CREATIVITY
PROJECT 3: WRECK THIS JOURNAL
Introduction
Wreck This Journal is a journal by Keri Smith you can buy to show your artistic potential. It is a journal that contains crazy ideas on every single page that guide you towards the creation of a far from classic, wrecked journal of your own. Even though each customer buys the same journal, the final results are completely different as each person interprets the instructions differently and creates different pieces of art.
My activity would consist of starting this blank journal (at the moment) with my very own creations. I would work on it during the summer and would then create some sort of presentation (a video maybe) showing the before and after of the journal, therefore showing my progress on it. In order to do this, I would be constantly taking pictures of the pages in the journal before, during and after I work on them. As I would like this journal to look great by the end of the activity, I wouldn’t like to set myself goals related to time. I want to progress as much as possible during the summer, but wouldn’t like to finish it in a rush just to get it finished before the school year starts.
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The "goodreads" reviewer described this book as appropriate...
"For anyone who's ever wished to, but had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes Wreck This Journal, an illustrated book that features a subversive collection of prompts, asking readers to muster up their best mistake- and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book (and destroy them). Acclaimed illustrator Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in "destructive" acts-poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting with coffee, and more-in order to experience the true creative process. Readers discover a new way of art and journal making-and new ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process."
My Goals
My goals for this activity are:
- to work through as many pages of the journal during the summer
- to develop my creative skills by going out of my comfort zone while working on this journal
- to create a video at the end of the activity showing the before and after of the journal
ANTICIPATED LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth.
I will increase my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth as I work through this journal because I will sometimes be out of my comfort zone when working on it as it is about wrecking your journal when I normally like to take special care of such things. When working creatively I will also be able to see what areas I am best at and what areas I can work more on.
2. Undertake new challenges
I have very few times attempted to keep a journal, and when I have, I have never been successful at it. In addition, I have never tried to “wreck” one of my journals. This will definitely be a new challenge for me as I will have to overcome my fear of messing up the pages of the journal and be proud of whatever I produce.
5. Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities
One of my goals is “to work through as many pages of the journal during the summer”, therefore I will show perseverance and commitment in this activity and will work on it almost on a daily basis.
8. Developed new skills
By working on this journal I will work on my creative skills, which I usually don’t work on during the year as much, and will most likely develop a new skill related to that area. I might even ask my visual arts friends to help me develop these new skills.
Reflections
30th of June 2014
Today I started my "Wreck This Journal" and really enjoyed it. At first I was a bit scared to start in a way as it was brand new and I didn't want to ruin it. I started with the pages that I found easier to do and soon I was right on track. I really enjoyed working on this notebook as it made me disconnect from the outside world and was very relaxing. I also felt free to do whatever I felt like doing on those pages as there are no rules that I must follow. Overall, I really liked my first day at work and I'm looking forward to keep working on (or wrecking) this journal!
IMAGES OF THE DAY:
The first page I opened contained a list of materials.
I highlighted the ones I liked best.
My first work of art of the journal: before and after.
My second work of art: before and after.
6th of July 2014
Today was the second day I worked on my diary. I woke up feeling very tired and not in the best mood, as I am starting to get stressed out about the amount of homework we have to do during the summer, and how quickly time goes by. In order to get my mind off that and before I set myself to do some of my math homework, I decided that working on the journal might be a good idea to relax and start the day in a better way.
Like last time, I tried to look for some instructions that looked easy to do or appealing in that moment. I found one that I really liked and ended up working on it for quite a long time. The instructions were: "Cover this page with white things".
Once I had finished my first page of the day, I felt like I wanted to do more. When I started working on the journal, I wasn't in a good mood and didn't feel like doing anything, and by the time I had finished my first page of the day, I was much more happier and motivated to keep working. The journal almost served as therapy. By working on it I was able to keep my mind off things, let steam off, and use my brain to create new things rather than to stress about homework.
