New Art Journal

I recently completed my first art journal. It was a fun learning experience, and since I was prepping a bunch of books for an upcoming event, during which the students can make art journals if they wish to, I saved one for myself. I wouldn't usually recommend a picture book for this kind of art project because when so many of the pages are illustrated, it's a shame to tear them out or cover them up. In fact, with all the other books I've been prepping, I tore out and saved many of the illustrations to use in future projects. Not because they aren't nice to look at, just because the intention of this project if to make your own art, not just look at another artists's work.

Anyways, I saved this particular book for myself because it was over-sized, and I decided I'd like bigger pages to work with, and also because I fell in love with the beautiful winter scene on the end pages.

Additionally, there are some beautiful doublespread illustrations inside, and I did keep a couple of those. I thought they'd be fun to alter: adding in dialogue bubbles or drawing in my own characters. 

I added some pages inside that were from an old calendar. I thought this beautiful scene was reminiscent of Spring, which provides a nice contrast to the endpages.

I also added a couple pages from a withdrawn atlas. I chose three state maps to represent the three states I've lived in.

And of course I included one page of tie dye.

I love making these art journals from discarded books. If the book was especially well-loved, then I like to keep the library markings inside, kind of like a badge of honor.

Another reason I chose this book is because it's a retelling of one of my favorite stories, which is usually told in the form of a ballet production. So you can probably guess what story it is now- a ballet story that takes place in the winter time, and here's a snippet of the text to help you out some more.  .  .

But do you know who the famous illustrator is behind this book? Not to fret, there's a big clue in this double-spread illustration:

I'll have to think of something really fun to do on that page.  .  .