Artist Books are some of my absolute favorite books to work in and to develop as a Book & Paper Artist. With so many found, handprinted and gel printed papers that are way too beautiful to throw away, Artist Books are the perfect solution to house funky collages and practice mark-making and hand lettering.
Artist Books take me YEARS to complete. As I loose interest or motivation in a particular book, I put it away and wait for inspiration to return. This way I have lots of techniques to choose from as my skills develop and I can watch my progress as an Artist over the years. The collages that you see now are not what the final collage will look when completed.
This Artist Book below is 4.5 x 8 x 1” using Canson Watercolor paper. There are (5) signatures bound together using a coptic stitch. In each of the pictures below, I describe the materials I use to create the collages that you see.
The cover of this book was created using a brown grocery bag. The hand lettering was applied using black walnut ink and a handmade cola pen. Collage papers include spray ink (my favorite are Dylusions!), handprinted papers using acrylics and handmade stamps and the black fern prints with a bleach discharge. The back cover is eco-printed on reclaimed wool.
This spread includes found papers, reclaimed paint chip, one of those beautiful gel printed paper scrap, scrapbook paper and hand lettering. I practice hand lettering as often as possible. Artist Books are a great place to work on that particular skill!
This spread includes spray inks, mark-making using black India ink and another handprinted gel print on found paper.
This spread includes spray ink, mark-making using black india ink applied with a handmade cola pen and elementary handwriting paper.
This spread includes spray ink background, watercolor (wet on wet application), hand lettering using black walnut ink applied using a handmade cola pen, and various found papers
How about you? Do you have books that you like to work in? How do you like to work in them? And if you are looking for the next installment of my Printmaking Series…do not worry! It is coming up in my next post. I got excited working in my Artist Books and wanted to share!