The second page I worked on told me to close my eyes and try to join the circles on the page by memory. This type of instructions from the journal are the ones that are more of a challenge for me, as I am a very methodic and perfectionist person and like to plan out things rather than follow the crowd. When I read the instructions I thought that it was the perfect activity for me. Instead of worrying on how much homework I had to do and trying to figure out how much of it I had to do per day or per week, maybe a better option would be to go working on it little by little and see how it goes. I thought that this page of the journal was a great starting point for me to loosen up a little.
17th of July 2014
Today I kept working on my journal, but had a different approach to things. When I started working today, I looked for pages that were more abstract or liberal to put it that way. I was looking for pages that gave instructions that I could follow without thinking it twice. I wanted to be more impulsive and think things less. The first page I decide to start working on said the following: "Pierce holes with a pencil". It was perfect.
Once I had finished this page, I simply turned the page and, maintaining my thoughtless attitude for the time being, decided to work on the page that went directly after this one. The instructions were to draw thin and thick lines with a pencil.
For the last activity of the day I chose what I consider a very adventurous and aggressive page. By this time of the morning I was feeling like a real risk-taker. I was being different to my usual controlling self; and I was having fun! The instructions on this page were to scratch the page with a sharp object.
Today was the second day I worked on my diary. I woke up feeling very tired and not in the best mood, as I am starting to get stressed out about the amount of homework we have to do during the summer, and how quickly time goes by. In order to get my mind off that and before I set myself to do some of my math homework, I decided that working on the journal might be a good idea to relax and start the day in a better way.
Like last time, I tried to look for some instructions that looked easy to do or appealing in that moment. I found one that I really liked and ended up working on it for quite a long time. The instructions were: "Cover this page with white things".
I thought that the instructions were very open to interpretation, and very fun. I had in mind my goal of developing my creative skills by going out of my comfort zone and started working with different materials. By the time I had finished the page, it looked like a very abstract collage. This is a photo of the finished result.
I think that I did go out of my comfort zone, as I didn't just paste plain cut-out papers. I decided to use different materials and arrangements and am very happy with the result. I used from lace to satined paper from magazines, tissue paper, plastic bags, tipp-ex, cloth or cut-out post-its. I got to see that going out of your comfort zone can lead to very good results at times, so it is something that I need to do more often.
Below you can see some images of some of the white details that can't be appreciated in the larger picture.
Once I had finished my first page of the day, I felt like I wanted to do more. When I started working on the journal, I wasn't in a good mood and didn't feel like doing anything, and by the time I had finished my first page of the day, I was much more happier and motivated to keep working. The journal almost served as therapy. By working on it I was able to keep my mind off things, let steam off, and use my brain to create new things rather than to stress about homework.
The second page I worked on told me to close my eyes and try to join the circles on the page by memory. This type of instructions from the journal are the ones that are more of a challenge for me, as I am a very methodic and perfectionist person and like to plan out things rather than follow the crowd. When I read the instructions I thought that it was the perfect activity for me. Instead of worrying on how much homework I had to do and trying to figure out how much of it I had to do per day or per week, maybe a better option would be to go working on it little by little and see how it goes. I thought that this page of the journal was a great starting point for me to loosen up a little.
I looked at the circles on the page for a while, but not for too long as this exercise should be about being spontaneous. I grabbed a colored marker, closed my eyes and tried to link the dots. I had to try five different times before connecting all six circles with one line, but I did it! This could serve as an analogy teaching us that we have to try new things and try them again and again until we get them right. Never give up.
Below is the image of the finished look after my five trials.
Once I finished this page, I felt like I was on a roll! I wanted to try one more page before I started with my homework. I found a fun and exciting page, and tried to do that one to finish of. The instructions were to draw a non-stop line.
By this time, my creativity was on full mode, and as I couldn't decide what color to use, I decided to stick three fluorescent pencils together in order to do a multi-color, non-stop line.
