I had it all figured out. I was going to continue on the journaling road I had walked on for the past two years or so with my altered atlases and ROD-journals. The only challenge being that I would work with a white background, hence the name 'The White Book'. I looked forward to it. I really did.
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| Trying to replace small writing with big words. Mwah.... |
What happened? Well, my christmas/new years vacation, that's what! When I worked in the Quinn Book I did my writing on a separate writing pad and just added that writing with home made envelopes. And I rediscovered my love for writing. I know that those of you who have seen the spreads in my Moon Journal and my first Altered Atlas (the US Postal Book) may think me crazy now. After all, don't I already do like tons of writing in my journals? Yes I do, yes I do, yes I do...and still...
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| Emulating other people's style. Left Carolyn Sewell, right Kelly Kilmer. |
What was starting to trouble me was that the decorated pages limited my writing to the space that was left open for it. I used to just keep written journals and just write until I was done. Now I was done, because the page told me so. In my vacation I rediscovered the joy of just writing without boundaries. And I knew that I wanted to keep a solely written journal again. And so I have. And I love it!
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| This was a lot of fun by the way. It's not me, but I had fun playing with the made up fonts. |
I am writing so much that I have filled nearly a hundred pages in my writing journal so far! I write pretty much every morning and I don't have to think about the layout of the page or prepping anything to make it ready for my stream of consciousness writing. I. Just. Write.
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| This is a bit closer to my own style, but messier than I like. |
Now however I'm left with my White Book and my more artsy journaling practice. What to do about that? I do still have a need to keep a visual journal that is different from my sketchbooks or artsy books. I consider a journal a very specific reflection of my day to day life and so I wanted to continue this as well in images and colour. But how?
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| The process of this one suited me a little better. Watercolour background instead of decorated papers. |
I have become so accustomed to my own style of journaling that now I am a little lost in my own journal. And that means that I am experimenting right now to find a style that suits me. I'm looking at other peoples work. I'm imitating peoples styles, just to get a feel for what I like about it and what not. I have yet to produce pages that really look and feel like me. In this post you can see some of my efforts.
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| This is not the White Book but a Moleskine sketchbook. I tried to make this word doodling more my own. |
I cannot say I am very pleased with all these pages. Don't get me wrong. They look nice enough, but the process just didn't feel like me (except for the moleskine one). I'm kind of feeling my way through this and it's making me very uncomfortable. I did want to share this process with you all though, because I think it's important to show the struggles as well as the highlights. I will keep trying and at some point a new adapted personal style will emerge, I'm sure of it.
Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy week!