Altered Silver

I'm posting what I can tonight because it'll be a week or two before the next post. So here are more pages from Odyssey, my ongoing altered text project.

 

« pages 124 & 125 »
These pages followed the usual process. Gesso base, lightly sanded, watercolors, then colored pencils. Page 125 also received a bit of dotting with a Pitt brush pen to add texture.

Text:
It was always his real name,
his real name,
that name.

He asked.

Now, bleedin' frantic surprise registered alarm.

He asked.
He asked.

No. Never.
I was stubborn.
Never.

He asked.

Oh, he mustn't. Oh!

 

« pages 124 & 125 »
Page 124 bears little resemblance to how it started out; it just kept changing along the way as I added this and modified that. Finally I stopped fiddling with it, and this is how it was left.

The media for page 125 is almost exclusively gesso and gel pens, with a small amount of watercolor. I'd just gotten a set of 36 gel pens in a rainbow of colors and had to play with them in nearly all my active projects at the time.

Text:
I have not failed.
I have faith.
He told me that I know,
I made this choice.
God yes,
I must have.

First dare ask questions.

cynical, cynical hell.

 

 

« pages 162 & 163 »
It's been awhile, and I don't remember now if page 162 received gouache or not. It was either that or the usual watercolors, as page 163 got. I think there's a bit of gel pen on 162 also, but it might be Pitt brush marker. In fact, the colored pencils on both these pages were most likely the water soluable type, at least in part. I began a love affair around that time with watercolor pencils (and crayons) that shows no signs of letting up; I'm not complaining. *smile*

Unusually, page 163 also includes some collaged paper, the second instance of collage in this book. It was the best way - really, the only way - to add the handwritten note to this page. But I can also say it was a bit of a challenge cutting the paper to fit between the selected words and rivers.

Text:
I wandered since the compromised aftermath,
movements tampered and suspect.
Tear-stained, ravaged, scared, shocked...
I laughed.
I laughed.

All I had seen: left or adjourned or forgotten.
I couldn't find anything that resembled it.
To talk to him, I hung on to
the handwriting
he handwriting.

I was so excited about getting a new Angels & Aliens spread colored after a long hiatus that I forgot my plan to post A&A pages in order. So that spread was out of order (as was an earlier one), and this post will get things back on track. (Not that anything catastrophic would occur if they're all mixed up, of course. For a long while, I didn't think there'd be any new posts again at all even. Very glad BlogSpirit kept the blog active even when I wasn't.)

Getting on with it, here these are: spreads 24-25...

 

...and 38-39.

Both of these were drawn and colored a couple years back and I'm just getting around now to posting them. As always with the A&A, I draw these original angels directly into the book with a Bic Smoothie ballpoint. Many passes are made with the pen to define and thicken the lines. That's followed by wax crayons and Prismacolors for color. I love flipping through this book; the pages are so bright and colorful. There are still many more plain text pages than colored ones however, so this project has a long future ahead of it.

More spreads from Odyssey, my (primary) ongoing altered text project and the reason for bringing this blog back from the brink of death. As usual, these pages are presented in no particular order.

 

« pages 56 & 57 »
The media for this spread are watercolor with colored pencils, and of course, the Pitt pen for lines.

Text:
in the moonlight
tonight, tonight
in the dark
late at night

after a hard word,
make pleasure oddly.
I said don't, don't.

 

« pages 150 & 151 »
For page 150, the media were gouache and marker. For 151, the blue areas received a watercolor base, then Prismacolors for all the rest, including over the blue.

Text:
Out on a limb,
out, out, out
Even I'm shocked.
I'm getting the handwriting inside.
You were right...I love.

I. want. my. finish.
The good lord told me
the same damn thing.

feeling... feeling...
in the wilderness.

 

----
Blog note: A few at a time, oldest to more recent, I'm restoring the lost images from the previous AlteredText1 posts. Posting them at Flickr now, which means they should be stable and accessible at least as long as this blog exists.

Before the demise of the Altered Text Yahoogroup in July 2008, I managed to squeak out 6 more (dual) pages in the project using Catching the Light by Susan Pope. As I had done so from the start with this book, each page was first treated digitally. The later physical treatment was then structured after the digital as closely as possible, within the limitations of materials. It was really a fascinating approach; although I kept the possibilities of physical materials in mind as I worked each page, the ease of digital tech still inspired appearances I might not otherwise have conceptualized.

In each picture, the digital version is on the left, and the physical page is to the right.

 

Page 68: "In a whisper, he whispers. He pushes. He wants. He begs. He staggers. Too, too anxious."
Physical media: gesso, colored pencils, marker

 

Page 69: "The window opens to his important (but nervous) rest. Maybe it has love."
Physical media: gesso, gouache, colored pencils, marker

 

Page 70: "I need the voice of truth. Love flushes clean. Wait for wisdom and feel a flash of memory in the voice."
Physical media: gesso, watercolors, gouache, marker, gel ink

 

Page 71: "Relax now. No more crying."
Physical media: gel pen

 

Page 220: "Love, love, love...the wind...the water, the water...the waves."
(Note the third "love" was only found later, therefore absent from the digital version.)
Physical media: gel pen, colored pencils, gesso

 

Page 221: "Look, I believe you know yes, of course."
Physical media: a crazy amount of gel and ballpoint inks

 

I don't expect to be actively working again on this project for some while, if ever, but one must never say never. It's just difficult to predict if this project will go any further. Still, I'm rather fond of the author's generosity, its history in relation to the defunct AT group, the feel of the book and what I've already done in it to this point, so who knows what might lie in the future.

So many projects, so little time.

This spread was drawn about two years ago but waited patiently until finally receiving color today. Looks like I never left off.

I draw these original angels directly into the book (which is titled "Angels and Aliens") with a Bic Smoothie. Many passes are made with the pen to define and thicken the lines. Color is accomplished using wax crayons and Prismacolors.