And voila, the finished work of the day. After closing my journal and sealing today's work, I felt much better than at the beginning of the day, and was ready to make the most of the rest of the day!
17th of July 2014
Today I kept working on my journal, but had a different approach to things. When I started working today, I looked for pages that were more abstract or liberal to put it that way. I was looking for pages that gave instructions that I could follow without thinking it twice. I wanted to be more impulsive and think things less. The first page I decide to start working on said the following: "Pierce holes with a pencil". It was perfect.
So that's what I did, I started punching holes into the paper. I told myself to just do it, not think it twice, just act and create.
Once I had finished punching all the drawn holes and had none left, I decided to draw my own holes in order to continue; I had really gotten into hole punching.
Below you can see the finished look of the page. It's wrinkly, pretty torn and not the nicest thing to look at when it comes to artwork. However, it is also original, creative, personal and very fun to do! I think that this exercise helped me be more impulsive at times and not be so perfectionist and control-obsessed at times. Sometimes you just have to follow instructions and see what comes out of it.
I think that this page of the journal is a very good one to achieve my second goal which is to go out of my comfort zone and try new things. I have gone out of my organized, thought through and planned out comfort zone and have created a piece of art which I am very happy with even if it simply consists of making holes.
Once I had finished this page, I simply turned the page and, maintaining my thoughtless attitude for the time being, decided to work on the page that went directly after this one. The instructions were to draw thin and thick lines with a pencil.
Without further a due, I grabbed my pencil and drew thick and thin lines.
I liked the experience as I didn't plan out what my finished product would look like, I simply started off with one line and kept going until I arrived to the finished product you can see below.
For the last activity of the day I chose what I consider a very adventurous and aggressive page. By this time of the morning I was feeling like a real risk-taker. I was being different to my usual controlling self; and I was having fun! The instructions on this page were to scratch the page with a sharp object.
The sharp object that I chose was the one sitting closest to me: a pair of scissors.
I started at the top of the page with softer scratches that didn't leave a big mark. Then I decided to go completely aboard with the instructions and to really scratch the page.
My scratches were mostly focused on the word scratch, emphasizing the purpose of the page. They were stronger closest to the word and grew weaker as they went further away.
I really liked the texture that was left after I finished. I tried to capture this ragged texture in the photograph above. I also photographed the effects of the scratches on the back side of the paper, which you can see below.
After this I was ready to continue with my day. I feel that working on this journal the first thing after I wake up is very beneficial for me, and I am looking forward to the next Wreck this Journal session. I will keep you updated!
26th of July 2014
Normally, when I work on my “Wreck this
Journal” I don’t feel like wrecking it. I always look for pages that don’t have
instructions that are too aggressive and try to avoid pages that involve actually wrecking my journal.
Today was different. I wanted to wreck
something and this was the best thing to do. Reflections are supposed to be a
sincere account of your experience with the activity. Today I was angry, and I
was happy to tear pages, burn pages and damage pages of my journal. And so,
that is exactly what I did.
The first page I saw seemed very easy, as
you had to do absolutely nothing with it. The instructions were to leave the
page blank on purpose. That was quick.
Moving on, the second page I tried told me
to burn it. My pleasure. I headed to the kitchen to avoid burning my desk,
grabbed some matches and did as I was told. Below are some pictures of the
experience.
I think that the photographs are much
better than the actual act of burning the pages. I enjoyed taking the pictures
and observing them afterwards. Even though looking at the pictures was soothing
in a way, I was still angry enough to complete some more pages of the journal.
The next page I found told me to violently scribble all over the page, with no
control. And so, without thinking it twice I grabbed some pencils and did so.
As I scribbled I thought about how I had
been working on tons of homework assignments during my first month of
vacations, how I was about to go on holidays and would still have to do a lovely extended essay when I got back,
and of how I was lucky enough to go on holidays with my family and was still selfishly
angry with the world.
