Diana Trout's blog

Book Reviews: My Three Favorite Bookbinding Books

Some of my favorite things are books. I regard some as old friends and visit often. In this year of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, I'm going through my bookshelves with an eye to weeding. These three books emerged as my favorite for very good reason. Check out the video below for more information.

Tops on book list is Shereen LaPlantz Cover to Cover. I know a lot of you folks feel the same way. I read it as a bookbinding virgin and clearly remember the wonder I felt while reading through the pages and examining the book models. It's not going to go out of style. There are prettier books but this remains by far the best in terms of variety of structures and detail in explanation. IMHO, natch.

You won't find any book on bookbinding to be clear at first read through. It takes time and sitting with a threaded needle and folded signatures. It's worth the trouble.Esther K Smith's book is a visual treat. There are solid forms in here along with clear (as can be) instruction. Great ideas and a wonderful graphic appeal.

What you have to understand about bookbinding is that the stitching can be complex. Read carefully and examine the illustrations while you read.

At Home with Handmade Books is a delight. Full of whimsy and some very easy forms. This may be for you if you'd like to stay in the easy books realm although there are some challenges here as well. 

If you want to go pro in your bookbinding endeavors there is no one better than Keith Smith's books. In particular, go for the 3 volume set of non-adhesive bindings. There are stitch patterns in here that will keep you busy for a lifetime. But this is complex stuff. I don't say that to scare you off but instead to let you know that this isn't craft-level bookbinding.

If you'd like some inspiration, The Penland Book is amazing. Full of ideas and beautiful books. Thoughtful writing and information. I love this book. 

Just to fill things out, I love Shereen LaPlantz The Art and Craft of Handmade Books. It's just lovely. She was ultimately unhappy with it because there were some pretty hefty errors in the instructions. She went ahead and self-published a hefty revision. I can't find it online at the moment but I'll let you know if I do.

There are more books in my collection and I'll share as I weed. Something tells me though that none of my binding books are going anywhere. I love em. Here is today's video. 

If you watch on YouTube, please subscribe, like and share. That helps me loads.

Watch on YouTube

Here are some of my bookbinding classes that you may enjoy. 

See my previous post and YouTube video on My Favorite Art Supplies: Bookbinding here. 

See my Bookbinding Classes: 

 Tacket Stitch: http://dianatrout.typepad.com/blog/2013/10/tacket-stitch-bookbinding-online.html

Longstitch 2 Ways http://dianatrout.typepad.com/blog/2012/10/longstitch-2-ways-opens-1122012.html

Rescue Book Journals http://dianatrout.typepad.com/blog/2011/10/rescue-book-journals-online-class.html

I've added a couple of other favorite books to this list: the book on Japanese binding and Alisa Golden's Handmade Books. Golden's book is stuffed but a bit dense and difficult to read. The other is wonderful but a bit academic. These are both very good books on binding. Remember that these are affiliate links and I make a small amount of money when you use them at no cost to you. That helps my small business so Thank You! 

Don't forget to help my small business by sharing this post with your friends on social media!  

Book Reviews: Print, Stamp and Paper Stencils

I love a good book, don't you? Here is another batch of books  scroll down for video - none are new but all have passed my stringent test for permanent shelf space. They've held up over time and passing fads. 

I love Traci Bunker's Print and Stamp Lab. It's so accessible that I've done it with kids and teen classes at the library where creative budgeting is the name of the game. (All of these books are linked below the video.) You can get started making stamps as soon as you buy the book with items you already have in the house. Here's an in-process journal page. I'm using gasket printed tissue paper from blog follower and friend, Jenny Pesavento. I love that tissue paper disappears when you glue it down.(Thanks Jenny :)

Print Workshop by Christine Schmidt is a great source of basic hand printing techniques. Silkscreen, stencil printing, potato printing, cyanotypes and more. It's a great project based orientation to printmaking. Solid. And I love that she demos how to make your own stamp pads. Worth the price of admission right there. 

This next book, The Art of Decorative Paper Stencils is only loosely connected. It's not about cutting stencils. Do you remember folding paper and cutting snowflakes when you were a kid? That's what this is about. (The price as of 2/10/17 is $.01 ).

