Supernatural - Creating John Winchester's Journal

[RPFKOV]

Last week's episode gave us some really nice views of some journal pages.

Here is my take on that page. Using Photoshop, I blew up the image and traced the hand writing. From that I created a font I can now use to type large amounts of text in "John's handwriting".
There are a lot of dark areas on the page in the screen cap. I believe that is bleed through from whatever is on the back of the page. I did not put anything on the back of my page for now.

 

[crueshophorrors]

Wow, this is really cool! Always wanted to see one of these done!

 

[Contec]

Here is my take on that page. Using Photoshop, I blew up the image and traced the hand writing. From that I created a font I can now use to type large amounts of text in "John's handwriting".

how do you make a font?

 

[RPFKOV]

how do you make a font?

There are quite a few font making programs available. I work on a Mac but there are programs for PCs too. It's a bit time consuming and tedious, but not that hard.

 

[RPFKOV]

Another spread from "As Time Goes By" 8.12

In the screen cap below, this is the first page we see as the grandfather is looking through the journal. It is all text. There are quite a few pages that have this style of writing. My page below has the text that is correct to this page, spelling and grammar mistakes included.

Below, on the right, I have created another “unseen” page of my own that contains the a “Rituale Romanum” or Exorcism as used by Sam and Dean in various episodes. The text is correct to the one read by Sam in Episode 1.04 “Phantom Traveler” Exorcism - Super-wiki

 

[zodiac]

Wow again, your attention to detail is amazing.

Any chance you plan on releasing just the paper props w/out the journal itself after completion?

 

[Kerr Avon]

Agreed, the accuracy of the pages you are doing is stunning.

 

[RPFKOV]

Wow again, your attention to detail is amazing.

Any chance you plan on releasing just the paper props w/out the journal itself after completion?

Thanks for the compliments. I really appreciate all the kind words from everyone.

I think if there is enough interest, I will put together a package of pages in the junkyard when I have enough to make it worthwhile.

 

[scornell1]

You need to get in touch with projectthx138 and see if you guys can work together he gets the journals and metals and all the other stuff but he hand traces everything with your help you guys might be able to make something together and save all of us that want one some money lol

 

[RPFKOV]

Another "unseen" original double page spread of my own creation. It is for this week, in February, 1990. Created in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

 

[rainingsilence]

WoooooW! Looks fantastic!!

 

[RPFKOV]

I decided to try and tackle one of the most iconic double page spreads in the journal, the "Wendigo" pages. They are clearly seen in the journal on more than one occasion and have A LOT of text so they were VERY time consuming but also rewarding to do.

One interesting fact I figured out while researching. The prop maker actually used the same page (September 10/16, 1990) for both pages of the double page spread. So both pages have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on them and no calendars on the bottom right page. I chose to be accurate to the screen prop so I did the same.

Here is a screen shot from the episode:

Here is my recreation:

 

[RPFKOV]

Another iconic page, this time from Episode 1. The coordinates that Johh left for Dean in the journal.

Here the local lawman is leafing through the journal while interrogating Dean:

My page:

 

[RPFKOV]

This is a canon page that I missed doing earlier.

It goes along with these pages:

 

[Lambzilla]

Thanks for the compliments. I really appreciate all the kind words from everyone.

I think if there is enough interest, I will put together a package of pages in the junkyard when I have enough to make it worthwhile.

Color me interested!

 

[Kerr Avon]

Absolutely. Let me know if you do a package of pages!

 

[kysupernatural]

I think if all the pages seen from the planner are there and made up correctly...color/fonts,etc...and then the blank ones that are never seen, but the rest of the months for the year...I might be interested.:thumbsup

 

[Kerr Avon]

I think she'll only be able to do as well as publicly available information/screenshots allow. As soon as she releases a set for sale, if a new episode comes along it'll probably conflict with what is screen used. I think anyone buying would have to understand there's only so much that can be done with incomplete information, and there'd have to be a modicum of 'interpretation' in order to do a full calendar. However, once new information comes along, maybe she could provide update packages available to download for those who have bought the packages and they can add updated copies themselves. Simply put, I don't think you can expect perfection in this particular prop, ever. Hell, the folks who bought the Winchester journal just discovered their prop is missing "HW" in the inside!

 

[Russ]

Damn, these are insanely nice. If you ever get to the point you can create multiples, I'm in like Flynn!

 

[RPFKOV]

Thanks to everyone for the comments.

What I was thinking was to do all the pages that have been seen on the show and there is suitable reference for. I could duplicate the whole journal if I had access to the real one, but alas, that is not going to happen...

Some of the references from the episodes are out of focus and/or missing parts. So I'll do the best that I can with what is available. There are going to be pages I just can't make. But I also enjoy creating "unseen" pages of my own design. There are a lot of pages unaccounted for so there is some artistic freedom there.

Even the actual prop has inconsistencies. For example in "As Time Goes By" it can be clearly seen that several of the pages that Grandpa Winchester is looking at have exactly the same paragraph of text on them.

Personally, I would want to change the text on those pages. But then that is a decision I have to make between making a "screen accurate" page or one that makes sense in a real journal. I can make a bunch of fill pages with the same text, but even though it might be accurate to the real prop journal, would anyone want that in a personal journal they are putting together?