I knew I should be grateful about having
the money to go on holidays considering the current economic situation, about
having a tight and loving family to go on holidays with, I knew I should even
be grateful for receiving such a good education. But at the time I was angry,
angry about having to do so much homework after such a hard year, angry about
not enjoying myself during my holidays because of not having completed my
homework before going on holidays, angry with the IB and how everybody else on
vacation had no responsibilities whatsoever. I guess I was just having one of
those stress accumulation moments, so typical of my IB life.
I completed one last page in my journal (this
one told to me tear the page along the dotted lines) and got back to my usual
self, trying to calm down.
I was
grateful about everything I had, but that doesn’t mean that I had to always be
happy with my life. I AM grateful for everything that I have, and I hope
that the next time I reflect for this activity I will be in a better mood, more
relaxed after some deserved vacations and further ahead on my extended essay…
PS: To whoever is actually reading this, sorry for the ramble. Reading
back on this entry, this looks like a personal diary. I guess that’s just
another part of CAS, you can embrace your feelings and calm down instead of
just killing whoever invented the IB.
13th of August 2014
I few days ago I came back from my holidays. As I didn't take my journal with me, now it is time to get back on to work! In a couple of days I will be going to my grandma's house to stay there for the rest of august. This means that I will be able to work on my journal while I'm there. However, to prevent spending too much time without working on my journal, today I dedicated some time to it.
When I opened my journal I saw that I didn't have as many options as I did when I started the journal. As I flicked through the pages, many of them were already completed. With what I had I decided to work on some pages that were creative yet not very time consuming, as I was in a bit of a rush and didn't want to spend too much time on this.
Below you can find the four pages that I worked on today. The first one simply told me to "color in the whole page"; and that is what I did. I used various tones of the same color to make it a little less boring.
The second page told me to staple, stick or cello tape two pages together. I grabbed the necessary material and set off to it! (Without thinking it twice, which was surprising)
The page to the left was the one I had done previously which consisted of tearing the page into strips, so I had to stick those two pages together.
The third page was pretty primitive and straight to the point. "BITE THIS: Be careful not to swallow it" were the instructions.
I turned the journal and took a bite. I didn't actually rip out the page with my teeth, I bit the page and it ended up tearing up. However, you can still see the bite marks on the paper.
The last page I did told me to pour something onto the page. Some of the suggestions that were given were paint, ink or tea. It then said to close the journal so that whatever you had poured would stick and transfer to the page beside it.
I saw this as the perfect opportunity to bring back my childhood crafts material and be creative! I looked in my old crafts box and found this glittery pens that I used to love. You just squeeze them and a sort of glittery glue comes out of them. I had pink, green, gold, red and blue, and surprisingly enough they hadn't dried out!
I used all my colored pens and this was the final design before closing the journal...
...Once I closed the journal, it transferred perfectly and I loved the result. The glittery symmetrical look was perfect!
I liked this much better than paint, ink or tea! Now I had to let this dry before I could access to any other pages in the journal, so I decided that I had finished my work for today. See you soon!
Today I continued working on my journal...but this time I did it with a friend! Taking advantage of the fact that I was with my friend at home and had my journal with me, I asked her to please collaborate to the project. One of the instructions in one of the pages is to ask a friend to do something destructive to the journal while you don't look.
And so, that is what I did. My friend asked for markers, I brought some for her and let her work on my journal while I prepared some snacks. When my friend told me she had finished and I could look, I was laughing for ages!
In the picture below you can see her "destructive" drawing: a bomb. I really appreciate her sense of humor and we had a great time working on it.
After this, it was time for the snacks! However, as my friend was looking through the pages of my journal, she found one that told us to cover it with food; basically, to use the page as a napkin. My friend couldn't resist and almost forced me to work on that page immediately. And so... that is how the page ended up covered in nocilla. Yummy.