You can use freezer paper to cut these out and then use them as stencils. They don't last very long but that's ok. It's really a fun and relaxing project-based book. This is definitely the kind of thing that's good when you aren't feeling your most creative but still need to use your hands.

Finally, I'm introducing the book Notan because I'll be doing a video the dark/light concept of composition soon. It's a fantastic book for designers and artists and I have a couple of fun projects that go with the book.

Affiliate Links to Amazon (I get a % of sale. No cost to you).

Print and Stamp Lab; Traci Bunkers http://amzn.to/2lvvLB7
Print Workshop, Christine Schmidt http://amzn.to/2lvE5Rp
Notan, Dorr Bothwell http://amzn.to/2loL69A
The Art of Decorative Paper Stencils, Yaguchi Kamako http://amzn.to/2loTNRt

Watercolor Books Reviewed

 A couple of new to me books are No Excuses Watercolor and No Excuses Art Journaling, by Gina Rossi Armfield. I requested review copies of these books after students recommended them. They are both enjoy very well done! I love Gina's style and her quirky expressive animal paintings. The materials and techniques are solid and take you from basics through more complex ways to make those paint work for you. 

 

No Excuses Art Journaling is a fusion of Planner Girl and Mixed Media Journal Artist. This could be a great way to work for you especially if you are new to art journaling. There are a lot of prompts and "tasks" in the book that will help to keep you on track. Find color inspiration, writing sparks and different takes on these ideas from other artists such as Jenny Doh and Traci Lyn Huskamp. I have to admit that this book confuses me a little bit. I don't quite "get" it. But you may. 

 

Alisa Golden's Painted Paper has been a staple in my studio for several years now. This is one of the books that I turn to if I'm scratching my head. I can leaf through for instant visuals that will light my fire or read about a technique. For bookbinders, there is the added bonus of Alisa's delicate, elegant bindings. (Note: This book looks to be going out of print. It's available for cheap now.)

 

Another long time favorite is Heather Jones's Water Paper Paint. This is a book I've turned to many times just to play with ideas. I love her color and pattern sense. Straight forward lots of examples, this is another book that you can leaf through and land anywhere for inspiration.

 

To sum these four books up, I'd say that they are all joyful books. The authors share generously and the photography is great. Every page is full of these talented artists' beautiful work.

Enjoy!  Below is an Amazon Affiliate Native Shopping Ad. I make a percentage from any linked Amazon product on this page at no cost to you! Thanks for shopping with me.

 

 

Arty Books Reviewed

Did you hear the bell? Schools in session, gang and I'm sharing some of my favs, new and not-so-much. 

20 Ways to Draw a Tree, Eloise Renouf, is a lovely primer that introduces illustrations of trees, flowers, insects and other nature-y things. If you like 20 Ways to Draw a Tulip by Lisa Congdon. Fun books with easy to copy drawings. Listen: if you start drawing here, you begin to develop your muscle memory and improve your drawing skills. If you want to.

I've been enjoying the Flow Sketchbook too. It's fun drawings and illustrations, with plenty of ways to stretch your imagination. Create Your Own Collage by Lisa Lees, is kind of a blast. I took it to the beach with the family and we all had a bit of fun with it. It's playful and filled with whimsy. It got my brain moving too.

Another book, Embossing Powder Techniques from A to Z by Fran Seiford was a recommendation from Lindsay Wagner of The Frugal Crafter. It's a great little resource and covers just about every embossing technique on many different types of surfaces. 

Making Art from Maps is Jill Berry's latest book and it's a beauty. I have a piece in it (v. excited)

Let me know in the comments if you want a tutorial on how I made the bracelet. The cover is a real stunner!

Here's the video with peeks inside. The affiliate links below are all for Amazon. (I get a share of that sale at no cost to you.) Enjoy!

