Little bound story book

I purchased a stuffed Ossabaw Sicilian donkey for my nephew.  He is quite a Winnie the Pooh fan, so I decided to also get him a stuffed Eeyore, and to make a little book about the two of them meeting.  

After roughing out a story,  I had an idea of how many illustrations were needed.  I started working on sketches,   Over time, a rough story and illustrations slowly converged into what could be a little story book.  

It would have 8 pages.  I would need 10 illustrations: front cover, front page, 6 for the story, back page and back cover; and the text needed to fit in the available space of the 6 story pages.

I used watercolor paper for the 4 signatures (8 pages) of the book.  The illustrations were inked and painted.  Then text was added to the pages.  Finally I sealed the pages with a non-toxic watercolor sealant.  Finally I was ready to put together the little story book.  

 Punching the covers

Last page and inside of back cover

Bound book

Printed Story: workshop

FBAC on-line class The Printed Story taught by Catherine Cross Tsintzos.

In this class we each developed a story, determined a layout and design for a book, created graphics and text for the story, and completed one small accordion or pamphlet book.

Week one we worked on a theme for our story.  We discussed art books and storytelling using images and words.  To help develop the overall layout and design of our book we used storyboards.  The Storyboard was 6-8 squares: two squares for the beginning, 2-4 squares for the middle, and 2 squares for the conclusion.  Each frame included a sketch, text and notes on boarders, colors etc. 

I decided to tell the story of how we created a wildflower garden for my Mother-in-law.   

• It starts with the field and plowing.  
• The middle is about the plants growing.  
• The end is about the butterflies that visit the wildflowers.

Week two we worked on relief printmaking techniques.  Because I had them already, I used Speedball water soluble inks, baren, hard brayer and linoleum cutting set.  We used thin linoleum that can easily be cut into smaller shapes.  

I used photos of the garden, flowers and insects as references for the lino stamps I carved.

Field sketch and cut lineo block

Photo and cut lineo blocks

I did several test prints to learn how to mix the 3 colors of ink to get the color I wanted (light green, oranges, browns, black).  

test printing smal lieno blocks

 

I did test prints to determine if printing the smaller blocks over the full page green field would work (i.e. would the colors show up; would the design work).

test printing flower blocks over printed green field

Week three we worked on printing and assembling the final book.

I created a cover for the pamphlet book, printed one side of the pages and let that dry for a few days, then carefully printed on the other side.  I painted backgrounds on the flowers and butterflies pages.  I added tissue paper between the pages to protect the ink.  

Cover

first and second pages with tissue paper between

Book embellishments

During the Books of the Earth class we discussed and tried several page embellishment techniques, but had limited time to use them with the books we created.  When I returned home all manner of other things got in the way of working on my books.  Recently I was able to spend some time exploring the techniques we discussed in class as well as other ideas I have read about for adding special touches to my finished books.

Mica encasements

I used thin sheets of mica to cover interesting bits of paper and pressed flowers.  If the mica was thin and the item was small I simply used pH neutral PVA to glue them in place.  The pressed flowers and mica in the photo to the right were glued to a small piece of handmade paper that was then glued to the page.  I left space at the bottom of the page for a bit of text.

Thicker pieces of mica can be attached to a page using small brads.  The object to be covered is first glued to the page.  Then the page is placed on a piece of wood and the mica is position over the image.  Hold the mica in place as you carefully punch or drill holes through the mica and page.  Below is an example of mica fastened using small brads.  I burned a small window in the preceding page creating a small reveal.

Be aware, adding paper, mica, pressed flowers and brads all add additional thickness to the page.  These additions can cause the book to gape.  You can offset the added thickness by removing pages or adding windows.


Pages with windows

This can be used to reveal some of the contents.  To make rectangular and square windows I use a 6 inch narrow metal ruler, a small piece of mat board and a sharp X-Acto retractable pen knife to carefully make small precision cuts.  Below is the finished page window and the rusted imprint that was glued to the following page.

As previously mentioned, windows can also be used to offset the thickness of added items.  In the photo to the right I cut rectangular openings in three pages to offset the thickness of a small rectangular piece of oxidized copper I had added to a page.

Salmon of Knowledge art book project

I started on a new art book project, illustrating a handmade accordion book based on the celtic myth about the Salmon of Knowledge.  The story is short and perfect for several illustrations incorporating celtic designs.  This will be my first finished project that encompasses drawing, painting and bookbinding.

First I printed out a draft of the text, and used it to put together a mock up of the book using card stock.  This helped me decide on the subjects for the small illustrations, as well as the placement of the text blocks and illustrations on each page.  It is much better to figure this all out ahead of time.  In the end I found I would need eight pages, one for the title and seven more with text and illustration.  Two additional end pages would be needed to attach the book covers.

With accordion folds the front and back of the pages can be seen, so I developed eight small sketches for the text side of the book and one long sketch to span the entire back of all eight text pages.

I tested different combinations of colors and media on the illustrations to find the right look.  I worked with sepia, black, colored and metallic markers as well as a variety of watercolor pigments. The watercolors provide varied colors (fish at far right), while the metallic ink has a wonderful bright shine (fish at near right).  For this book I will be using a combination of both watercolors and metallic ink.

