Wrapped Up In a Book

Okay. So. New mock up pages. Now my task is to a) do several large page versions and b)get some of those printmaking collages done. This would all be a good deal easier if the printmaking lab was open more than three days a week for four hours at a time, but there you have it. I was also disappointed today because I was going to get some stuff cut at the laser cutter today only to find that it didn't start up until noon and I had class at one and it takes a bloody half an hour to set the thing up anyway so chances are I would have been late or whatever. I dunno. I've not skipped that class yet, so maybe I'll skip it on Wednesday and just get all the laser cutting done in one go and get loads of prints done on Wednesday.

When I was thinking about imagery for my book, I had to take many things into consideration. There was the easy route of just literally illustrating what I had written, but given the flow and fluidity of the text, this seemed like a very bad idea. It wouldn't go at all. Rather, I've decided to create an atmosphere. The atmosphere consists of a loosely painted background, perhaps a landscape or a surface of some sort. Then, within this loose painting there is a moment of clarity. An object which stands out amongst the washes of color in hard edges and crisp lines and declares its specificity. I chose objects that stood out in the text for me and were important to me. Granted, not all of the text follows this philosophy. I decided that when the main character, Verity, is indoors, she wouldn't be in those vast washes of color any longer. Rather, inside everything would feel much more concrete and she would be so close to it that the objects that were one clear and far away were now right up into her face to the point where they almost become abstract. Often they do become abstract. Pages 9-10 are an example of this. Anyhoo, here are the pages that I am satisfied with and can see going on to become large. There were loads that did not pass muster, but I think so far I have 12 out of 24 pages figured out. I'm halfway there, so it's not all bad.



pages 1-2



pages 3-4



pages 5-6



pages 9-10



pages 11-12



pages 21-22



Horrid, horrid bubbly book case. I guess at least you can see my color scheme and the lining paper I'm planning on using, though. This is all only 8"x10", too. It's really freaky to keep reminding myself that it's eventually going to be 22"x30". Ridiculous.


Basically at the midterm critique was that they had trouble translating everything into something with a final form, so they wanted me to make some big pages so they can see how I envision the final product. I'm getting started on that next. I can't believe there is only four weeks left in the semester. Insanity. So much to do. Ugh.

listening to: Sufjan Sufjan Sufjan