Fish AB

I'm busy putting together a small selection of AB work for a "taster" exhibition in the library. If luck is with me, two exciting projects will return home in the next week or two, but just in case they don't get here on time, I though it best to rustle up a couple of new AB to show.

One of the new works in progress is a 1914 Cosmos book on Deep Sea Fish. I'll probably put this on display as a work in progress, to show a little of the process as well as the product. I decided to keep the spreads in this book fairly simple, as I think that will seem less daunting to first-timers than some of the more sophisticated, layered spreads in other work.

The original black-and-white drawings in the book are fuzzy and dull by today's standards, so I've perked them up just a little using watercolour pencils. I only tinted the pictures lightly, so the colouring doesn't show up too well in this photo. I reinforced the fish and ocean theme using modern drawings clipped from a children's nature encyclopedia.

I started by masking the drawing then stamping on the page with the alphabet stamp and Stazon ink. With the image still masked, I then tinted the page with several washes of green and blue acrylics. In between washes I added a section of map to the top right corner. The remaining washes helped it blend into the background.

I then colored the image and added the shells and fish and the lighthouse stamps.

I've decided to do quite a lot of edge embellishment in this book, but I'll do it when other pages are ready, so it's not in its final form yet. Here, I added an edge of gold sand, then punched the page to suggest waves rolling onto a beach.

I'll show another page tomorrow and others in the next few days.