Sonic the Hedgehog-themed journal design.
I focused on a Sonic the Hedgehog-themed journal design after my Dad repeatedly told me my more realistic hedgehog sketches looked nothing like Sonic.
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.
In the past, I used to create a full-page artwork related to the month's theme as the title page. However, I opted to exclude a title page and start the design with the calendar overview. Since I've always had extra space to fill above the mini calendar, I've decided that's where unique artwork will now live.
Tails and Sonic overlap the top of the mini calendar. The Green Hills Zone landscape fills the bottom of both pages. I am not all that familiar with the Sonic franchise, so I referenced gameplay and cartoon series' screenshots online to help create my design.
In viewing references online, I noticed there were several items that appeared in the backgrounds often: palm trees, sunflowers, tall tiki statues, bushes, hills like those in various Mario games, and rings. Unfortunately, I forgot to include rings on these pages.
I used colored pencils to change things up a bit. I typically use paints or markers to color my artwork. I do not know if I lack skills or have poor quality colored pencils, but I struggled to blend colors and achieve vibrant colors. Coloring was not a fun experience for me.
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 (not "nobbies" as it appears in the image above), 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 senior dog.
Sonic and Tails appear below the third hobbies mini calendar on the right page. I wanted to include other characters from the franchise, but I struggled to draw any of them since I have not done so before. Since I already had practice drawing Sonic and Tails over-and-over again on the previous pages, I decided to draw them again in a different pose.
To fill-in the empty space along the bottom of the pages, I drew a simple landscape like that on the previous pages. This time I remembered to include several rings below the dogs' tracker.
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.
I originally wanted to have the mood tracker on the left page and a fun bingo activity on the right page. I drew Doctor Eggman along the bottom of the right page thinking the bingo boxes would be right above him.
However, I could not decide on a fun coloring page style design for my mood tracker. I started to sketch Sonic head outlines thinking I could color-in a silhouette each day. I would have used colors that resembled some of Sonic's friends or foes.
Yet, after hours of struggling to draw the characters and used awful colored pencils, I kept things simple by drawing thirty circles. A part of me felt defeated because I prefer to color-in a part of a more elaborate artwork each day. Another part of me knows I will likely come up with something better for July's journal design.
My Thoughts
This is not among my best journal design themes. Because I never drew Sonic characters prior to this design, the artwork, to me, is subpar.
I struggled using colored pencils. I do not know how I was able to achieve some vibrant colors in my September 2020 Journal Design of Disney's Mulan, but I could not achieve vibrant colors nor blend colors well in this month's design.
Despite my dislike of the way my artwork looked, I am not discouraged. All artists from amateurs to professionals, create something they dislike from time-to-time. The way I see it, this encourages me to troubleshoot what I consider to be issues and see how to make it better.
I will sketch and draw Sonic characters whenever I want to practice and improve my skills. I will continue to color with my colored pencils to experiment with different techniques.
Someday I will buy a different brand's colored pencils to see if quality makes a difference. I have also heard that using colored pencils with oil-based cores is a different experience from those with wax-based cores, so I am curious to try both out for myself to see which I prefer.
Do not be surprised if I share a Sonic-themed and/or colored pencil artwork one day. That day would mean I made some improvements because I addressed the things that bothered me with this month's journal design theme.
What's Next?
I have an iridescent watercolor set I was recently gifted and have yet to try. Check back another day to see my thoughts on the set and what I painted with it!
Have you setup your June 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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