The last page of the day that I worked on consisted of sowing! Sowing a page seems really weird, but I had liked the idea the first time I saw it and it was one of my post-it pages.
8th of September 2014
Back to school is just two days away, and this means that the time to finish up my summer "Wreck This Journal" activity has come. Before editing the video with all the images that I have completed up to date, I managed to do some more pages of my journal before school starts. Today I completed three pages as a way to say goodbye to this activity.
The first I completed came in very handy when I was getting ready for school. One of my tasks in my to do list was to check my pencil case and make sure that I had all the necessary material to go back to school. I opened up my journal to a page that had stood out to me in the past as it was made to test pens!
And this is all folks... but not yet! It is time to achieve my final goal: to create a video at the end of the activity showing the before and after of the journal. As I went on completing pages in my journal I saved the photos that I took in one folder. Funnily enough, the day I decide to finish the journal and make the video, I am left with exactly 100 pictures in my folder.
Last but not least, I got to finish a page that I started working on almost at the beginning of this experience, but took a long time to finish. It was all about collecting the stickers that come with your fruit! Over the past month and a half I have been saving the stickers on the fruit I ate (whenever I remembered to do it) and I finally filled the whole page!
BEFORE...
...AND AFTER!
There isn't a whole lot of variety as not all my fruit has stickers... but at least it's colorful and I love it! You can see the post-it at the top of the page, which I placed there to go putting new stickers during the time it took me to fill this page up!
I also got inspired and worked on a collage to put on the cover page of my agenda to make it more personalized and cheerful to start the school year. I thought it was creative and I could add it in this blog post, just for fun! Here it is:
I'll also do the same for the back cover of my agenda and I'll keep you updated!
That's all for today, see you soon :)
31st of August 2014
September is almost here... and the summer is almost over :(
Because of this, I decided that I had to start working on my journal to meet my goal of completing as many pages as possible before the end of the summer. Today was a beautiful day, so I decided to work on my journal in the garden while enjoying the sun.
As I already knew that I had little time to work on my journal, I had already marked the pages that I wanted to work on with some orange post-its.
Today I worked on three of the pages that I had marked with the post-its.
The first one that I worked on consisted on working with cello-tape! I had to make a design working with cello! When I finished my design I tried to photograph it, but being transparent cello, you couldn't really appreciate it in the pictures.
In order to see it better, I decided to trace the cello lines with pencil. Once I had done that I decided to smudge the lines with my finger as I thought that they were too sharp.
Below you can see the process and the final result.
The second page that I worked on consisted on writing the same word over and over again throughout the whole page. The first word that came to mind was SUMMER. I thought that if I wrote the word summer over and over again, maybe it would last longer and I wouldn't have to start school. In the end I knew that it wouldn't change anything, but the result was very pretty and colorful; very summer-like.
Below you can see the whole process of how I completed the whole page with the word SUMMER!
Taking advantage of the fact that I was working in the garden, I decided to take some very summery pictures with the plants. I also drew a big yellow sun in the middle of the page to make it even more summery and lovely. I loved the final result!
I started with a pink color that my grandma gave me from her yarn collection :)
I did a square surrounding the page and then used a blue color to do some shapes inside the pink color. The blue color seemed more abstract and the pink color seemed more as a frame. To give it a lovely finishing touch I created a pink heart in the middle of the page. Overall I liked the result and found it very homey.
Here you can see the back of the page, the behind the scenes of my hard work.
That's all I did for today! I was pretty happy with today's work as I worked on three pages and all of them were pretty elaborate and I really liked the final result of all of them.
I will try to work on some more pages before the end of the summer and will keep you updated. Aaaaaaaaaaand, I haven't forgotten about the video that I will elaborate with all the work I have done on the journal and will soon be doing that with the work I have done up to date. See you soon!
