A couple fall remnants

While packing up my room I encountered a lot of my fall semester work. Some of it made me a little embarrassed but I found several things that I can still feel good about. Below is a random gouache figure painting on top of some transfers of a vintage sears catalog and the interior of my final for artist's books. Boop! (as always, theyre better quality when full-viewed)

Forest/Home

Another work from my artist's book class. This was an altered book assignment, and this 1970s  gem on evergreens called to me from the Savers rack. The book is about remembering childhood play in my woodsy back yard, and the scents and colors and textures associated with these memories. Inside is a removable door which reveals a rosebud on a robin's egg, which is a callback to several very specific memories of building "nests" from twigs and flowers and placing them in a tree next to some rose bushes, in hopes that they would be occupied by a grateful bird in the future.

Diner Lift-the-Flap Book

Hey! Watch out! There's nudity & tiny cartoon genitals in this one!

Now that's out of the way...This book was made for my Artist's Book class in response to an assignment to do something involving a diner and secret or hidden elements to interact with such as flaps or sliding panels. Each of the four pages shows a "normal" set of people going about their business at the diner. But, what's this? A flap to lift? Below the table, they're all nude and every table has something hidden or unexpected.

"You're Making Me Feel Bad"

This week went really well for me work-wise. I don't know if I'd call it a breakthrough, but I was just unusually happy with everything I made. On the other hand, I had to sacrifice all activities besides sleeping, eating, and working to get everything done. The only time I wasted went to a couple hours at the grocery store and savers. Anyway, I made this artists's book for my advanced drawing class.

It's a little hard to explain, but it makes way more sense if you get the process so bear with me. The assignment was to do a "collaborative drawing", but since I hate collaborative projects at school, I decided to do something that minimized the amount of collaboration. I got about 20 or 30 of my friends to make me a small drawing of something that made them feel "anxious, nervous, sad, or generally bad." Once I collected all the drawings, I was struck by how petty our troubles were: getting too hot in a sweater, feeling uncomfortable when looking at the homeless, having "itchy pubes", etc. So I stained the paper and proceeded to paint on top portraits of people with real, desperate problems, like natural disasters, extreme poverty, or war. This was a weird experience for me, because I felt like I was exploiting these people by using their situations to make my own project. So between the original drawings, the contrast with the painted portraits, and the feeling of exploitation, the whole project made me feel...well...bad. The book is an encapsulation of feeling bad and the shades of meaning within the statement "I feel bad".

Now that block of text is over, here's some photos and scans of the pages.

Halloween Diorama

I don't really enjoy making cute things. Although I love me some kitsch now and then and I enjoy doodling weird monsters, drawing happy children is not my strong point. Despite this handicap, I pushed through on my "halloween diorama" artist's book assignment. I actually drew this out in pen and ink, intending to color by hand, but was told in class to try it with photoshop (and I'm glad I did). The only annoyances were having to pay a print shop to print out several copies for me and having to cut all the tiny little edges on the trees and kids a second time.

I can't get over how much I like doing the covers for these books. Something about thick, soft paper wrapped around a solid rectangle is really satisfying for some reason.

If only that horse costume was real

Disregard the ghost behind the book

Nothing on the cover for now

Furry Artist's Book for Fall

Real fur!
Real paper!
Real gouache!
Real ink!
Real words!
Real comfort!
Really tiny!