 

20 Ways to Draw a Tulip	20 Ways to Draw a Tree	Create Your Own Collage	Creative Lettering and Beyond	Creative Lettering
Craft-A-Doodle	Flow Sketchbook 2016	Embossing Powder Techniques	Making Maps from Books

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Learn to Print: Four Books to Create Personal Imagery

March is National Craft Month and I have some fun crafts to explore with you. Printmaking and Stamp Carving are both arts and craft. I've chosen four of my favorite books to share with you. (I wanted to also share Traci Bunkers book, Print and Stamp Lab, but it is MIA. I'll review it separately. *Scroll down for video*

Carve, Stamp Play by Julie Fei Fan Balzer is my go to stamp carving book. It's loaded with inspiration that has a broad appeal and Julie's instruction is clear and concise. That, paired with excellent photography makes this an excellent resource.  I have another video coming soon with more information on Julie's book

Geninne D. Zlatkis' Making an Impression is a visual feast for the stamp carving enthusiast. The information is clear and the photography is very inspiring. It has less technical information than Julie's and more applications and project ideas. 

On to printmaking. 

Print Workshop by Christine Schmidt is a fresh take on standard printmaking techniques such as relief printing, stenciling, veggie printing and water slide decals. All of these (and more) techniques are applied to projects perfect for DIY'ers. 

Printmaking Unleashed by Traci Bautista is a wild ride with some very original ways to print: clay stamps, subtractive printmaking, acrylic skins. So much fun and so many things from around the house. 

Here is my video review. Next week, I'll go into more detail with Julie's books and general supplies for stamp carving. Have a great weekend! 

Book Review: Water Paper Paint

 It's time for a book review! 

 I've had this book for a few years and it's a great source of reference and inspiration. The author thoroughly covers paints (including making your own), brushes, papers and very valuable information such as stretching your paper.

 

There are the expected sections on wet-in-wet, setting up still life and using the white of the paper and very light washes. Very expected, solid information is presented in a fresh manner. Heather is a modern artist with a fresh look to her work so there are  lovely alternative, mixed media techniques.

 

I love this idea above. What a great inspiration for your art journal. In fact, there is a ton of great inspiration for journaling and othr paperr crafts. This

 All in all, I highly recommend this book. Have a closer look over at Amazon. I'll throw in my Watercolor Basics supply list here. Maybe you'll take the plunge.

Use what you have. The following are affiliate links. I get a percentage of the sale at no cost to you. Thanks for helping support my channel/blog this way.

Folding Watercolor Palette	Princeton Snap! Brushes	Escoda Versatil Brushes (#22)	Prang Watercolor Set	QoR Modern Watercolors from Golden
Strathmore 400 Series Watercolor Paper Pad	Stillman & Birn Sketchbook	Canson XL Mixed Media Sketchbook	Tim Holtz DISTRESS WATERCOLOR CARDSTOCK Ranger Ink TDA39549	Niji Waterbrush
Yupo Synthetic Paper

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Book Review; Freehand, Sketching Tips and Tricks

I've been meaning to share this book with y'all for ages now. It's so darned inspiring! Even if you don't draw.  What I like so much is that each picture is accompanied by an explanation of  what the artist did.

So, for instance, the pic below illustrates Collage and Scale by Lisa Naylor. Right there, bam, you have an idea to try out. Cut up some big faces or bodies (or a big picture of a shoe) and then draw some things around it smaller. So to continue with the shoe example, I'd draw tiny people sliding down the shoe and with ladders climbing up the shoe. Or maybe, you could put another collage piece of a planet inside the shoe. I like to play with scale.

This next picture is digital manipulation by Marina Molares. That is something that interests me not at all. However! I do love those waves and the dot pattern in the background. It's also pretty interesting to have that figure in the foreground. I just really want to draw those waves, so I have a sticky note on this page.

Now the next pic is Unexpected Color. Again, this isn't an idea I would have thought up on my own. But it would be really fun to play with in your art journal. Make everything black and white, except for - what? - Your call. The neat thing about this is that artist, Nikki Painter, has spread the color throughout the page so that your eyes don't get stuck looking at one isolated shot of color. 

This is one of the books I reach for most often when I'm just wanting something to look at or think about or get inspired by. It always does the trick. I had such a hard time deciding which pictures to use for this post that I just opened the book randomly! 

Go have a closer look.  One Amazon reviewer put it very well: "Little book, big ideas."

