Displaying my Book in Portsmouth

Now that my book 'The Siren of Southsea' is completed I wanted to start displaying it locally in the Portsmouth area to spark interest in my project and get people engaged. As  my narrative is based in Portsmouth, I wanted to contact local shops/museums/galleries to display the book in. I think it will do well and be more appealing to the local community because they can relate to the area. 

The first place it's exhibiting is in the University of Portsmouth Library. I filled one of the glass display cabinets with one of my final books and my older mockup watercolour book. As well as these I included prints of my original screen prints and prints of the watery background to place the books on, I think this makes the display look more interesting and enhances the ocean theme. I also included a description of both books, the poem in the final book and my contact details. 

The cabinet is by the entrance of the library so is a good spot for everyone to see it as they walk past. I am happy with the display as I think it is quite eye catching with the block of blue colour. Everyone who visits this venue either work, live or study in Portsmouth so have close ties to the area so I am hopeful that they will find my work interesting. 

The next place I wanted to display my book was at The Portsmouth Museum. I emailed them and they were very interested in my work but unfortunately they couldn't accommodate it:

So as suggested, I have contacted Aspex Gallery and am waiting for a response to see if they would be interested in displaying or selling my book. 

Binding my book

After finally folding my 3 metres of book into a concertina, I decided to make my hardback covers, print the titles onto them and bind everything together to make my 3 books! I managed to print out 4 copies of the book, using one as practice and then the rest to make an edition of 3 books. 

I made the book covers out thick card and book binding cloth, and joining everything together with PVA glue. I left a 2cm border of cloth around the card to fold around it, making sure that when I glue the page to it that there was none of the bare card showing. I used the same coloured orange cloth as my first concertina book attempt as I thought it worked well as a contrast with the blue inside. This has been enhanced even more in my final finished books as the colours inside are a lot stronger. 

Because of the nature of the folds in the book, when finished and pushed together, the pages create a layered effect to one side so the covers aren't directly behind each other. I did this so it looks more like a wave, linking with the waves inside the book, giving the audience a sense of what lies within before even opening the book.

I screen printed the title of my book onto the covers, after research I found this would be the easiest way to produce 3 covers quickly.  I really like how they haven't printed pristinely because of the grain of the cloth. I think this adds to the character and older feel I wanted to give to the book. 

I made the covers nearly the exact same size as the pages so when spread out it stands up fine on its own. My first concertina I made struggled to stand freely because the pages  didn't touch the table as the covers were too big. This time I made sure the pages were glued at the bottom of the covers so everything would touch the table to stand up. 
The final touches would be to create a band to go round the book, holding the pages together when its not standing up. Im planning for this band to be made from an old map of Portsmouth. 

Printing has Begun

I have now begun the printing process of my book. After piecing everything together in InDesign, the book totalled 330cm! Over 3 meters long so I had to get it printed on the large format printer. I have never printed anything this big so was unfamiliar with process, but the support desk were very helpful! It was good to challenge myself to create something this long as now I have learnt a new skill I can use in future projects. 

I went for a heavier paper as I wanted the pages to feel high quality and that they had substance to them. The technician advised me to go for a thinner paper as it would be easier to fold back up into a concertina and he said the ink might crack on the folds of thicker paper. But I stuck to my guns and went with the heavy duty paper. 

I didnt have much difficulty folding, apart from the length made it a bit fiddly. I managed to print 4 copies of the book on the width of the 3 meter piece of paper. This gave me room to experiment with a couple. The first one I folded looked very uneven, I wasn't very accurate with lining it up to the rest of the book. The second attempt went better but I discovered that the column I set out in InDesign cant have been all the same size as the width of the book when folded up was different. The height of the book was the same and very neat but the width was a bit jagged and uneven. At first I was annoyed as it didnt look neat. But then I thought about my theme of perfection and how my book illustrates that you don't have to be perfect. So maybe this folding style would suit the book even more?

Wavey Pages

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I played around on Photoshop and InDesign to create spacer pages for my book in-between my illustrations to make the whole thing flow better. 

I am happy with the majority of  what I have created but I am struggling with the middle image and how to space it as it has no water within the illustration which makes it hard to link with the others. 

To create these spaced pages I used the backgrounds I had already created and Photoshopped them into wave forms to join and link the images:

I used backgrounds with similar colours to transition them gradually.

The part I am having trouble with is this:

I was trying to figure out a way to link the white spaces together in a similar wave format. I experimented with a couple of different ways and so far I am at this point:

I am happier with this version but I feel there is still work to be done and something isn't quite right. I am happier with the right sides flow, but less satisfied with the left side. I will carry on experimenting to see if I can make something more free flowing, if not I may have to consider reorganising the images into a different sequence to make the flow easier. 

Dorset

Over the Easter break I ventured to Dorset for a few days with my friends for a holiday close to home. I loved the rich history the area had to offer, especially the steam train from Corfe castle to Swanage. Whilst in Swanage I walked past an interesting mermaid figure made from stone balanced on one of the walls. This instantly prompted me to research into whether Dorset has any mermaid folklore of its own. Being just along the coast from Portsmouth, I thought this could be an interesting addition to my project.

I found these two websites that mention the same mermaid sighting on the Dorset coast in 1757, which I thought was interesting as it must be a popular story to be mentioned by two different people. 
http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/dorset/countryside/chesil-mermaid.htm
https://www.yopa.co.uk/blog/every-home-tells-a-story-the-legend-of-the-lyme-regis-mermaid/

I love the mystery and uncertainty of old accounts like this, they always spark my imagination and motivate me to continue my research and illustrations of mermaids. 

