First AB challenge

Notice where there is that little extra from the pages torn out. It is okay that I did not cover that in paint. It is okay if it is not perfect. There is no wrong in altered books.

Take any small hardcover that you may have. Something that you don't mind altering. You can find them in the bargain bins of any bookstore. You can also raid your kid's bookshelf and save a neglected book. Look at it and see how it is bound. Some pages are sewn in and some are glued in. For this exercise, it does not matter. You decide how many spreads you want in the book. Spreads are the two pages that face each other when you open a book. Do not go more than 10-12 spreads for this exercise. What you will need to do now is to tape or glue some pages together. What I did for this was to take some black masking tape and tape 3 to 4 pages together. I used a pair of scissors and cut about 1/4 to 1/2" from the spine and I tore straight down to take out the pages. You can do 2 or 3 pages at a time. It is okay if you get farther into the middle of the page. You just don't want to get too close to the spine or eventually the book will fall apart or the pages will come apart.

Next, what you want to do is to paint the spreads left over. It does not matter if the coverage is not perfect or if there is spillage on the other spreads. You can use Adirondack color wash to cover the spreads or acrylic paint, or watercolors. Do not cover up the entire text. If you use acrylics, use fluid acrylics or thin out your heavy body acrylics. Let each spread dry before going on to the next spread if using acrylics or watercolors. You can do all of them at once if you use color wash. Be inventive here, use what you have. Twinkling H2Os, whatever.

When the pages are dry, then just play with the pages. This is just for fun so don't worry about a finished product. Stamp in it. Try different things with paint and a paintbrush. Use your punchinella or other textures as templates. Use stencils. Let the text show through. Use markers, paint pens, whatever is on hand. Doodle, draw, be a child again!

Do not worry about the covers right now. Covers are usually done at the end. You don't do them early because working in the book can ruin them.

If you are in Art Techniques, please post your scans to the photo section under altered books. Have fun and let me know how you do!

You will see in the next post what I did with my color washed pages.