Two new pieces to post

I finished the piece done for an art show "Springtime Obsession", it doesn't have a title yet. I was inspired by a bit of archaic poetry by John Milton. "Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger, comes dancing from the East, and leads with her the flow'ry May, who from her green lap throws the yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose. Hail bounteous May, that doth inspire Mirth and youth and warm desire!" I may just name it Mirth, youth and warm desire. That ought to have the judges scratching their heads.

I used pages from an old book for the mat and flowers pressed by my friend Pat. S. who was kind enough to send them to me. This fits into a black frame, but I can't seem to get a good photo of it framed. So, I am not going to enter it in the Ironstone show. They require a CD with good photos of the work.

The second piece was a practice piece using watercolor pencil and fluid gel medium. Then glazed over with fluid acrylic titan buff paint. My practice book was out in the car when I started this and it was drippy wet cold and foggy, so I did this on watercolor paper instead.

Adding a little color

This is a new piece I'm working on. I originally meant it to be monochromatic - but gosh, look what happened! I guess because the day was so grey and gloomy outside, I was attracted by my Carandache's and just went a bit wild. This is still in progress. The main image will be inside the large arch. I think I"ll paint it again following the original concept - then compare the two. I like this one well enough not to paint it out to go back to the pale subtle color palette. Some of the pages in my practice book are what brought me to making this work.

Practice Book - more views

These pages were done with the continuing mushroom theme. I kept finding things that were shaped like mushrooms, or that I could manipulate into mushrooms. Perfect place to play around in a practice book.

Practice Book - new views

I've been working and reworking some of the pages in the art journal/practice book. Here are some pics. I'm showing you this spread because you can compare the final with the preliminary stage. In a way I actually prefer the early version, but this is just a practice book, so if I screw it up - only you and I will know about it. Right?

Practice book or Art Journal

Some of my good friends are enjoying making art journals, and never wanting to miss out on anything that sounds like fun artistically (up to a point) - I have started one myself. It is much like a practice book - but I 'm not trying any structural things in it. I am using a composition notebook I covered with fabric, just like covering a board book as in the tutorial given earlier. I had no particular plans and was sort of wondering where to start, so I thought I'd follow what some of my art pals do, clean off your table and use the scraps. I had a folder sitting there with images and some poetry I wrote prior to doing the Mushroom book. These were rejects for that project - but they are good enough to save, so I started with them. Here are the first few pages. Thanks Roberta, Jackie, Pat, Sally, Krissi and the rest of you who have inspired this activity. I think this is something I can work on at the Sr. Center instead of carting paintings back and forth.

Practice book - a new page - Thanksgiving

It is so close to Thanksgiving and many of us are thinking ahead about our menus and our families and coming together. We are also thinking about the many blessings we have in our lives. So, let's take a 2 page spread and make it about Thanksgiving. What does it mean to you? You might want to do this in a journaling style, with writing out what you are grateful for. Or you might want to use your family recipes for the favorite holiday dishes. Or, thinking more globally, what are you thankful for. Our troops, our religion, our planet. Thanksgiving pages can be as personal as you like. Photos of your family might go here. Or drawings of them. And if you are lucky enough to have a grandchild around, or a young child - why not have them trace their hand in your book for one of those handprint turkeys. you probably have some rubber stamps with the word thanks, or thank you on them. This would be a good place to use them. I haven't done my Thanksgiving page yet, but I'll share a pic of the little dogs I'm so thankful to have in my life. They are thankful for that last little spot of sunshine on the couch on a cold morning.

Using what you have - Science Slave

It's surprising how much art we can make without buying a whole lot of supplies. A friend gave away some 1950's Mechanics Illustrated and Popular Mechanics magazines yesterday, and I brought a few home. Mainly to reminisce - my brother subscribed when we were young, and I read them too. Anyway, I immediately saw a couple images and backgrounds that I could use to rework a piece I'd done last year. There is no reason this could not have been done in an altered book. It started to be a practice piece, but I liked it so much I finished and framed it. I cut the hand out of the earlier work and put a few layers of mat board behind it to raise it above the surface of this piece. Don't limit your practice to your practice book. Try things out whenever inspiration strikes or you find yourself with something interesting to try. Trying them in your practice book is always a good idea.

Practice book - prompt - when is a page a page?

Is it time for another challenging prompt? Since fall is in the air, and leaves are ankle deep on my patio tonite in the midst of heavy windstorm - let's think about the pages in the practice book as leaves. How could you portray leaves on your page? Draw them. Trace them. Cut your page into a leaf shape. Ink some real leaves and use them to print on your pages. Glue in some pressed leaves. Paint a page in a leaf color. Use leaf skeletons on your page. Cut out leaves of fabrics or paper and glue them in. Hmmmm..... Why don't you use one page with only leaves, or a leaf, and another page where a leaf image will be secondary to another image. Here are some pics where I have used leaves. I bet you have a lot of ideas you can share with us. Feel free to make a comment and link us to some of your work.

While we are thinking about leaves, it's time to dig out an old book and start pressing some fall leaves for later use. I often use an old phone book and put some heavy books on top of it. Sometimes I find partial skeleton leaves in my garden. They are so beautiful and so fragile. They need to be pressed also. And don't forget your camera. Take lots of pictures of trees and leaves. The light angles during our fall season makes dramatic shadows. Watch the light at different times of day and how the shadows fall. You can get wonderful shots off the cuff, but also by planning what time of day a particular subject would be the most spectacular.

Have some fun with your leaf pages. Let me know how they come out.

Tutorial - The magic of touch - practice book

The tactile senses are engaged when you handle an altered book. There is something very intimate and engaging when you not only see and read one - but when you touch it. It's like the difference between sitting curled up in a chair with a book to read, or having a Kindle. It adds a whole other dimension and I truly wish that it could be shared online - but it is the missing link.

I often back some pages with masking tape and paint over it. I dont' know why I like the feel of it so much. One of the places I use this technique is when I am altering pages consecutively to add strength. Occasionally I'll cover an entire page with clear contact paper. Usually it's to protect something fragile - but sometimes it is because I want it to be wonderfully smooth to the touch.

Different papers have unique feels to them. Smooth, grainy, linenlike, etc. Do you like to have the same "touch" all the way through a book, or do you like a variety? This is just another place where you can experiment. Sprinkle some glitter, or sand into some gel medium and you get a whole different experience than just the visual image. Folds in the paper, or using corregated paper are other examples. Do you have a collection of interesting papers with different touches? Can you duplicate them? If not, you can glue them in. Maybe cut into interesting shapes, or grids. Let's try some of these methods and techniques in your practice book. Devote a few pages to surface textures. Have some fun.

If you do something experimental that you think you might forget how you did it - just write down your formula on the back of the page - or leave a note attached in the book.

Later we will expand on this with other ways to add textures with fabrics, yarns, beads, threads, pine needles, leaves, etc. We'll also play around with raising images and coating with products like clear glazes.

The photo above is from an altered book on Nevada, my home state. The children on the left are my brother and myself. At the base of the deserted mine shaft on the right side, I sprinkled sand into gel medium. I did this a few years ago. Now, I find there are products available on the market to give the same effect. You might want to explore some of them too.

Practice Book - Prompt #3 Adding text

It's time for a new prompt. Let's play with the alphabet. Write Prompt #3 on the top right of your spread and get ready to have some fun. There are many ways to add text to your pages. Why don't you use this spread to experiment and have samples of all the different types of adding text you can think of. When you are designing a book that's not just for practice, you might just want to add a word, or a phrase. But, this is the practice book - the place to try out things to see what your own style is - or will become.

