How I Spent My Summer Vacation, Or, It's November Already?

Still working in books, on books, and making books.  This book (above) is volume one of a set of old encyclopedias I'm turning into visual journals.  It's large!  Quite a few pages have been worked, but most are too personal.  This one is safe to show.  

I'm a contrast junkie:  Lights and darks, orange and blue, Greek and English, dark subjects with whimsy, etc.  I'm trying to use things I don't always use, or don't always use together, and throw them into a tasty, mixed-media stew.  So there's glitter here, and marker, acrylics, india ink, commercial paper, and tape, among other things.  It's too big to take along, so there's a smaller book that goes with me on the road.

This book is 5-5/8" X 6-3/4" closed, and it fits nicely in my bag.  I've been smitten with orange lately, and can't get enough of it from pale peach to bright red-orange.  And also with my rapidograph, which is nicely portable, too.  And with large, chunky areas of black.  The pages for this book are prepped in studio and I do the pen work while I'm out.  These pages range from a sort of block print look (like the page above), to graphic novel style, to inked etchings which look more like they've been stamped than drawn.  

I got a lot done during this extended blogging break.  Now that I've broken the ice, I'll share more of what I've been up to in a day or two.  

Comments

[Joanne Thieme Huffman]

Very nice pages.

[Barbara Rossman]

Barbara, the book pages are simply awesome. Good to see you posting on your blog, I'll keep up with it. I need to do the same thing. Thanks for sharing your beautiful artwork.

[Rosie]

About time!! Just kidding... I know how hard you work with family commitments, etc. I LOVE that we are so similar in so many ways - soul sisters indeed!
Your books are gorgeous and your style is unmissable. I have heard that orange is the colour of creativity so it comes as no surprise to me that it figures a lot in your art.
Hugs
Rosie xoxoxo

[Nancy B]

They both look great! I especially like the first one.

[milkcan]

Awesome pages! I'm so glad that you're going to be a part of Art Journal Every Day!