I have never been an artist. In fact my art teacher at school actively encouraged me NOT to carry on. I can only remember failures and struggles and hatred.
So it’s ironic that I have landed here 4 decades later – I’m not entirely sure how that actually happened!
Anyhow I loved the idea I found online called altered book art – or a smash journal.
Basically I went looking for an old old book, the sort that had a fabric / hard cover and stitched binding.
I covered the book – old style like we used to at school, and stuck every 2 pages together. Then off I went.
It has actually been pretty amazing so far, I’m absolutely loving it! The fact that I’m doing art over a page of text rather than staring at a blank page is really REALLY working well for me.
This book actually started its life as a book about an expedition of people who went to the Peruvian mountains to look for mice. 🤣
I have experimented as follows so far
- Using watercolour felt tips (so far my fave). The best way I have found in this book is by premixing the colours with water then using a water brush. Applying water over the colour once it’s on the page didn’t really work, with the books pages being a very rough surfaced absorbent type of paper. The colour dries in too fast.
- Watercolour pencils. (Due to the paper type, again applying water after the colour is on the page doesn’t really work so well.
- Blackout poetry (Google it, it’s so much fun!)
Take a look and let me know what you think. For a complete non artist, I’m quite pleased with myself so far!
My art based on ideas found online
All the above have been taken from ideas found online. I was finding my feet, developing some idea of how to use each medium and working out for myself how and what I wanted to do here.
Below are pages of ideas completely out of my own head.
1.
This is my first go at blackout poetry, basically I skim over the text, pick some words out (without reading the page or knowing what the text is about). then I drew a picture behind the highlighted words to illustrate it.
2.
This is watercolour felt pens. It represents a coffee with a friend that I met up with last week. My first attempt at shading, pretty happy with that coffee cup (except the crappy handle hahaha)
3.
This is another blackout poetry, I actually painted the picture first – to represent my overloaded brain. I then looked in the text for some words I could use to give the picture text based meaning. I love how it’s turned out. This is a mix of watercolour felts and fine liner pen
4.
Speaks for itself. Loved this quote I found online so decided to illustrate it. Water colour felt pens.
5.
This is my visual illustration of the struggle I sometimes have with my autistic brain. Up there just out of reach, all my thoughts are spinning around in a washing machine and I can’t quite grasp any one of them to deal with them. This illustration worked amazingly well in explaining this struggle I have to my husband. again, watercolour felt pens.
6.
Another version of blackout poetry. The illustration is more doodle style this time, using a fine liner
7.
This illustration is in watercolour by pencils, with no water added. As you can see the soft / rough surface and high absorbency makes for a completely different style finish in this book for pencils.
My autistic brain is loving this. Not dominated by words, but by pictures, it’s absolutely perfect for ASD.
Love to hear your thoughts specially if you have ever tried recycling old books in this way. 😊
