Monday, October 21, 2013

Travel Journal: Book 221

I am part of a book artist group called Art Books Cleveland.  Every year the group has two exhibitions during the month of October: our Abecedaria show usually at the Morgan Conservatory, and a second show at the Ingalls Library in the Cleveland Museum of Art.  This year the group decided to have a special show themed on Travel Journals.  A small group of us met every month to talk about our ideas, show progress, and work through problems.

After thinking about it for months and changing my idea a few times, I ended up making a book documenting one day of my trip to Scottsdale, Arizona in April.  The book is titled Arizona: April 2013, One Day in Scottsdale.  The cover features a map of the Scottsdale area, and every page is watercolor painting with pen and ink.

I tried a book structure I had never done before called a Drum Leaf Binding.  I discovered a great tutorial for drum leaf binding that was simple to understand, and had great step-by-step instructions (I highly recommend it for anyone interested in bookbinding, beginner or advanced.)

Using drum leaf allowed me to do the watercolor paintings flat, over the whole page instead of worrying about paint pooling in the crease.  It was great for the panorama views and looked very professional when finished.

I really enjoyed learning a new structure and having a reason create a book with content.  I will definitely be making more drum leaf books in the future.  I also want to make more art books and book with content.  (Maybe next year's challenge...?)

1 comment:

The Honest Badger said...

So cool. I wanna see it in person!