Upcycled children’s book

This week I’ve been working on improving a children’s board book. I’ve already altered most of the pages, but there are a few that some serious work.

This is one of those pages where I stared at it for quite a while, waiting for something magical to happen in my brain. Then I played a game (or two or five) on my phone.

Finally I started digging through my scrap bin for colors to either match or complement the original background.

The background was printed from a gelli plate and the image was particularly uneven because the plate was handmade by the instructor of a mixed media class. Which is pretty cool, but I’ll admit to using store bought gelli plates myself. I do have the recipe for a homemade gelli plate somewhere…

Anyway. I found some scraps of green which seemed to match, so I glued them down. So far, so good.

Then, my muse or inspiration or whatever, took a cigarette break. Didn’t come back.

So, I went to bed. Laying in bed, I thought and thought. And decided some stamped text in a light color would tie the background to the abstract green shapes. Turns out my lightest color ink is platinum. Platinum it is!

It’s either a curse or a blessing, but I have BAGS of images that I’ve cut out over the years. So I dug through a bag. Then a few more. Finally I found the peaches and some statues. I decided I really liked the peaches, probably since it’s a complementary color to the blue/green. My husband decided the statue was required and I think it works because it’s a neutral color.

I added some highlights with a white gelly roll pen and my ever-present black Stabilo All. Then…the right side looked empty. I needed a quote. A good quote. Right away I thought of Ozymandias, but that struck me as pretentious. And depressing. And although I love my Christina Rossetti, I couldn’t find a relevant section in The Goblin Market. Then I remembered TS Eliot’s Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. Something about trousers, peaches and mermaids.

ASIDE: if you haven’t already, you should check out the YT audio clip of Eliot reading this poem. It’s fantastic.

I wrote the poem on a transparency in white Posca pen on the front, and created some shadows with a black Sharpie, working from the back. I freely admit - I got lucky on that the text fit on the first try. I had drawn in a rough outline of the page as a baseline and then just went for it. Finally, I trimmed it to the page and glued it down with matte medium, which dries clear.

And that’s it. That’s the page. This is my ideal project - it combines imagery and one of my favorite poems. Not to mention how much better it looks than just the original background.