The fastest easiest way to add text is to pick up a pen or pencil or crayon and write on the page. Print, if you like. Calligraphy. Try writing with your non-dominant hand. Try writing backwards or upside down. Try using a small paint brush. Vary the placement and angles of your words. Let them flow like a stream. Or climb up the side of a mountain. Or over a rainbow. You can animate your words by placing them so they look like they are part of a scene. Like a word being kicked like a ball. Or swirling through space.

There are many products that help you create your text - things like stencils, stickers, and stamps. I am crazy about alphabet stamps. You can mix them up for interesting effects. Remember you can stamp onto fabric, ribbon, metal tapes, etc. Craft and scrapbooking stores have a huge variety of these things that are useful to book artists. Old fashioned rub on letters from an office/print shop are still available. How about Dymo labels? You can use stencils with dimensional paste to get raised letters on your pages. It's fun to use an individual stencil of a letter as part of your collage.

Collage is another method. Cut out words and phrases from magazines when you see them and keep them in an envelope. Maybe you liked the font they used, or the word itself is something meaningful to you. You can cut out sentiments from greeting cards, or old discarded poetry books. Use your computer to type out your text, play with the fonts and colors. Print them out and cut them and collage them onto your pages. Try cutting out your letters individually and gluing them down to form words. Try cutting them out of a photo, or out of a book of text, or music. Use scrabble tiles, typewriter keys, alphabet beads. Do they still make alphabet pasta? Hmmmm......

Sometimes it is effective to put your words on the image itself. Or, you can have them in the background. Writing across and over an image is a way to pull the image into the background and making the words more important. You can manipulate this by layering.

It might be a good idea to have more than one spread for this prompt. Your practice samples will remind you of the technique possibilities for your text. You might want to leave some blank pages here so when you think of other types of text techniques - you can add them later so they are all together when you are looking for an idea to pump up your text.

Do you have the book Alphabetical on your shelf? By Lynne Perrella. I recommend it - not just for the uses of letters - but for eye candy. You'll find a lot of good ideas in this book.

I'm sure each of you have favorite ways of adding text, and I'm sure I missed some - so please add anything else in the comments here. We will all learn together. Linda B. reports "I use a website called ransom note generator to do cool text effects." I'd better check that out too.

Practice Book - Prompt #2 - The X factor, Part 2

Practice books are so much fun. A place to play and experiment. In art, as in so many things, it's taking a small simple idea and playing with it to find what you can do with it. In cooking, it often is playing with ingredients. Taking a simple dish and adding a little spice, some herbs, changing the type of oil - making it your own dish. You seldom wear a simple black dress without adding your special touches to make it look even better.

The X cut in a book is something that can be tinkered with. Not only with what you can put in front of it, or behind it - but also what about changing the angles of the cuts? How about layering several cuts through several pages. I like to make the first window, then move the cutting mat to behind the next page, and looking through the window, make another X cut - only smaller than the first. When you open the cuts and fold them back - You have a double framed window. You can continue this on down through successive pages before you put your image behind them. This can be very effective.

If you choose to leave the flaps on your windows, you may want to find our own ways to hold them in place. Glue, staples, stitches, brads? Glue dots? Some of the papers are strong enough to roll them back - while others are brittle and break. You will have to work with the inherent properties of your book. Each paper is a little different.

You can tip in a different paper behind a window and cut through it, and when it folds back a printed or colored paper will show through. And if you glue your pages together, the inserted paper will not be visible except where you want it to be.

Play with what will show through the windows. Slip different things behind it and see what appeals to you. A face? An eye? A gun pointing at you? A heart? A cupcake? A frog? A tree? A poem? Something funny? Something sweet? Something nostalgic? Something surprising or scary? If you were making a book of the alphabet - you could put in a single letter. Or something to represent the letter. An A. Or an Apple?

Normally a window has two sides to look through - but you have control over this window. If you do not want to have the window work backwards and forwards, you can glue the page down - either direction. That way the page with the window and what's behind it will show - while the opposite page does not need to have an image or focal point lined up with the window.

If you have any questions please post in the comments section. And if you want to share what you've done, post a link to where we can see it.

