Start by tearing strips of patterned paper using a ruler. These will form the collaged background, so make sure there are plenty, of different widths and patterns.

Glue the strips into your journal, butting up the edges as neatly as you like. I used matte multi medium with a coarse brush.

Finish with a layer of multi medium to seal everything, using a fine bristled brush (for smoothness). Set aside to fully dry. I think I may need to stir my matte medium as it ended up quite glossy…

Punch out some shapes, or cut out shapes using a device of your choice. These will form the frontmost elements of your perspective drawing. Straight edges and angles work best, but feel free to throw in a curve or two.

Working on a suitable sheet of paper, trace around the card shapes using a pencil. Rotate them and spread them out as you like, but don’t overlap them. The more you add, the trickier it is later on, but it makes for a more interesting image.

Choose a random point anywhere on your page – this will be your vanishing point for the perspective drawing. Using a ruler, draw from the edges of the shapes to this point (see next image).

Top tips:
– draw lines to the inner shapes first
– for the outer shapes, draw from the shape to the centre, stopping at any point that you reach another line
– draw a line from any point on the shape, or from an outside edge if it’s a curve.

Now colour in the shapes and perspective guides you have created. Use whatever medium you like – I used any india ink colours that hadn’t dried up… Use different colours, or one, it’s up to you.

Now for some optical illusion trickery. In my college piece, I learnt that thick lines bring things ‘forward’ and thin push things farther away. So – trace the outline of the shapes with wide lines and taper the perspective lines as you near the vanishing point.

Add shading to any areas that are close to another ‘column’ or shape. Add highlights to any curves just to accentuate the shape. I used a combination of india ink pen and coloured pencil.

Once completed, cut out your coloured shape using your preferred cutting implement.

Going back to your journal, trim off any overlapping strips.

After a quick audition, I felt there wasn’t enough contrast between my background colours/lightness and my perspective drawing. I sponged a thin layer of gesso over the page, adding little more at the corners to create a vignette. This toned down the collage and unified it somewhat as well.

And here we have the finished page. If the illustration goes over the centre fold, crease it first and then glue down one side first. Once that’s dry, glue the other side and shut the journal onto it – this helps ensure there’s no ‘stretching’ across the fold later on. Colour and add the text – I will include a printable/SVG file below. Ta da!