Altered Books class-Student Work

Greetings Everyone! Well the Altered Books series has ended and I've been anxious to show you some of the incredible work that my students have done in class. Since I hate telling people what they have to create, every student was incouraged to pick a subject that they were interested in or passionate about or simply to pick a book with a title that brought a subject to mind. We had altered books with subjects ranging from Film Noir to Dragons and strange creatures to houses. Unfortunately I started out with many more students than I finished with. As summer rolled around many students found that their commitments would not allow for more classes or perhaps just lost interest. At the least they learned that an altered book cannot be created in one day and that it takes an incredible amount of time and commitment to finish one. I did have two people that finished their books and I will start with their books first. The first book is Mary's. You can see her cover above and some pages below. Her subject was a cheezy Film Noir meets Vampires theme with a hero named Rip Murdock. This book was not only clever but fun.

This is one of Mary's pockets made to look like a pocket on Rip Murdocks coat We'll skip the obvious gun in the pocket pun. This page is just simply amazing!

Mary's pass through window was a keyhole that Rip peers through. And you've got to love all the cheezy blood on the next page.

Very mysterious and very Film Noir.

Mary's niche with vampire bad girl, bullets and vials of blood. And as Rip says" Dames are always pulling a switch on you. "

The next book is Maureen's fantasical Dragons book. The colors and textures in this book are phenomonal! This book is intended as a gift for her son.

Look at the incredible texture on this page created with Gel Medium and layers and layers of color. Yummy!

This spread incorporates a picture drawn by her son years ago and a niche that includes and a 3-D dragon with glowing eyes. I especially love the glowly eyes. They are kind of mesmerizing.

Maureens beautiful door including stained glass and a hatching baby dragon behind it. I'll bet Tiffany's never thought of that!

This is a beautiful and elegant spread. It makes me want to walk through it to visit this world. As long as the dragons keep their distance that is!

The next book was Ann's Strange Creatures book.

This incredible page was Ann's niche! It contains a creature swamp in beautiful glowing colors and textures. But I still would not want to step in it. Icky!

The next book was Peggy's. She drove all the way from Fremont to Princeton-by-the Sea to catch the last class. Now that's devotion. Unfortunately she brought the wrong book with her that day so she just started a new one!

I love how evocative this page is. I think it just says it all.

And look at this beautiful spread. This image was painstakingly cut out with an exacto knife and its simply gorgeous. I love the way the vintage image just works set against the modern abstract background. It makes the entire spread seem almost other worldly.

The next book was Jolenes. Her subject was houses. Jolene has created some exquisite backgrounds. Look at her torn pocket below filled with different little houses. I just wanted to take all of her little houses home with me!

This spread is just stunning! The colors-yummy. I love the collaged house above with the eyes looking out and the hand reaching.

How much more emotion can a spread hold than a much loved home? Again Jolene's colors are beautiful. The blue and pink together are amazing.

The last book I want to show you is Cindy's book. It may be last but not least. Cindy's book pages all visualize a different line of a poem from the book.

One of the things I really loved about this book is the pairing of black and white line images and painted backgrounds. This spread visually grabs me right away. I wonder where this half naked warrior woman is riding off to?

This spread has a slighly carnival atmosphere to it in contrast to the spread above. The painting is gorgeous but again lends a really other-worldly feel to this spread.

This line drawing paired with a real photographed window again gives me an unreal feeling when I look at this spread. Somehow this figure looking out the window is exactly where she should be. Cindy's painting is beautiful and makes this spread and the entire altered book totally work for me.

Well that's it for now. What do you think about the work above?