In honor of Mario Day on March 10th.
In honor of Mario Day on March 10th and because of nostalgia, I decided to create a Mario world theme in my journal. I also tried out a new fine liner and set of gouache paints for this design.
The Design Theme
I originally intended to do floral or pond theme for March. I painted a few ideas (with the wrong year written, apparently) while waiting in my car Sunday morning to see if it were a design idea I'd like to work with.
While I was liking the quick design, I watched an Animal Crossing New Horizon's trailer introducing Mario-themed items coming to the game soon. I scrapped the floral design and decided on creating my own Mario theme for my journal.
I used: pencil and eraser, various Arteza gouache paints, black Uni-Ball fine liner pen (0.7 point), various Firefly alcohol ink markers, and paintbrushes.
Title
For the title page, I sketched the word "MARCH" in a block text reminiscent of the old school Super Mario Bros. logo.
I sketched a landscape scene that included a greenery and items I remembered being in the older versions of the game I played in my youth. I recalled wondering why there was a directional sign for a game where you could only travel in one direction.
I really wanted to try my new Uni-Ball fine liner pen I got from Wal-Mart Sunday morning. I used it to outline the shapes to create the basis of a more cartoon-y look.
I later realized I should've painted before outlining. I applied my Arteza gouache paints on thick which covered much of the line work I did.
I've only used gouache paints once before. The paints seem like a harmonious marriage between acrylics and watercolors. The paint can be applied thick like acrylics, but it can also be thinned with water to create some watercolor effects.
The gouache paints I used for this design was better quality than my cheap acrylic paints I've used for many arts and crafts projects the past year. I especially loved that I could leave paint on the palette for a few hours and easily reactivate it with a little water.
When I finished painting, I went over the outlines with my fine liner one more time.
Calendar Overview
The calendar overview is where I note important dates and tasks I want to remember to do.
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. For example, I noted the days we had power outages in my part of Texas on my larger February calendar.
In a box towards the top-left, I note things I want or need to do this month. Below that box, 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.
As for the design, I added a landscape scene on the bottom that included hills, bushes, and a Goomba. I gave my Goomba a smile because his nemesis Mario isn't anywhere in sight.
In the larger calendar, I added a few brick blocks and question blocks where there are no days representing March. I added a couple coins and power star around the mini-April calendar.
Since some of the painted blue background from the title page made its way to the top of these pages, I went ahead and painted the top header area the same blue color with a puffy white cloud.
Highlights and Trackers
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 of March.
On the trackers page, I note when I complete my favorite hobbies. While many journal enthusiasts track multiple habits, tracking my favorite hobbies reminds me to not forget to dedicate time for myself and happiness. The hobbies I track are:
arts + crafts,
writing,
gaming, and
workout.
My dogs' care and happiness are equally important. I track the following for my dogs:
when they go for a joy ride,
when they received teeth care with brush chews or tooth brushing,
when I've cared for their coat with a brush, leave-in shampoo, or bath, and
when they participated in extended or extra playtime.
I added a simple landscape scene at the bottom with a single hill. I also added a climbing vine to the left of the mini hobby tracker calendars and a single coin above the dogs' trackers.
Mood and Websites & Stuff
I treat my mood tracker page as a coloring page of sorts. Each night, I'll color-in something that represents my overall mood for that day: awesome, meh, bad/sad, or sick.
I struggled to think of a Mario-related item I could use for this page. Warp pipes and Yoshi's eggs originally came to mind. I couldn't imagine how I could fit thirty-one warp pipes on a single page without it looking cluttered. I hesitated to draw a pile of eggs since I hope to one day create a Yoshi-themed journal design in the future.
I remembered there were various mushrooms that benefited Mario's gameplay journey in different ways. I decided mushrooms were easy to draw repeatedly and color in for my mood tracker page.
To keep the drawn mushroom shapes consistent, I first sketched it on a scrap piece of paper. I cut the shape out with scissors and then traced it thirty-one times on the page.
My websites & stuff page is where I'll note changes and updates made to this website, my YouTube channel, and my Instagram account.
I again added a simple landscape to the bottom of the page. I then added a piranha plant to fill-in the empty space next to the Instagram box.
My Thoughts
This is my favorite journal design to date! I love the bright colors and the theme I decided on. I loved Mario games growing up and still play a few seldomly as an adult. This design is nostalgic for me.
This journal design also took hours to complete. Sketching, painting, and outlining took a decent amount of time. I believe the title page took me about an hour or so alone. I also waited about a half hour for a page to dry before moving on to the next page. However, I think the time spent on this journal design was well worth it.
What's Next?
There are several big projects I'm hoping to complete soon. I've been meaning to share them with you sooner, but I'm a lazy procrastinator who kept putting it off. Hopefully, I'll find motivation to get them done and share those experiences with you.
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Thanks, and have a great day!
Simply Jelly Jam
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