Together: Our Sketchbook Project

This is the first year I've done a book for The Sketchbook Project. Their mobile library came to Steamboat last summer and inspired me to give it a try. I wanted to pick a low-pressure theme. And I wanted to do something with my daughter, Tessa. So we did a collaboration.

She drew on each page with a pen. Then I tried to see an image in her scribble. She is still only 1 1/2, so they really are scribbles. This was a good workout for my brain! I turned her drawings into something using pencil. Once all of the pages were drawn, I went through and added a little color with watercolor.

Doing this book was really fun for me and a good outlet for some random silliness. I definitely want to do more collaborations with Tessa. And I think I may do the Sketchbook Project again also!

Rosie's Final Art

I wanted to share how I did this final step on two spreads for Rosie sings. First of all, I thought I had transparent extender for the new white and blue Gamblin oil-based ink that I  bought. But no, I have tack reducer, which is not the same thing at all! I tried some and the brayer just slipped around on the ink and would barely roll. So I'll be getting some transparent extender for the future so the ink won't be so opaque on layers like this.

I cut a mask out of newsprint to cover everything but the background. 

And then I (nervously) went to town with the star brayer. I had done a test with darker blue and it was overwhelming, so on this one I went lighter and used much less ink.

Here it is- messy edges and everything!

And here's the same process with the cover image.

Ta-da! I was pleased with how they turned out. Rosie is singing a happy song!

A Bit of Background on The Party Guests

All of the Party Guests in my last post are on their way to their new homes! Thanks everyone who commented.

I was talking to one recipient about how I originally drew those critters to be part of a mix and match book, called an exquisite corpse book. So they all line up at the neck and hips like this book The Monsterator by Keith Graves. But I was thinking of making a small edition of hand made books, and the project just became too big. I decided to make them as straightforward prints. It's kind of sad that we don't get to mix and match their parts though. So here they are normal on the top row and a little scrambled on the bottom just for fun.

Blog Anniversary

I've had this blog 5 years! Yay! It's been fun and I enjoy having a place to show work in progress as well as other people's artwork and books that I love.

To celebrate, I'm having a little birthday giveaway. I made these solar plate etchings many years ago and the series is called The Party Guests. Thank you for being party guests here at Art on the Page! To win one, just be one of the first 6 people to comment below and say which print you'd like. Then please email me jill@jillbergman.com with your address. Happy happy!

Elmore

Bradley

Francis

Henrietta

Antonio

Pamela

More Rosie Progress

I'm working on these three spreads at the same time- I think it helps different pages look more cohesive. They are coming along well so far!

I'm feeling my way along here, trying some new and experimental things. From the previous painting of Rosie that I did like this, I know that layers of gouache on top of stamp pad ink will mask the stamps, but not completely hide them. So I stamped these squares knowing that they would mostly be hidden.

This is what I used for the stamps. I like this ColorBox ink best. The colors are rich, the stamp picks the color up easily, and they are archival. To block out the parts of the drawing that I didn't want colored, I lay a scrap of paper over that bit and stamped right over it. I let it be messy and imprecise- a good thing for me to practice. 

Then I painted the first layer of the backgrounds. 

Here is my cover painting almost done. Remember those carved brayers I was talking about? I want to be brave and roll a transparent white polka-dot brayer right over the background wall. Wooohooo! I have to do some practices first and make sure it will work!

Rosie's Progress

I've finished the drawings for a new revision of my picture book dummy, Rosie Sings. I'm excited to paint a few spreads and submit it! Doing the final artwork is my favorite part It seems like it takes about a minute to do after the looooooooong struggle of writing, drawing, rewriting, redrawing, and revising forever.

First I scanned my drawings, isolated the line art and placed it over a music collage that I'd already made and scanned into the computer. I printed that out onto my favorite paper, BFK Rives using my Epson printer.

This is what it looked like printed out on the BFK Rives.

Then I went over all of the lines with a fat black pencil. Next I'll add some hand made stamps and watercolor.

I wanted to try something different in a few spots in the book. So I carved stars into this hard rubber brayer. It's really difficult to do! The rubber doesn't cut as well as linoleum and carving on a round surface is tricky. But the stars are simple and I got it done. Now I can roll the brayer in transparent ink and roll that over my painted paper. I'm hoping I can get it so some of the background shows through. It will take some experimenting! Id like to use this star background  behind the scene with Mama holding and singing to Rosie.  I'll share the next stages of development soon!