M6Ch10 Final Project

Just to get safety out of the way first.

The project took 52 hours.

Preparation was the first 9 chapters, taking lots of photos and the following notes.  I decided to stop taking photos at the end of May as I thought I would end up with too much choice.  Spring bursting forth is such an exciting time of year I could have carried on with photos well into July.  Trouble is, by the time I put the book together autumn was about, a time of year I like possibly even more, so it was hard to think spring and spring colours!

I decided to draw and paint one side of my book different views with each one showing spring a bit more advanced.  Looking at my photos I had lots of gates and stiles so they were my focus.  To add a bit more interest I added a poem by William Barnes, a local poet.  I had planned to use Thomas Hardy, a real favourite of mine and also local, but could find nothing suitable.

I chose to add signature books which related to the pages where I placed them.

Moss covered gravestones, winter still lingers.

Close up collages of spring flowers as the burst into bloom.

Just a couple of the creatures seen every day around the village.

For the second side I wanted to change the colours and decided to use spring flower colours, again showing springs progress by adding colours with each double page. I mostly used painted papers with a bit of influence from Klimt and Hundertwasser - after a great weekend in Vienna. I painted the hills first to get an idea of where colours should go.

 Three of the pages had flaps.  One had a wall, one hedging and one shadows.  I added details seen around the village.

Then on to the covers.  One side had footpath signs, with the colours changed, the other a map of the area.

The finished book.

To finish, a garland of ivy leaves wrapped round and secured with a button.

Now to get out my long neglected sewing machine!

M6 Ch9 Decorated Edges and Borders

A nice relaxing chapter and I enjoyed a bit of research too.  I just made a page of samples I can refer too.

 Then I made a page of a little flower book.

 And here are a couple of pages from my earlier made fairy book.

M6 Ch8 Fun with photographs and photocopies

P1/2 I altered a photo of ivy leaves to try and introduce more tone.  I know this is something I'm not too good at, it's all a bit hit and miss, so it was a good exercise for me and I don't think I've done too badly.  For the black and white photo I simply drew with black and white inks after gessoing the background.  For the coloured one I used Inktense pencils and my new Sharpie markers.  I do like using both of these, so does my granddaughter, it's lovely when they get a bit older and can be trusted with special things.

P3 I then played with one of my ivy leaf drawings, changing colours etc.  The purple and green are a bit wishy washy but I think the yellow tissue background gives a bit of lift.

 P4/5. I printed the original drawing on tissue and played with the results.  I like the torn pieces better than the cut circles, but then I do like rough edges, and am also quite pleased with the weaving.  I printed onto white tissue then painted before weaving.  It was something of a fiddle, getting them to match, but it worked.

P6 This was more fun, distorting my painting. Here are just a couple of the things I tried using Adobe Photoshop Elements.  It's amazing how the picture can quickly become unrecognisable.

P7. I took photos of shadows and chose one to print out to make a verge.  It came out rather pale so photographed the finished picture against black, the black is not actually stuck on.  Then I made a template to draw round to make the 'real' grass.  All a bit of a challenge but I like the idea.  If I did it again I would cut the shadows out of black or dark grey.  (Shame the printer made a big black line across the photo.)

 P8/9/10 Not sure about the next few pictures, maybe gates or other regular shapes would have worked better.  To me, the sheep's wool on the stick is a lovely photo ruined!  with each pair of photos, one is a straight swap, the other mixed up.  I liked the change of colours photos but feel tearing them just made a mess!  Can't see me using this idea much, should have tried just chopping and changing one photo as I've quite liked that when I've done it, like with my mask picture. (M5)

 P11.  Lots of signs seen round the village made into a collage, with some of my printing.  Could be the starting point of the cover?

M6 Ch7 Mixed Media Layers

I had a great time with this chapter and hope to use the results to make a signature book.  For each picture I have chosen a portion (4x4ins) that I think looks best.  A couple of them I couldn't decide and some probably need addition but not sure what yet.

Celandines. Background is scrunched and PVAd white tissue painted with koh-i-noor  then green tissue grass and white tissue clouds added.  I pressed the celandines and leaves back in April.  Maybe too simple but I like this and the next one.

 Blackthorn. Background is watercolour wash with clingfilm pressed in then screwed up paper with a watercolour wash and holes torn.  Then an old map stencil using oil pastels.  The flowers were made with silk papers reinforced with acrylic wax, beads and wire.  I was pleased that the flowers look delicate.

 Primroses. The background is a photo and corrugated paper painted with acrylic.  Concertinaed(?) paper made the grass then the primroses were ones i'd banged to get the colour out in April.  The leaves hadn't worked so well so I screwed up the paper and gave them a watercolour wash.  Not one of my more successful efforts, a bit clumsy, but I like the corrugated iron.

 Dandelion.  Background is strips of magazine and photos on a newsprint background.  Watery acrylic wash over then sewn with thread and beads.  The dandelion flower was painted separately with acrylic then stuck on.  I do like dandelion clocks.

 Bluebell. Watercolour wash reinforced with acrylic wash and silk leaves, also reinforced, machined on. The bluebell was made with hand dyed cotton drawn with ink and the bumble bee made with felt.  They were stuck on.  It's one of my favourites.

 Speedwell. base paper was painted with tea then photo copied tissue torn and stuck on.  Leaf shapes were printed with acrylic then outlined with ink.  The flowers were drawn on reinforced tissue.  Maybe need more flowers?

 Cow parsley. The background was made by mixing gesso with acrylic and sticking pieces of doiley on.  The top leaves were made using a watercolour wash with Brusho dropped on, then tissue leaves added.  The flowers were made with dots of acrylic then a stamp. I like this.

 Red campion. The background is made of woven strips of assorted papers, photos and magazines.  The leaves were made with painted tissue which I meant to stick on with matt medium to keep them translucent but, too late, realised I'd used acrylic paint!  So I printed them with fabric paint.  The flowers were done with a homemade stamp made for a previous project.  Love the background, not so sure about the rest.