Comics Lab Giveaway and Coffee Filter Books

This is a neat pocket book idea using coffee filters. 

With the holidays coming up this would make a great keepsake that students could make for their parents.

The pockets are quite large and can hold lots of tags, bookmarks, and additional papers.

This would be a great format for research projects or subject reports, similar to the file folder books.

Before I give you the full tutorial on how to make the coffee filter book I want to introduce you to this week's giveaway.


"Drawing Comics Lab" by Robyn Chapman is the latest book in the lab series.
 Just like the previous lab books this one is full of practical information on how to draw comics.

It has 52 activity labs to walk you through the essentials like:
- how to draw basic figures
- how to build characters
- page building
- storytelling
- what materials and techniques to try
- and publishing

I have not been disappointed with any of the lab books.  Each lab activity is well thought out, with "how to" pictures and instructions.  This one also has a "Tips of the Trade" feature for every activity, giving you advice from other artists and ways to expand the activity.

Stay tuned to the end of the post for giveaway details.

Now back to the Coffee Filter Books.













MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- cone coffee filters, each one gives you 2 pages and a pocket
- cereal or cracker box, (chipboard)
- standard one hole punch
- any of the following for binding: o rings, jump rings, wire, binder clips, ribbon, string
- paper, cardstock
- glue
- scissors

PROCEDURE:




Choose how many filters you want to use.  A good sized book will have 3 to 4.










It's a good idea to make a template to help cut your pages.  I know, I know it says coffee fitter but you know what I meant!  :)

Place a filter on the cardboard, trace around and cut out.  Now you have a template to use over and over again.

You need to cut 2 pages for each filter.  Using painted paper, cardstock, scrapbooking paper, or just plain old paper, trace out 2 pages.


Now your filter is not perfectly symmetrical.  There is a rounded end and a pointy end.  I like to have the pointy ends at the top of the book.  Just keep that in mind when you are cutting your pages, you might need to turn the template over for some pages.

Attach a page to the front of each filter and one on the back.


You can use a gluestick or regular glue.

You should have a pocket and a front and back page.

Do this for all the filters. 

I like a heavier weight cover for my book so using my template I cut 2 covers out of cereal box (chipboard).

 I painted them black and then added some paper that was cut using the template and then trimmed a 1/4" all the way around.  My covers do not have a filter so there is no pocket.




Now you need to punch holes in your pages and covers for the binding.

I start with the front cover.  Punch your holes.
place one of the inner pages under the cover, mark where the holes are with a pencil and then punch them out on the page.

Repeat with all pages and the back cover.

When I bind a book I do one hole at a time.  Feed the pages onto 1 ring, ribbon, binder clip, or whatever you are using.  Tie or clip and then do the other hole.




That's it.

For the pockets you can stuff in bookmarks, tags, etc.

You can also make extra pull out pages to stuff in.  Use your template and then cut the page slightly smaller.

You can add string or ribbon to help pull out the pages.

I try to vary the location of the pull.

I like using homemade painted papers when constructing my pages.

An interesting paper you can make is stenciling designs on wax paper.

Use acrylic paint as it sticks well to the slippery surface.  You then have a great patterned translucent paper.

I used it here in the SNOW scene.
I always attach translucent/transparent papers with Mod Podge.  It dries clear, no cloudiness to be seen thru the paper.

Another interesting variation is shown here. 

 I use a star shape sticking out from the page as the pull tab.

I punched 2 star shapes from glitter paper.

Then glue 1 star off the edge of the pull out page, add glue to the other star and glue it on the other side of the page, lining the stars up.

















That eggshell tree was made using this method from a previous post.  It was an idea sent in by Stephanie Brown and her daughter from NC.







They took the eggshell mosaic idea and used it to make Christmas cards.  I think they turned out incredible!








I hope you give one of these coffee filter books a try.













