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.

Advent Calendars

It's time to start thinking about Advent Calendars.  I particularly like additive ones, where you add parts to a picture the closer you get to Christmas.

This idea came from "The Children's Year" by Stephanie Cooper, Christine Fynes-Clinton and Marye Rowling.  It is discussed as a transparency so I converted it to an art project.

You add a star each day until the large star for the 24th and add the Baby Jesus on the 25th.  A great project for the kids at my school as we are a Catholic school.

You can also use this method with other winter themes.  Here you add parts to this Snowman scene as the days progress.




I'll show you the details on the snowman at the end of this post.
















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- wc paper or heavy sketch
- disk tempera paint in purple, white, and blue
- shiny silver/gold paper, wrapping paper works well
- template if required, here is mine
- white paper
- pencil crayons, wax crayons, or pastels to add colour to Mary
- scissors
- glue
- glitter glue, little gems, optional
- white pencil crayon, sharpie, or white gel pen

PROCEDURE:

Tape down your paper to stop it from moving while painting.  Starting with pale purple in the center (white + purple) paint the paper in a circular motion.  Darken as you go to dark purple. (purple = blue).


Let dry.






Cut paper into a large oval.

Trace out or draw free hand Mary, baby Jesus, and the large star on white paper.


If you want you can use my template.

Add colour with paint, crayon, pastel.  Whatever medium you have on hand.

Embellish the large star with glitter, sequins, and gems if you wish.

Out of the gold shiny paper cut a large circle and glue on the center of your purple oval.

I used a recycled lid as my template.  This is the halo of light around Mary and the baby Jesus.

Cut out the pieces from the white paper.  Set baby Jesus and large star aside.

For Mary add glue to the back everywhere but near her hand.  You want to leave this free so you can slip baby Jesus in behind on the 25th.

Press into place.

Now you need 23 stars.  I used a punch but you could use the Cricut machine, cut them by hand, or even use sticky stars.

Now you need to number where everything will go.  It helps to lay it out.  If you don't want your students to see it finished you can add the numbers for them, once you've seen it once you can easily add the numbers.


Use white pencil crayon, gel pen or even sharpie.  They have nice silver and gold sharpies now.

Put the 23 stars, baby Jesus, and the large star in an envelope.  Each day in December glue a star into place.  On the 24th add the large star in anticipation of the birth of Jesus,  then on the 25th you can add him to Mary's arms.

You can have each child make one to take home and complete or you could do a large version for the bulletin board for the class to complete.

For the snowman you add parts to the picture as you go.

You start by painting the blue background.  Let that dry.

The first 2 days you add the snow.  I cut 2 snowbanks out of textured paper, (paper with white streamer glued to it).  You can add some glitter to make your snow sparkle.   For days 3 and 4 add the trees from painted paper.

Add the 3 snowballs for the snowman (days 5,6,7) and continue on.


Days 8, 9, 10 snowflakes
Day 11 bird in tree
Day 12 eyes
Day 13 nose
Day 14 mouth
Day 15 right arm and mitten
Day 16 left arm and mitten
Days 17,18,19 buttons
Day 20 moon
Day 21 scarf
Day 22 hat
Day 23 buckle for hat
Day 24 "Merry Christmas" sign

You get the idea.







Hope you give the advent calendar a try and I'll see you soon.

King Tut Pastel Resist

One of my all time favorite techniques is oil pastel resist.  It never fails, always amazes the kids, and produces fantastic results.




I've been taking an Ancient Civilizations history class as inspiration and although there is lots of great material to pull from I couldn't resist trying it on the nemes headdress, which is the striped cloth worn by the pharaohs.

King Tutankhamen's golden mask is probably one of the most well known representation.












MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- brown kraft paper
- reference photos
- pencil and eraser
- oil pastels
- blue disk tempera paint
- black paper for mounting
- white paper
- black and blue sharpie or felt marker
- red and turquoise colored/painted paper
- glue
- gold acrylic paint
- a few jewel embellishments

PROCEDURE:

Take a piece of brown kraft paper.  Using a reference photo draw an outline of the mask.

Take yellow oil pastels and start to fill in the lines on the nemes. 

You want the lines vertical on the top of the headdress, horizontal on the sides.

The Pharaoh's also wore elaborate collars. This is represented in the golden mask as well.  Make these lines curved along the neckline.

Taking blue disk tempera paint, paint over the oil pastel.

On white paper draw out the face and neck.

Paint in the face and neck with gold acrylic paint or yellow tempera.

I like to add yellow acrylic to my gold acrylic paint to brighten it up a bit.  I also find most metallic acrylic paint to be quite translucent these days.  By adding yellow or brown to gold, white or grey to silver, and orange or brown to copper you will brighten that color and make it more opaque.

Paint some extra gold while you are at it for the cobra and vulture heads at the top of the headdress.


Cut out the headdress from the kraft paper.

Cut out the head and neck from the gold painted paper.  Glue into place on the headdress.





Using the black oil pastel add some shading to the face and neck.  Put in a chin line, shade the cowl around the neck, put in the nose and the lips.

On a scrap of white paper trace out the eyes in pencil.  Outline them with blue sharpie or felt marker. Put the pupil in with black pastel.  You want the pupil to touch the top of the blue outline.

Cut out and glue into place.

Using the black sharpie or marker add heavy brows as well as some eyeliner.


You could also use black paint here if you wish.

Take some red and turquoise paper.  This could be cardstock, scrapbooking paper or better yet some painted paper.

Using the extra gold paper make the vulture head and the cobra for the top of the headdress.  Add the mosaic (inlay) to the collar as well.  Add the braided false beard on the chin.  In the gold mask it appears to be quite blue/ almost mauve.

Add a few jewels for embellishment if you wish.

Mount on to black paper.  You can also add a few gold touches with leftover paint if you wish.

That's it.


Have a great weekend everyone and I'll see you next week.