My Illustrations on RedBubble.com

To get my work out into the public eye a bit more, I decided to use some of my previous designs and current work on redbubble.com. This website lets you upload artwork for free to be places on the many products they have for sale (mugs, t-shirts etc.) They then give you 20% of the sale price. 
I decided to do this as it would earn me a tiny bit of money as well as making my work more relatable and accessible to a wider audience because of the many products people could purchase my prints/paintings on. 
I hope that people who like the look of my work on phone cases or cushions would also be interested in my current project and other illustrations I have created. I think websites like redbubble.com are a good way to spark an interest in artists, first it is purely commercial but it could lead to someone becoming deeply interested in my work.

Check out my shop here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/bethfrostart/shop?asc=u

Experimental Pages

After experimenting and completing some water-like backgrounds, I decided to go back onto photoshop and roughly edit in some of my screen prints to see what they would look like on these backgrounds. I experimented with getting rid of parts of the white paper backgrounds, partially removing parts of the watery backgrounds to make a clear distinction between underwater and above water, as well as editing the vibrancy of my screen prints to make them stand out better on the backgrounds. 

I tried this print on several different backgrounds, I think the orange print works well it contrasts with the blue more. I like the print with the 'perfectly normal' lettering in the background as well as it emphasise the message of my book. I am considering using this at the very beginning of my book as the cover page that joins to pages to the hard cover or as the title page and edit more text onto it. 

In this image I edited out the watery background to show she is only partially in the water. I made sure there was distinction between the blue water and her yellow silhouette to link with my research into colours above and bellow water. Yellows/reds disappear quickly in the water so I wanted to make sure anytime my character Ethel is featured above water I use colours to represent this. I left echo's of the watery background through the whole image, just without the colour, to give texture throughout  so it's still interesting to look at, not just empty plain space. This way it will still link to the other pages with watery backgrounds. Brilliant white untouched paper also can be seen as perfect which I am trying to avoid in this book, and the texture also gives an aged effect which I am trying to create as my story is based in the 1500's. 

I chose a darker background for this composition as it is taking place deeper underwater, perhaps as the Mary Rose is sinking, so there would be less light and less colour. This is why I have kept the outlines of the characters a dark blue as well as no yellows/reds would be visible in deep water. 

I wanted to use a background for this print that wasn't blue/green to portray that it is happening above water but something that still contained the splash/watery effects so it won't look out of place compared to the other pages. I am very undecided with how to edit this image. I like the whiter background so it doesn't take away from the character too much and the hands are contrasting to stand out which helps emphasise the message of the image. On the other hand, I like the darker background as it looks more watery but has reds/oranges in it to show that it is happening above water. It is also a dark background to reflect the negativity in trying to capture perfection (the message of the image).

I think this is the edit I am most happy with out of todays experiments. The editing of the background clearly shows the difference between water and sky. The characters are in an orange/brown colour that contrasts nicely with the blues and shows they are above water. The nature of the edit makes the image look dreamlike which I like as it seems positive, which is how I want to end the book. So I think this will be the last image of the sequence.

I still have original screen prints to create to illustrate the rest of my story. But once this is completed I will start to bring in text and experiment with placing of words/lines.

Screen print experiments

I had a very productive day in the print studio recently, managing to experiment with turning some of my mermaid drawings into screen prints to see if this was still the style I wanted for my book. I was really pleased with how they turned out.

These were the results of experimenting with the first image:

The blue/purple/pinks I quite like, especially when I've mixed the inks so they change colour throughout the image. I did this to mimic the shimmering water and how colours can change and be distorted. I think these work nicely on a plain white paper as they stand out but I'm not sure they would work as well on a textured blue/green background that I intend to roll throughout my book. 
I think the yellow ink works well as it is bold, I used it to contrast with the blues/greens of the background water I will make. As blue and orange are opposite on the colour wheel I think this would work well to make both aspects of the image stand out and be noticed by the audience. 
I enjoyed printing over my 'perfectly normal' letterpress experiment, I think it worked really well. This has given me several ideas on how to incorporate text into my final book, distorting it in the background of an image to carry its same meaning through the book might work well. 
I used cream paper, white paper and brown card in these experiments. I think the brown card is too dark as it only shows up the lighter ink, I like the effect this has but it wouldn't work constantly throughout my concertina. The cream paper looked nice as it had an aged feel which helps suggest the older time period of my story. 

The next image I experimented with: 

My favourite out of this set of images is the yellow/orange figures contrasting with the blue water. Again, I think these will work well on the backgrounds I am planning as well as showing my research into colours underwater. Yellows/reds are lacking underwater, the deeper you go the less they can be seen so I wanted to make it clear whenever my mermaid character was above water that she could be seen with these colours to make this research apparent in my illustrations. 

The next image I experimented with:

I missed the edge of one of these prints, cutting of the fingers of my mermaid character which I wasn't happy with. But the other prints turned out fine. I really like the composition of this piece and want to work more with it as I ran out of time in the studio. I used blues and darker shades, lacking any reds/yellows, to show that this scene was taking place completely underwater. I did a second layer of ink highlighting the bubbles in a slightly lighter shade of blue. I like how the bubbles are more visible on the darker card background so hopefully this concept will look good on my green/blue backgrounds I am in the process of making. 

The next image I experimented with:

This is an image I plan to have at the end of my book so wanted it to be warm to end on a happier note. I used a brown/orange to symbolise this and the show that they are above water so the warm colours are visible. I think the texture has come out really well in this image as well and would contrast nicely with the watery backgrounds through the book. 

The final image I experimented with:

I am particularly happy with these prints, especially the double layered one. I used blues to show my mermaid character still being wet and from the sea and then yellow/browns for the human hands and man made rope. Although I do like the all yellow/orange print as well as it symbolises her being out of water. I will have to do further experimentation with backgrounds to decide which way I want to go with this print.