planet—it still doesn't make your internal critic right. It's a step, one that you took, despite the chattering of that internal critic. Future steps will be easier because you took one. (And this will continue to be true every day you take such a step.)
You hold in your hands a document which says "I allowed myself to create; I allowed myself to take risks." I think creative risks are like loose rocks on a hillside. We scramble over them, slipping at times, at other times finding sure footing, so that we can get to the top of the hill and have a better view.
I think having a better view (of ourselves, our creative process, our place in the world, the larger world, the people in our world) is what regular journaling is all about.
Why do you journal? What goals does it meet? What benefits do you derive from it? It's good to ask these questions. The answers will be unique to you and tell you something about yourself.
Remember: just because it has great benefits doesn't mean it can't also be fun!