If you are interested in winning your own copy of "Drawing Comics Lab" by Robyn Chapman please enter in one of the following ways:

- leave a comment on this post
- email me at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca
- like or comment on this post on my Facebook page

I will be making the draw Friday Nov 23rd so have your entries in by Thursday at 11:59pm.

Canadian or US residents only please.

Thanks to my friends at Quarry Books for sponsoring this giveaway.


See you soon.

In the Style of Lichtenstein

I was recently in Chicago where I was able to take in the current Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective exhibit at The Art Institute.

It was terrific and helped give me, my kids (and husband) an overview of his work as it progressed. After returning home I updated my Lichtenstein project for kids.

By taking a single panel of a comic and making a very large canvas painting, Lichtenstein had you focus on the way the image had to be portrayed based on the limitations of the printing process. Specifically the Ben-Day dot.  Comics had to be produced in large quantities and rapidly, colors were limited, shadows and highlights were bold, and there were strong outlines.

Most of his work was adapted from actual comic panels which he would then alter as he saw fit.

The dialogue balloon provides another avenue for interpretation.

Here is my sample based on a favorite vintage cartoon character "Nancy" by John Stanley.

UPDATE: Thanks so much for Beverly for letting me know I misspelled the first one....it was one of those days!

Here is one my son did a few years ago.  It was done in marker however after seeing the Lichtenstein exhibit I really feel paint is warranted as well as varying the size of dots thru the piece.


















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- wc or heavy paper
- art board
- liquid tempera, acrylic, or disk tempera paint
- skewers, pencils, spoon handles, anything that will make a good "dot" imprint
- comic reference material
- magnifying glass, photocopier
- pencil and eraser
- fine and medium black sharpies
- tacky glue

PROCEDURE:

Find some reference material.  Old comics are great to show to the kids as they still have Ben-Day dots in the composition that are visible with the naked eye.  Recent comics no longer have this.

Use a magnifying glass or blow up one with a photocopier for further investigation.  Lichtenstein was emphasizing this component of the printing process of the time.

Tape down a piece of wc or heavy paper to an art board.

Incidentally an art board is a rectangle of masonite that is about 16" x 24".  I buy them at Home Depot or your local lumber supply store.  The masonite or MDF is 1/4" thick and comes in a huge 8ft sheet.  One sheet can be cut into 12 art boards and I just get the Home Depot staff to do this for me on their fancy cutting machine.  Every Fall I get 24 cut for school and I now have stockpile of close to 200 as they last for years.

Sketch out your panel in pencil.  I sketched a combination of panels which I close cropped.

Because we want that "comic" look paint in the heavy black sections.

Don't worry about outlining as we will add this later in sharpie.

To continue with that "comic' look we want to limit our colors. 

Lichtenstein used alot of bold primary colors (blue, red, and yellow).





Paint in a few of these areas.

For the rest of the painting we want to focus on those dots.

Using the ends of skewers, paintbrushes, pencils, etc. add dots.  Here I'm even adding some on top of the red bow I painted.

Now in an old comic the flesh tone would be made up of different colored dots but because we have blown this panel up I'm going to use flesh colored paint for mine.



You want to closely pack in these dots so your characters don't look like they have the measles!

I'm also adding some large dots to the background.

Lichtenstein liked blue dots in his backgrounds.

Let the dots dry and then using a medium sharpie put in those bold outlines.

For the dialogue bubble measure out a piece of paper that will fit in the space you want.


Use a ruler and pencil in lines to write your dialogue on.

Add the text in pencil first and then go over with a combination of fine and medium sharpie.  I think it looks more like a typical comic this way with some variation in the width of the line.

Cut out a balloon and outline it in black.


Now your text can be taken straight from the panel you are using or you can come up with it on your own.

Social commentary is up to you and I'm sure with older kids you can see many extensions to this activity. Although Lichtenstein never took himself to seriously in this work.

Glue into place.

That's it.

Have a good weekend everyone.