Mixed Media Portraits; Pam Carriker

Good Book Report :). Oh finally! An accessible book on creating realistic portrait. Pam's book is a great brush up for me with most of the classic techniques I learned in my academic art school. I know that I'll refer to it often. It's much more engaging than my other portrait/figure books and brings these techniques successfully into the mixed media world.

These techniques for looking at the face and breaking down the features are time honored. This is how artists have been trained for centuries and we have to give a round of applause to Pam for bringing it to the mixed media world. An intenses portrait class in a book, Pam includes projects in 3D (3D helps your 2D), subtractive techniques, monochrome and neutral color mixing. 

After art school, I did portraits for a few years. It was a VERY long time ago :) I loved taking the time to look at my face and see the tracks of time marching across. 

This is the book for you if you'd like to draw realistic faces. Pam breaks it down so that it's not overwhelming. It makes perfect sense. As a student, I was taught to break down the face and figure using blocks. One teacher eventually taught us using circles and either of these techniques work well. 

Listen: I've always thought that the tools of art: drawing, color mixing, composition, etc. are learnable by anyone. I had a drawing block for years after art school. But there is no need for that. Here are the tools to take it on. If you have the tools, it's so much easier to communicate.

Disclaimer #1: Pam asked me to review this book and I agreed (because it was already on my list of books to read and review. See Disclaimer #2)

Disclaimer #2: I'm so happy to see alternatives to drawing cartoon, cute, beautiful GIRLS. While there is nothing wrong with those faces, I've always loved the real live human face. My art training included a ton of model drawing. We had models of every age, weight, race and body type. It was a wonderful experience. I had to find the beauty.

I heartily endorse this book and look forward to working with it more. Thank you Pam :)

Creating Art at the Speed of Life; Pam Carriker

Sprightly, Diana Trout

Pam's new book, Creating Art at the Speed of Life is packed full of great information, ideas and projects. Full disclosure: I have two pieces in the book and received a complementary copy. That said, I'll do my best to give an honest review.

Creating Art has a good bit of technical information regarding the elements of art: color, form, texture, shape, lights/darks. This is a fine introduction to the bones of making strong art. There is much to achieve here and the book is meant as a beginners guide with creative projects to illustrate and guide you through the beginnings of learning these elements. Perhaps you'll want to go further with weightier texts after mastering what's offered here. Or maybe this is enough for you. Either way, the information presented is a wonderful beginner art class in a book. 

Apply yourself and your artwork will become stronger. 

There are simple projects in here as well: information about working in monochromatic color for instance. The little lesson on creating your own street tag by abstracting the letters in your name is very fun. Some of the projects have been around for centuries: rubbings, texture making with found object. There is much to learn from creating artwork in the styles of Cubism and Impressionism. These are all time-honored ways of training artists in the formalities of art.

Honesty, Diana Trout

It wasn't a surprise when Pam assigned me with projects for the color section of the book. I've been studying the interactions of color for all of my artistic life. I pushed myself to use white in these paintings and mix some muddy colors. I like the pebbly flower forms. All of these elements, taken one by one could provide a lifetime of study. And what is neat about this book is the overview can give you a sense of your favorite element. 

I see myself dipping into this book for fun and practice and am honored to have been a part of it. 

 

Colorful World, Book Review

Another new feature on my blog will be 4th Friday Book reviews and this is one of my absolute fav books EVER. (really). I dip in here often just to drool.

Or make some sketches, watercolors in hand. Chock-a-block inspiration.

Coulorful World by Amandine Guisez Gallienne is simply sumptuous. It is filled with photographs of people, places, textiles, vegetables, pottery (and so on) from all over the world.

There are just a sprinkling of words at the end of each color group. The photos are, mostly, full page and are grouped according to color: white, yellow, green, blue, red and black.

Just sitting down with a cup of tea and a look through the pages is a wonderful refresher.

I've seen it priced as low as $2 something at Amazon. Its back up to original price right now so worth stalking or maybe not. It was published by Thames & Hudson in 2006 and is still in 1st edition so as supplies run low it may become more expensive.

My opinion: worth the full price at 21 bucks. Happy Friday, everyone. Enjoy your weekend.