Thursday 1 January 2009

artists books


I fell for this leather bound sketchbook with hand made paper inside, and scruffy deckle edges - it just looked so appealing - I was hunting for Christmas presents for others at the time but who could resist it? :>D

I love it and rather than use it as a sketchbook I plan to make it an artists book - with finished pieces rather than a my normal sketchbook mix of anything and everything. It's 7x5 inches and I found it on ebay uk if anyone fancies one.

That little leather thong winds round and effortlessly catches against the stitching, holding the book closed and protecting the pages with that wrap around flap :>)


The first page in a book is always slightly daunting and I decided to experment with a lino I'd cut.

I hadn't got the proper inks handy to try it out. I suspect they will be dried out anyway, it's so long since I used them.

So, I painted some luscious pearlescent lavender acrylic ink over the lino printing block and printed quickly - it was fairly successful. The larger areas didn't have a consistent coverage but it printed quite a lot of it.

I then worked on it with pastel pencils, biro and gel pens.

The lino was stylised and quite graphic - you can see it on my blog here. Working into it created something different. I love that pearlescent acrylic ink - one of my Christmas presents :>)

This is going to be an ongoing project, adding small paintings to it regularly on a water theme.

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UPDATE: As a result of the comments on this post, I've now created two posts on my blog which are about lino printing and how this lino print was produced.

8 comments:

Nothing to See said...

An Artists Book is a wonderful idea.

I keep one book for stuff like that and several sketchbooks for "doodles" and sketchy sketches and boredom relievers. However, I have not touched my artist book in years and you reminded me that I have this. Mind you, mine is not as nice as yours. Mine is just a store bought factory made one.

Making A Mark said...

Nice to see you doing a book for yourself Vivien.

Can we call it your Watermarks book?

Jeanette Jobson said...

What a delicious book! It seems these lovely things entice us to draw and paint our best, don't they?

Your print inspires me to try my hand at this too in the future.

Casey Klahn said...

Lovely waterfront image, Vivien. The composition works into the format very, very well.

vivien said...

Thanks Ana - most of my sketchbooks are perfectly ordinary - but I couldn't resist this one!

Definitely my watermarks book Katherine :>D

It would be great if you have a go Jeanette - Katherine says she feels like doing some linoprinting and Lindsay is already doing some.

Thanks Casey :>)

Africantapestry and Myfrenchkitchen said...

What a beautifuil book vivien! Just fitting for some beautiful poetic strokes, like this painting. I would love to see a close up of a corner perhaps?
Ronell

annie said...

Oh, delicious book... Poetic, artists evocative book... I second Ronell--could we see a corner perhaps?
annie3

Gesa said...

Hm, yummy. I do like the linoprint start in the book... and while I'm generally a bit hesitant about the use of pearlescent colour I am intrigued how you make it integrate. I need to start my linocut assignment for the OCA now, and am curious how I can develop straight off prints into mixed media pieces.