Yesterday I finally finished my Urban Graffiti altered book for a swap on my Yahoo group. It's long overdue and has been a difficult project for me to complete. The idea for the swap was mine and was inspired by street art and stencil graffiti artists et al but not long after the swap was set up I began to feel totally blocked about it. ;o( I extended the deadline twice and still my Muse stayed on strike but inspiration finally struck in November and I was on the point of organising a trip out to photograph graffiti when I landed myself in plaster! However, my photographer friend, Rob, came to the rescue with some graffiti shots that he'd taken and I was off and away at last!
The book I chose is quite large - about 11" by 18" - and I removed alot of pages before I started on the six planned spreads. The idea for the book was to make the spreads look like the walls in the photos with the photos stuck on them if that makes sense! I tried to choose different parts of the photos to depict and I also used different media to get different effects on the pages. These included gesso (white and black), acrylic paint, watercolour paint, crayon, oil pastel, pencil, coloured pencil and marker pen. I wanted a layered look so that sections of different spreads showed whichever spread the book was opened at.
So, here we go with some pics of the finished book!
I used aluminium tape for the cover and used black Staz-On ink to grunge it up a bit! The stencilled title is done with a black Sharpie pen. I really like the look of the tape background and might experiment with the technique some more. I couldn't get the Staz-On to dry though and ended up spraying the cover with acrylic varnish.
First spread.
Second spread.
Third spread.
Fourth spread.
Fifth spread.
Sixth spread.
Close up of the end of the last spread.
Just a couple of shots looking at the whole book from different angles.
8 comments:
Brilliant work. That cover is certainly inspired!!! Am impressed with all of it :>
I was so looking forward to seeing this and the wait was certainly worth while! The spreads are fabulous and flow really well - I love the way one seems to seep into the next.
Great stuff Maz - lucky recipient!
xxx
it looks great Maz, I love the red white and black colours. Kathryn
What a great book, Maz, it's very different to the others I've seen on the net lately, love the follow on from one page to another and the over sized letters, worked really well!
Wow 200 posts that's great.
I love the book. Love they way you have made it and the colours you have used - great work.
The idea is amazing. I think you excecuted it perfectly. From the picture placed amongst the graffiti, to the torn out pages. The cover is awesome...can't say enough about this book. Truly inspiring.
Karla
p.s. are there other players that displayed thier work?
Thanks everyone for your great comments. :o) Karla, you can see the fab book I received on Kathryn's blog here: http://thisdisorderedlife.blogspot.com/2008/01/today.html and here: http://thisdisorderedlife.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-graffiti-book.html. I love her work and her blog alwasy has great art to look at! ;o)
Maz
Congratulations on your 200th post. What a beautiful gift.
Thankyou for your kind comments on my blog.
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