Keri Smith was my favourite illustrator, back when I used to know enough illustrators to have a favourite. Her blog, The Wish Jar, is one of the most interesting things on the internet. Tall claim, but trust me. Keri Smith has written a number of activity books for adults. Wreck This Journal, published way back in 2007, is an attempt to get the journal-er to embrace chaos and messiness. Each page has an innovative instruction to effectively wreck the journal – spill coffee! drag it across the floor! colour outside the lines! use makeshift brushes! – exercises to unleash the inner child.
So far, my singular aim has been to not let any page set the tone for the rest of the journal. Many of the Youtube videos of completed Wreck This Journals have pages and pages completed in a style peculiar to that journal-writer. And while the result is often beautiful, it’s not chaotic enough. I want to surprise and myself every time. And so some pages of my journal end up quite lackluster while others are more vivid than ever.
Here are four favourites pages, each very different from each other. The first is inspired from Buddhist mandalas, though I am not sure I possess the skill required for the intricate detailing they demand. The second, apart from a base wash of green, is made entirely using toothpicks dipped in flowy and thick poster colour. The third design is borrowed from my favourite pair of chappals – the prompt was to cover the page in circles – and required a great deal of patience too. The fourth required me to connect the black circles from memory – I originally meant to draw sun flowers but these happened.
I have been keeping a tortoisey pace – slow and steady – about twelve pages in three months. Nevertheless, the activities are incredibly relaxing, more so after a difficult day at work. Keri Smith is not wrong, there is something specially liberating about colouring outside the lines, about spilling things, tearing up paper, cracking spines and dog-earing pages. I am quite finicky about the way one handles books. But over the past month I have found myself appreciating a good coffee stain, a pageful of notes in the margin, that sort of thing. And with fifty prompts continually whirling around in my head, I feel I have started noticing things better, all around me – patterns, colours, ideas.
The journal is a very personal thing, and this is hardly a review. But I am sharing it here because in the past a certain amount of accountability has done me a lot of good. I also made an Instagram page (whatever they are called) to share my progress with the Wreck This Journal. It turns out the Insta-world is filled with other Wreckers and it’s a treasure to interact. I do hope you check out the page and buy yourself a Wreck This Journal as well. Meanwhile, any recommendations on books about creativity or exercises to keep the creative self alive will be greatly appreciated.
Tabula Rasa 
My daughter did one of these when they first came out and got a big kick out of it. I'd never considered getting one for myself, but seeing yours makes me think I'd enjoy it.
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Divers and Sundry – I was sure I would have fun with it, but it turned out to be much better than what I had in mind. Be sure to give it a try!
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I am not remotely artsy enough for that, but I loved the way you have interpreted these prompts. And I believe this can be very relaxing. Much like those adult coloring books, for the lesser creative souls, like me.
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"Appreciating a good coffee stain" Haha thanks for the morning smile. I am a firm believer in the beauty of wrinkled, stained, and well loved books.
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Shanaya, it is indeed very relaxing. I am not fond of colouring books because I am spectacularly bad at staying within the borders. 😛
Trish, glad to have you here!
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