Visual Journal Page 65: You Take Me the Way I Am


THE STORY

I wanted to capture multiple moments of my wedding in my journal, which meant multiple pages. I wanted to keep my favorite picture page simple, which meant a lot things were left out. Because of that, this page had to follow.

I loved our reception space, and I decided for this page I would recreate that space. While looking for venues, two of the things that were very important to me were hardwood floors and good lighting. This venue had them both, and more. It had the wood floors, floor to ceiling windows, a good dance floor, and charm. It was a historic Roswell home, it looked like an old farmhouse from the outside, but it had a huge, open room on the inside.

I decided to recreate the floors, windows, and amazing room in my journal. I included the paper lanterns that we hung all over the ceiling, as well as the blues and browns that were used repeatedly in our ceremony and reception. It all came together to create this memorable place, a place where we celebrated our nuptials with our closest friends and family.

After the wedding I held onto all the cards we got. As I was sifting through them, I found one with a very cute bride and groom on it. It was the perfect thing to incorporate into my page. It was a reflection of our wedding day, a groom Nick and a bride me.

During our ceremony my best friend, Elly, sang us a song. We spent a lot of time selecting the perfect song, and it was perfect. It was cute, quirky, and current, just what I wanted in my wedding. The song embodied Nick and my relationship, and most importantly, the way I feel about him. In addition to having the perfect song, I had the perfect person singing it. Elly has an amazing voice, the song was beautiful, and helped make our ceremony as memorable as it was. All of these things came together to create our perfect day. It is a day Nick and I will look back on, reminisce, and remember. It was the perfect beginning of the rest of our lives.

SUPPLIES

  • Visual journal
  • Rubber cement
  • Scissors
  • White paper
  • Watercolors
  • Ruler
  • India ink
  • Calligraphy pen
  • Card
  • Xacto knife
  • Needle and thread
  • Thin sharpie

HOW TO

The last page was complex because I had to redo multiple parts, things kept getting messed up, and it turned into a long project. This page is complicated because it has so many parts and it relied heavily on perspective to make it work. I started with the floor. I measure about 1/3 of the way up the page, and cut a piece of paper with the same measurements to draw the floor on. When drawing things in perspective, you have a vanishing point, or a place where all the lines converge. I placed the vanishing point just above the 1/3 mark of the page, right behind the bride and groom. I used a ruler, lined it up with the vanishing point, and drew a line that went off the page. I continued to move the ruler from the left side of the page to the right, always making sure the ruler was lined up with the vanishing point. As you do this, the lines will slowly transition from a diagonal left, to straight down the center of the page, to a diagonal right.

After I had my lines drawn, I painted the paper with yellows and browns, to recreate the color in the wood floors. I used a thin sharpie to draw in the wood grain pattern. I cut out the sections of the floor, spaced them out, and glued them down. I loved the effect; it really created a sense of depth.

I also drew the windows and lanterns on a separate white sheet of paper. I made sure all the windows had the same dimensions, and number of windowpanes. I outlined them with a thin sharpie, painted them with watercolor, used scissors to cut them out, and an Xacto knife to cut out the windowpanes. I also outlined the lanterns with sharpie, painted them with watercolor, and cut them out.

I glued the bride and groom down on the right page with rubber cement, and then it was time to incorporate the song. Since I loved the entire song, I wanted to include all of the lyrics. I decided to write out the words as if they were acting out what they said. For example, the first line is, “If you are falling, than I would catch you”, so I wrote out the word “falling” as if it were actually falling. I wrote the word “light” on top of the lantern, the line about a headache across the top of the groom, and I tried to always have to words “take me the way I am” wrapping around the bride. I felt like this song represented the way I felt about Nick, and he does take me the way I am.

I did have some issues with this page. There is a line that says “sew in patches to all your tears”, and I tried to stitch the word sew, but because it was so small, it ended up looking like a blob of stitches. Other than that, I was very satisfied with the page. Although the lyrics are more difficult to read, and difficult to read in order, I like the way it turned out.

CHALLENGE:

Incorporate your favorite song into a page. Include all of the lyrics, and try to be creative with how you incorporate them.

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