Practice Book - Prompt #2 - the X factor

This is so simple, yet so effective. Since this is only the second prompt, it is time to get comfortable with actually cutting into the book. We will ATTACK it!!! With a knife!!!! Do I hear screams? Be brave, it can't fight back! Pick a page with a empty page on each side. Write Prompt #2 on the top right hand corner. Place a cutting mat behind this page. Now, just draw on a medium size x somewhere near the center of the page. Don't go all the way to any edges. Now with your box cutter, or Xacto knife - cut the X. You probably will want to use a ruler or straight edge to make a clean cut. Once you have the X cut, turn back each section and you will find you now have a window. You can cut off the flaps, or leave them there. If you paint them or decorate them, it makes a kind of frame.

Hmmmm...... What can you do with a window? Remember the window works two directions. The page following the window is a perfect place for an image or a word - or an embellishment. Plus, once you have turned the window page, you will note there is a second place of interest on the page preceding the window page. So, think of something fun to put there too. You might want to experiment with a lot of smaller X's to make a whole composition of windows with surprises behind them. Now that the cuts have been made, you can decorate your page to highlight the windows. What would you like to see in the window? What would you Not want to see in a window? I can't upload any pics tonite. I'll try to add them tomorrow. Have fun! Attack!

Practice Book - Prompt #1 Follow up

Did you make a page with smiles? What makes you smile? You can include those things. Now, let's look at your page. The rest of us can't see it, so you have to learn to critique your own work. Were you satisfied with the weight of the page (thickness)? If you'd prefer something heavier, you can glue it to the next page. Or several pages. Are you happy with the colors? the size of the image(s)? the way the page is laid out? When you analyze what you like and what you don't - it will help you with the next pages you work on. Go on and make mistakes! You'll learn from them.

By the way, if you have pages you'd like to share, post a link in the comments section so readers can follow your progress and get to know you.

The photo here is for Diane! You know what makes me smile. This is Lulu. A clown of a dog. Nikki is hiding under the pillow with just her nose showing. They can make any dog lover smile!

Practice book - Prompt #1- Smile

Let's start off feeling positive about making a practice book. First, select a page and print Prompt #1 on the upper right hand corner. It's going to be a fun exercise - so smile! And make a page of smiles. You can draw them, cut them from catalogs and magazines, stencil them, rubber stamp them or add a photo of someone you love smiling. When you are done, see how many ways you found to express happiness. How many techniques did you use? Did you cover the page with a collage? Or use just one special smile? Your own artistic style will develop as you work your way through a practice book. Maybe you are eclectic and want to try everything! That's perfectly okay.
If this is your first altered book - wasn't it fun to mess around on a page - just for practice? And if you don't like it you can cut it out and try again. Or you have so many ideas you want to do more pages of smiles. Okay, no one will stop you. The Altered Book Police have been laid off for lack of funds.

The Practice Book - How and Why

People who have not altered a book are sometimes hesitant to start because there are so many options and they want their first book to be a masterpiece. Or- they have a natural hesitation to cut into or write on a book. Remember what we were told as children? Those things stick in our minds. But, you are going to work on a book that has been discarded, it is not the last existing book of that title - you can get another on to replace it if you want to. So, it is now - ta da! A bunch of blank canvases bound together. What could be more delicious? You'll be making art in it. What better way to recycle a book?

The Practice Book is where you can try new techniques and old techniques. You can make notes of what you've done to help with your next book. This is the place to experiment. When teaching, I give out sheets of exercises (prompts) I've printed out for practice books. I've been encouraged to publish them or market the label sheets - but I think I'll just share them with you here. Students soon become comfortable with the process of altering (attacking) a book when they have prompts. If you are thinking about starting your first book, you will find this very handy. Even if you've already done some altered books, sometimes it's fun to work on a practice book where you can try new things, or record some of your own favorites. I'll label these posts as Practice Book and give each one a number. Follow along if you like, and if you have some photos to share of your work, please post a link in the comment section so we can see what you did.