A koi-themed journal design.
I sketched and painted koi fish for my august journal design. I figured koi would be easy to create despite never having painted koi before.
NOTE: While the pages are like those who setup their Bullet Journals (BuJo), I use this journal more as a memory keeper/diary. The BuJo-inspired pages encourage me to make note of the good things in life, even on the worst days.
In case it's helpful, below are the topics covered in this post:
Calendar Overview Pages
The calendar overview is where I note important dates I want to document in my journal.
The larger calendar fills much of both pages. I note events such as birthdays, appointments, and holidays within the appropriate block that represents a day in the month. During the month, I'll make a short note of something that happened.
On the left, I have a mini calendar for next month and another box where I'll note next month's events coming soon. I like being able to visually see ahead to things I may need to be aware of before those days come.
Productivity-related notes like to-do lists are managed in a separate and more simplistic Bullet Journal.
Unlike most of my past journal design, I did not plan a design in advance. I opened the pages and thought, 'Why not koi fish?' I referenced a few koi fish images online and decided the basic body shape looked like an elongated tear drop.
I sketched four koi fish to fill-in the empty space on both pages. I colored it with watercolor paint using a heavily saturated paintbrush.
I realized I love when an image overlaps a calendar, chart, or other object drawn on a page. For example, the yellow koi fish overlaps a part of the large calendar on the right page. It makes the pages more appealing to me. I only wished I had more fish overlap other objects on these and other pages.
Highlights and Hobbies & Dogs' Pages
Every night, I write a line of text highlighting one good thing about that day on my highlights page. Usually, I write about a simple thing that made me happy. Even on the worst days, I try to think about a highlight of that day to write down. This page is intentionally left blank since I'll fill it in throughout the month.
On the hobbies & dogs page, I note when I complete my favorite hobbies. While many journal enthusiasts track their habits, tracking my favorite hobbies reminds me to dedicate time for myself and happiness. The hobbies I track are:
arts + crafts,
writing, and
gaming.
My dogs' care and happiness are equally important. I track the following for my dogs:
when they go for a joy ride,
when I've cared for their coat with a brush, leave-in shampoo, or bath,
when they received teeth care with brush chews or teeth brushing,
when they participated in extended, extra, or hyper playtime, and
when something unusual happens with my dogs (e.g., upset stomach).
Since I will fill-in much of the blank spaces throughout the month, I only added two koi fish on the bottom of the pages. I also kept the blue water background limited to the header and footer of both pages.
Mood Pages
I treat my mood tracker page as a coloring page of sorts. Each night, I'll color-in a part of an image that represents my overall mood for that day: awesome, meh/OK, sick, or bad/sad.
Although the page looks simplistic, it took me the longest to sketch and paint this page. However, I believe this will be the most colorful and lively of all the pages at the end of the month.
While outlining the koi fish with an archival ink pen, I miscounted and added an extra fish. I noticed this error while numbering the fish.
To fix my mistake, I colored the one unnumbered fish with multiple colors so that it would stand out. I then decided to limit each mood to one color so I do not confuse the unnumbered fish with the others. This would also make it easier to identify my mood for a day at a glance when I reflect on the pages at the end of the month.
What's Next?
I have been experimenting with some of the items I bought during July's Prime Day. I should be able to share my thoughts and experience using a button maker within the next week or so!
Have you setup your August journal design? Comment below to share what theme you went with and what materials you used to create it.
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Thanks, and have a great day!
Simply Jelly Jam
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