Let the editing begin

Finish Me! Art Journals - Editing

As you get to know your Finish Me Journal, there will hopefully be pages you love, and no doubt, pages with elements that you're not so keen on.  That's OK, part of the fun of this project is going to be responding to things which are natural favourites and especially those which present unlikely challenges!

I dont know about you, but if theres something I dont like, then it bugs me until I do something about it. Im not just talking sketchbooks here, the same applies to life in general! However, when it comes to sketchbooks, fixing things is easy. Ive often torn pages out of books or glued two pages together to lose or hide disasters. This time though, lets be a bit more positive in our resolution.

My tip today is to go through your book and find something you dont like and paint it out. Im using gesso, but you could use acrylic paint, even emulsion if thats what is to hand. A couple of thin coats and the offending whatever-it-was is gone for good.


So that stage is easy, but does come with a word of caution. Dont zap everything youre unsure of, or that you think might be difficult to work with. This can be an ongoing process!


You might choose to paint a page out entirely, but it can be more creative to leave some of the original. On this page, I voted to leave a margin of text close to the spine. This'll work not only as a visual reminder of the origin of the page, but also as a border to whatever is to come.


Many of the books have pages cut from vintage maps. This one is from a National Geographic atlas. The places on the map didn't have any relevance to me, so I've decided to use the format of the map to guide the editing. 


I've used the grid lines on the map to define a checkerboard (which I love) and painted alternate squares with gesso, this time keeping the gesso quite thinly painted so a ghost of the map still shows through. You could use the grid lines, or maybe your map has contour lines which would create a much more organic effect.

Happy painting!
Laura
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Comments

  1. A confession - I love my little book, but didn't like that some of the pages were upside down. They weren't wrong, just different!
    I'm afraid that I cut those pages very carefully slid them out and re-inserted them - which makes me just about as sad as you can get.

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    1. He he! I've been a bit playful with the orientation of some of the pages - watch this space for a tip relating to that aspect of the books!

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    2. You mean I may have to put the pages back upside down again?????

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  2. Oh boy! I've been waiting for the next challenge. I have to admit, I did do a few pages while waiting!

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  3. Can't wait to get my book - something fun to do indoors when it"s cold and snowy outside (February in Ontario - brrr).
    Are you planning any workshops for mid-summer? I'll be in the UK in July and would love to take a class with you.
    Thanks for all the inspiration!

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    1. Yes definitely! I'll be releasing some new workshop dates quite soon. Will you be here for the whole of July? If you want to email me with the dates that would suit you best, then hopefully we can work around them. laurakemshall@gmail.com

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