Altered Books/Visual Journals

Self Expression, A Year Long Project

Visual Journals.pptx

BIG IDEA:

• Self Expression

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

• How can you express yourself through your visual journal?
• How can you experiment with a range of materials in your visual journal?
• How can you balance text and imagery in your visual journal designs?

OBJECTIVES: Students will…

• Consider how to express themselves through their visual journal.
• Create pages that reflect their goals, daily life, and interests.
• Use a variety of art making techniques in their visual journal.

SUPPLIES: This project is created as a weekly assignment for an entire semester or yearlong course. Supplies will vary depending on the assignment. Below are supplies I typically use the duration of the project)

• Used, hardback book
• PowerPoint presentation
• Computer (to find images for inspiration)
• Pencils
• Scissors, Xacto knives
• Sharpies (a range of sizes and colors)
• Rubber cement
• Mod podge
• Packaging tape
• Duct tape
• Masking tape
• Bleeding tissue paper
• Colored pencils
• Watercolor pencils
• Watercolor
• Acrylic paint
• Printed pictures (personal and found online)
• Magazines
• Newspaper
• String, yarn, etc.
• Letter and number stamps
• Gesso
• Stencils
• Hole punchers, shape punchers
• Scrapbook paper, white paper, art paper
• Fabric
• Glitter
• Laser printer (for Mod Podge and tape image transfers)
• Dawn dish soap (for bubble prints)
• Shaving cream and food coloring (for marbled paper)
• Spray paint
• Charcoal, fixative
• India ink
• Any other two dimensional material that can be used the create images, collage, and write with

PRODUCT:

• A used, hardback book that has been transformed into a work of art

VOCABULARY:

• Visual Art: Art forms that focus on the creation works which are primarily visual in nature, such as drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, and printmaking, etc.
• Elements of Art: Those components that one combines with the principles of design to construct art:
• Line: A mark on a surface that describes a shape or outline. It can create texture and can be thick and thin. Types of line can include actual, implied, vertical, horizontal, diagonal and contour lines.
• Shape: A two-dimensional line with no form or thickness. Shapes are flat and can be grouped in two categories, geometric and organic.
• Form: A three-dimensional object having volume and thickness. It is the illusion of a 3-d effect that can be implied with the use of light and shading techniques. Form can be viewed from many angles.
• Space: The area around and in your design. You must create a sense of space in the design, in order to allow the viewer to “enter” your work of art. In space you need to achieve balance, emphasis, and unity.
• Texture: Surface quality either tactile or visual. Texture can be real or implied by different uses of media. It is the degree of roughness or smoothness in objects.
• Value: The degree of light and dark in a design. It is the contrast between black and white and all the tones in between. Value can be used with color as well as black and white. Contrast is the extreme changes between values.
• Color: Refers to specific hues and has three properties, chroma, intensity, and value. The color wheel is a way of showing the chromatic scale in a circle using all the colors made with the primary triad. Complimentary pairs can produce dull and neutral color. Black and white can be added to produce tints (add white), shades (add black), and tones (add gray).
• Principles of Design: The means an artist uses to organize elements within a work of art:
• Balance: A feeling of visual equality in shape, form, value, color, etc. Balance can by symmetrical or evenly balanced, or asymmetrical and un-evenly balanced. Objects, values, colors, textures, shapes, forms, etc. can be used in creating balance in a composition.
• Emphasis: An area that first attracts attention in a composition. This area is more important when compared to the other objects or elements in a composition. This can be by contrast of values, more colors, and placement in the format.
• Movement: A visual flow through the composition. It can be the suggestion of motion in a design as you move from object to object by way of placement and position. Directional movement can be created with a value or pattern. It is with the placement of dark and light areas that you can move your attention through the format.
• Proportion:
• Rhythm: Movement in which some elements recurs regularly. Like a dance it will have a flow of objects that will seem to be like the beat of music.
• Unity: Brings together a composition with similar units. If your composition was using wavy lines and organize shapes you would stay with those types of lines and not put in just one geometric shape. Unity helps the design to be seen as one design instead of randomness in all around your design.
• Variety: Creating interest in your work of art by introducing a range of color, texture, line, shape, etc. This will help create interest; however the design still needs to be balanced and achieve unity.

• Medium/Media: The materials and techniques used by an artist to produce a work.

• Mixed Media Art: Artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed.

• Altered Books: A form of mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original form into a different form, altering its meaning.
• Collage: An artistic composition of materials and objects pasted over a surface, often with unifying lines and color.

RESOURCES

• Cloth Paper Scissors: http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/
• Look Between the Lines: http://www.lookbetweenthelines.com
• Balzer Designs: http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/

IMPLEMENTATION:

DAY 1: First day of class

• In syllabus include information about the visual journal project
• Require students to bring in a used hardback book from home (remind them it will be destroyed, do not bring in a book you want to read again)
• On the first Friday of class, check the visual journals for a homework assignment. Introduce the project

DAY 2: First Friday of class

• Have students get out their visual journals and complete a homework check
• If you have an example of a visual journal, pass it around the room, allow students to look at the pages.
• Show the “Introduction to Visual Journals” PowerPoint
• Explain your expectations and how a typical visual journal Friday will run
  • In my classroom Fridays are considered “free art days.” I show a new material they can use in their visual journal, but they do not have to use it if they don’t want to. If they need to catch up on an art assignment, they can use Friday class time, however, they still have to make sure they complete 12 pages in their book by the end of the course.
  • Introduce the first material – bleeding tissue paper, or the materials of your choice.
  • For students who are overwhelmed with starting the project, encourage them to look through magazines, pull out images they like, and collage them. Another good starting place is using a quote or song lyric as inspiration for a page.

FRIDAYS: Free art/visual journal Friday

• Begin class by introducing a new material/technique they can use in their visual journal. Allow them to work freely in their visual journals or catch up on an art assignment. Typical material/techniques presentations cover…
  • Bleeding tissue paper
  • Collaging tips and techniques
  • Rubber cement resist with bleeding tissue paper or watercolor
  • Splattering paint
  • Mod Podge image transfer
  • Packaging tape image transfer
  • Bubble prints
  • Shaving cream marbled paper
  • Pressing textures into wet paint on paper
  • Watercolor techniques
  • Using stamps to enhance a page
  • Charcoal and fixative
  • Tips for incorporating text into your page (stamps, cursive, printed words, cut from magazines)
  • India ink
  • Watercolor pencils
  • Incorporating book pages into a collage
  • Layering gesso
  • Zentangle designs
  • Sharpie tips and techniques
  • Connecting multiple pages through cut outs
  • Using pressed flowers
  • Using found materials (new band aids, fabric, interesting 2D material)
  • Creating abstract imagery
  • Colored pencil resist with watercolor, India ink, or bleeding tissue paper