I decided to use 90 lb multi-media paper instead of watercolor paper for the book pages, since it will stand up to repeated folding better than watercolor paper.  To have a single long piece of paper for the text block, I would need a 35" long piece of paper.  I purchased a roll of Cason XL paper.  I cut a 5" strip from the roll and trimmed it to the desired 35" length.  Then I folded the long strip into 10 3.5" x 5" pages and pressed the accordion flat.  This was the first time I had used rolled paper and I didn't anticipate how resistant to being uncurled the paper would be.  Lesson learned: carefully uncurl the paper first!

I transferred the illustrations to the paper, and then carefully inked and painted.  I worked on the small illustrations first, then on the large illustration that spans the reverse side of the paper.  My original plan was to print the text directly on the paper, but because of the odd paper size (5" by 35") my printer would not cooperate.  After fighting with it for several hours I decided to finish this book and work on the printer later.  For this book I printed the text on velum, cut it to size and glued each section of text to the pages.  The text block was now finished and ready for the covers to be attached.

I selected a decorative paper with a Japanese looking wave pattern called Yuzen Black Gold Waves for the book covers.   For the closure glued a black ribbon to the inside of the front cover, and I chose a gold colored button that I sewed to the outside.  The ribbon is long enough to wrap around the book once and then wrap around the button.

Except for not being able to print the text onto the paper, this book turned out well.  The multi-media paper worked fine for both ink and watercolors.  I like how the book covers turned out and how the final illustrations look.

I am especially happy with the large illustration that spans the back of the book's pages.

Painting glass ornaments

A few years ago I purchased a set of clear glass ornaments during the after Christmas sales intending to 'do' something with them for the next year.  Well that never happened.  The box of ornaments was packed away and forgotten, until we did a whole attic clean up.

The box of glass ornaments resurfaced just as I was trying to decide what to bring as a gift to our Trout Unlimited chapter's Holiday gathering.  I had been thinking of doing a trout painting for the Chapter's spring auction, and so had already massed reference materials on my desk.  I had three colors of glass paint and a black glass marker to work with.  Maybe I could paint a trout on the glass.

Where to start?  I measured the circumference of the glass ornament.  Then I made three appropratily sized pencil drawings of Brook, Brown and Rainbow Trout.  Now I had my reference sketches.

For some reason, I decided to try painting on the inside of the ornament instead of the outside.  This is known as reverse painting, painting from foreground to the background.  That didn't sound so hard.  I traced the drawings onto strips of tracing paper.  Then taped the paper to the outside of the ornament.  I used the red, blue and yellow paint to mix appropriate fish shades.  So far so good.  Now to paint.

Well here was a problem I hadn't thought about.  When you insert a brush into the ornament it can only paint the lower half.  I needed to make a special brush that could be adjusted to reach all the inside area.  I broke an old brush and used heavy wire to re-attach the two parts.  With the adjustable brush I now could paint the trout on the inside of the ornament.  I still had to be very careful when inserting and removing the brush to not touch the rest of the interior, and it was difficult to place colors without mixing them.  You can see the results of this first trial to the left.

The second ornament I painted on the outside of the glass.  This was so much easier and quicker.  I used the black glass marker to sketch the trouts image first.  After the black marker dried I painted the base color of the trout and built up the textures and colors. As a final touch I added a small fly inside the ornament.

You can compare the two in the image painted from the same reference sketches below.

Looking up

One thing that is striking about a balloon flight is the silence, broken by an occasional blast from the burner.  The sound reminded me to look up, up at the colorful balloon over my head.  The colors of the envelope spiral up to a central blue parachute.  The parachute seals the envelope, keeping the hot air inside.

The burner (seen at the bottom of the photo) ignites a mixture of liquid propane and air to create a flame that heats the air which rises and fills the envelope.  Because the hot air trapped in the envelope is lighter then the cool air around the balloon, the balloon rises.  The pilot can let hot air escape by pulling ropes that run down from the parachute valve to the basket.  When this is done the balloon descends.

Having blasts of hot fire just above your head is an interesting experience, one I wanted to capture in a painting.  My sketch at right is a composite of two photos, the one above and a second one taken from a slightly different angle when the burner was ignited.  The fire is white hot.  The cooler edges burn yellow to orange.  For the sketch I didn't worry about creating as many lines as the balloon envelope actually had.  I used just enough lines to get the general idea of how the spiral of colors would look with the flame super-imposed on it.

For the full size draft I used the full number of gores.  I used a Prismacolor Orange pencil to create the radial lines.  Winsor Yellow, Winsor Blue (red shade), Phthalocyanine Blue and Quinacridone Rose were used to create the spiraling colors of the balloon's envelope.  The central part of the flame which is white hot, is represented by the white of the paper.  The cooler edges of the flame use Winsor Yellow and Quinacridone Rose.  Finally, shadows were added to the gores of the envelope and the burner to add shape and depth.

Strathmore online class: lesson 4

The final lesson was on creating a mixed media collage.  We had just returned from a fun flyfishing trip, so I decided to do a two page collage about it.  Step 1 was to gather items for the college. Step 2 is to plan the arrangement.  I had a few photos I had taken, some pencil sketches I had done on location, and some old line and hooks I had retrieved from the trees (while getting my own tangled fly back).

I did a watercolor of the river on the right page from one of the photos I took, and added part of a page torn out of my mole skin pocket sketch book.   On the other page I did a ink and watercolor sketch of the Alder limb, including my fly and float.  I added one of the flies and some of the line I retrieved, as well as a photo of a Trout Lily that was blooming along the river.

I had some problems with the fishing line and glue, but in general I liked the two page layout, the sketches and painting.