A new concertina

This week with the Free Up Your Sketchbook course we are reviewing, researching and preparing.  So I reviewed my sketchbook and there are bits I like but it's all too dark.  Karen did an interview with Debbie Mackinnon where Debbie showed the small concertina books that she makes.

Which gave me an idea!

I suspect Debbie starts with an A1 sheet of paper.  The largest I have is A2 so that's what I used.  Rather than making the book first, I started by putting pieces of masking tape on the paper, drawing lines with a grey Stabilo crayon and then scraping gesso on.  It was all very random.

When the gesso had dried I added very watered down turquoise and copper acrylic inks.

And when that was dry I added bits of collage using Gel medium as the glue.

Then I folded the paper and cut it. You can watch this video if you want to make one yourself.  I folded up the paper which makes a concertina book that is A6 size or opened out to A5 as in these photos.

Some of these double pages are lovely already.  However I will still add more layers to all of them.

Doing the mark making before the folding has meant that I have much more random layouts.  I would probably have put more effort into thinking about placement if I'd made the book first.

AND I am back in my comfort zone with the limited palette.

I'll continue to photograph my journey in this sketchbook.  Watch this space!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

So where was I?

Oh that's right.  I was working on Free Up Your Sketchbook with Karen Stamper in between making collages.

Although there was some collaging onto the pages.  Plus mark making with pens and pencils and Artgraf.

And in week 2 we added acrylic paint.  Only black, white and payne's grey.

This week, week 3, we had to choose one colour and collage bits of paper in that colour.

 

 

And then paint over with shades of orange plus some black and grey.

I liked being back with colour.  I deliberately chose orange as a change from turquoise.  Although you all know turquoise and orange are my go-to colours.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Free Up Your Sketchbook

It took me a while to decide whether or not to sign up for Karen Stamper's Free Up Your Sketchbook and Grow.  I have done classes with her before both online and in-person.  You might have see my Venice book or the start of a canal one.  I don't think I ever blogged about the finished book.

So I wasn't sure whether Free Up Your Sketchbook was relevant three or four years on.  I've done so much more textile work in the meantime and I wondered how this course could help me. But in the end I decided to go with it.

Here are my week 1 pages using pencil, inks, gesso and other media.

The idea is to work back into these pages as the course continues over the next 5 weeks.  I'll keep you updated.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice