Fauxbonichi 2015 - A Look Back

It was a process I started over a year ago, to document my daily life. At first, it was a excuse to practice drawing and to use it as a planner because I was losing track of things. And never did I anticipate how much this process would impact me in a positive way.

What you see above is photo of my daily life, documented almost daily. And though my life is anything but exciting, I enjoyed looking back reading snippets of what was happening, how I was feeling, and what I was thinking.

I started the year using a Strathmore Mixed Media journal (the one I use for art journaling). The paper takes both dry and wet media well, but these are not cheap. As you can see, 2015 began with a couple of heartbreaking news, but I'm glad I got to document them.

I was learning how to Sketchnote at the time and I got to practice drawing icons and little doodles. And I finally had a place to write down my schedule, my to-do's and document the day. Though I loved using this journal, I realized how expensive it would be to use it everyday, but I found a notebook at Target that looked intriguing using stone paper. The claim was that nothing will bleed through and it was completely waterproof! And with the price being under $10, it was economical too.

It was also around this time when I joined a group on Facebook doing this type of journaling. They called it Fauxbonichi, which is a play on Hobonichi, which is a Japanese daily journal. 

The stone paper was amazing. I could even use alcohol markers like Copics and no bleed through! The only negative was that it was difficult to find a black pen that would not smear.

And even though each sheet was pretty thin, you can glue things and add tip-in's and the paper held up.

And in March, the Fauxbo group had an ABC challenge, to draw something everyday starting with the letter A and going all the way to Z.

And though I loved this notebook, I felt that I wasn't focusing on my goals (did you see yesterday's post?). And plus, I wanted to try the more traditional Fauxbo style, which just means using the Hobinich structure. So I got a gridded composition book, decorated the cover, and pre-planned each day's page.

I used a color coded star stickers to reward myself when Indid something towards my goals. And it seems childish, but they work!

And this is also when I started my blog. I cannot thank my friend, Felicia, for nudging me to do it. I also had a couple of "online friends" who encouraged me too.

But using only one page per day wasn't working for me. And I bought another journal that so popular among the members of the Fauxbonichi group.

This is a thick journal and the paper is gridded and fairly nice. But you still had to double the pages of you wanted to use markers or watercolors. And I decided to glue the pages. 

I loved having 2 pages per day!

I bought Inktense pencils and loved using them.

I started to use more colors.

And then, this happened..

The pages started to come apart. The binding on this journal is crappy, it's glued so sometimes the pages fall out from stress. Because I glued two pages and used water media, the glue couldn't hold the pages together. Luckily, I had purchased another journal from a fellow member of the group so I decided to give it a try.

It's a Seven Seas Standard notebook with Tomoe River paper. It's the same paper used in Hobonichi.

There are over 400 pages, and the paper is super thin! I was able to use this from June until now, doing 2 pages per day. I never had any bleed through issues with watercolor or inks. But certain markers did not do well. 

I started out using it as my planner and journal. The Inktense pencils and blocks looks beautiful on this paper!

And though the paper is thin, it can support tip-in's and other glued things.

And I started using watercolors.

And even gesso and black gesso!

And in July, I totally reworked my blog. I bought my own domain name!

Since July, I decided to have a separate planner. During the summer, we didn't have a whole lot of scheduled events or important todo's.

I fell in love with watercolors.

In December, I created my own art challenge. 

I know that you've seen most of the art pieces from my journal but not the completed pages. These pages will give a glimpse of how I use this process to document my days. As I was selecting pages to share on this post, I enjoyed remembering the events, the emotions and thoughts I included. I have enjoyed this process immensely. I have difficulty sharing my emotions to people and this was such a therapeutic way to brain dump. I hope you give it a try. Don't worry about the art, you can use stickers and magazine cut-outs. Use whatever coloring supplies you have. The goal is simply to document your day. I hope you'll join me.

And by the way, here is the January art challenge.

Happy New Year!!