I have always been fascinated by journals made from old books....the way the text and pictures peek through the artist's work. So you can imagine how excited I was when at a Library sale I found a 7" x 10" old forgotten ART book. Just the right size for journaling. Not too small and not too big. Just right!!! The book is titled "History of Art for Young People." It has a beautiful sturdy cover that I will eventually embellish with fabric, lace and some of my art creations.... that I will somehow transfer to fabric. I haven't decided yet what transfer method I will use.
The first thing that I did to prepare the book for journaling was to remove all the colored artist's plates and then some of the text pages in order to make the book thinner. This is necessary so the book will not be too thick after the pasted papers and embellishments are added. Next, I lightly gessoed the remaining pages.......being careful not to cover up too much text.
I think the next "old book" journal that I make, I might try to leave some of the pages without gesso and use alcohol markers on them. The pages in my book are a very good quality semi-gloss paper and the markers bleed through very little. If the bleed through becomes a problem I will either gesso the backside of the page or glue two pages together.
Now, I am ready to paint my pages!! I probably will reserve this journal for the pasted handmade papers that I made last year in Deborah Cooper's class at 21 Secrets....maybe some ephemera and magazine cutouts that I have been saving just for this purpose. I don't think that I will use any drippy paint techniques because I am not sure how the pages will take the wet solutions....but who knows? Isn't visual journaling, after all, about being brave and experimenting? We'll see where this goes!
This is a peek at the first page in progress. I might add to it later. This page was done with a somewhat dry brush using Koi watercolors. The lettering was done with a Pitt pen.
Let me know if you made this type of journal before and any highlights of the experience that you would like to share.
Until next time,
Ginny
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