8th of September 2014
Back to school is just two days away, and this means that the time to finish up my summer "Wreck This Journal" activity has come. Before editing the video with all the images that I have completed up to date, I managed to do some more pages of my journal before school starts. Today I completed three pages as a way to say goodbye to this activity.
The first I completed came in very handy when I was getting ready for school. One of my tasks in my to do list was to check my pencil case and make sure that I had all the necessary material to go back to school. I opened up my journal to a page that had stood out to me in the past as it was made to test pens!
Sooo, that is what I did, I tested all my pens; and I really liked the result + my pencil case was ready to go!
I then moved on to work on a specially tricky yet very fun to do page. It consisted of writing with your mouth; now talk about getting out of your comfort zone. By this time in the activity, I am well used to doing really weird stuff, so without thinking it twice I set myself to attempt to write with my mouth.
Below you can see the process and the results, can you guess what I wrote?
Finally, as my last page that I will be doing of this journal during this summer, I chose one that I thought was very fun. It was something that I used to do as a kid when they told me not to: paint all over the edges of a book. This is what the journal told me to do, so this is what I did.
Below you can see that I am very happy about being allowed to this for once :D
And this is all folks... but not yet! It is time to achieve my final goal: to create a video at the end of the activity showing the before and after of the journal. As I went on completing pages in my journal I saved the photos that I took in one folder. Funnily enough, the day I decide to finish the journal and make the video, I am left with exactly 100 pictures in my folder.
Once I finish editing my video, my summer activity will come to an end!
Ooops! I almost forgot! Being so creative with this activity, I was inspired to do a collage for my school agenda. If you scroll up you can see the cover page that I already completed before. Now you can see the touched up version of that and the finished back cover. Not only that, my lovely mother wrapped it all up once I pasted it to my agenda in order for it to last longer, and the finished result is AMAZING. I am so excited about starting school just to use my super cool and super personalized agenda!
You can see I'm really proud of my job, as below you can find tons of pictures.
Not only that (I promise I'll stop rambling and let you see the finished video now), but I was also feeling very creative and decided to do some DIY projects in my room. I had seen this in a video some time ago and felt the need to do it... so I went to town, bought the necessary materials, picked some pictures and took them to a place to print and.... VOILA!
I am SO HAPPY with how it turned out that I can't even believe that I made it myself in less than an hour :D
When picking the pictures, I chose some of them that were simply decorative and very pretty, and others that had an inspirational message. Like this, not only will this DIY serve as decoration for my room, it will also be a motivational wall to cheer me up and make me realize that everything is going to be okay when I am stressed (which, if you know me, you'll know that I stress out very easily). With this, I will be able to start the school year in the best mood and with the best attitude ever!
In the pictures above you can see some of the message that I decided to put on my wall, and up to now, they haven't disappointed me and have already helped to calm me down when I was panicking about getting my extended essay on time... Overall my creativity this summer has been great!
And now... on to the video!
Blogger doesn't let me attach the video here, but you can find it on YouTube with the following link.
Did I Meet My Goals?
My goals for this activity were:
- to work through as many pages of the journal during the summer
Even though I didn't work through the whole journal during the summer, I think I did pretty well as I completed about 30 pages. Taking into account that each page took some time to complete nicely and that I had other homework to do, I consider myself to have completed as many pages during the summer.
- to develop my creative skills by going out of my comfort zone while working on this journal
This goal was definitely achieved! A bit pages, put food in a book, tore a book, glued it back together, used tons of colors and different materials, and even sowed some of the pages! Clearly out of my comfort zone as I am not used to being so spontaneous or crazy in my daily life. However it was a great experience!
- to create a video at the end of the activity showing the before and after of the journal
Done and dusted. Working on a video just adds to the creativity in this activity. I had a good time putting all the photos together, adding music and editing all together. If you haven't seen the video yet, feel free to take a look in the following link: http://youtu.be/HnsgeKGDd-s
ACTIVITY COMPLETED!
I'm loving it!
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