Artist's books

I love this little one done by Aimee- it's only 3" high

I love making books with my students. It is something that can be done with students of varying levels of ability and the overall size or number of panels in the book can be altered to accommodate different time frames.I do them with both my intermediate level Painting students as a final project at the end of the semester and I have done them with A.P. and Pre-A.P. Studio Art kids who are preparing their portfolios for applying to Art schools. I often use the star book as my format of choice because it is so versatile, but I've had some ambitious students do tunnel books when we have the time to do that.

Olivia made a star book of Times Square- I loved the graphic nature of this.

"The Horrors of War" Star book by Peter.

Boston driving Scene by Kathryn. This is a good example of changing the format to just two panels to accommodate having only a short amount of time left in the semester to work on this project.

I love this tiny cat book by Samantha- it is also only about 3 inches tall. She drew all those little cat faces by hand in the last layer!

I've also had students incorporate mixed media into their star books. "Aquarium Book" by Grace.

Sam convinced me to let him do a tunnel book- I am so glad I did!

inside of Sam's tunnel book

This is also by Sam, a star book done on the evolution of London over history.

Sam again, he got so into bookmaking he made quite a few pieces for his portfolio.

Backyard Ants Take Over the Barbecue- by Jordan

It takes a lot of planning and students need a lot of assistance and instruction once they are actually sewing the book together- I am always wondering why I undertake this project when we are all trying to get them done before the semester ends---but...everyone is usually really pleased with the outcomes...so I always come back to it!