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Altered Book {Intern Edition}: Work in Progress Preview 2


In my last post I gave a few suggestions on selecting a book and prepping it. If you still haven't selected a book take a peek here Altered Book {Intern Edition}: Work in Progress Preview 1 before proceeding.

Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to work with and supervise some very creative and motivated art therapy students. Each having to come face-2-face with the good the bad and the hairy of an internship site. That is the reason for this altered book. Advice, inspiration, motivations from myself and prior students for internship survival... tho maybe it will be much more.... Maybe it will be:

...an informal guide to thriving at an art therapy internship site...
(remember, the title is still a work in progress so bare with me here)

On this post we will pick-up after the children's book was prepped (see Work in Progress Preview 1) and a theme selected... 

Magazine images can be added-to and extended in order to facilitate incorporation into the page/theme. 
  • Research! Research! Research! Scour the net for ideas (unless you're having one of those inspiring days). I have several go-to Pinterest collections for quotes, typographical references, etc. 

  • Book Layout (organization helps)... I wrote my ideas/thoughts on post-its which I placed throughout the book (1 per double page spread). With that part done I could select a specific post-it entry and use it to guide my collage pile diving. ie. peek at the note several times as you sift through media and collected images it will help keep you focused.


  • Don't hesitate to experiment with various medias and processes and with that said, if you have some safe go-to medias employ them too.  If it's all (or mostly) about the process make sure to have fun with it. While my book is meant for future interns it is currently my self-care venue.  

I love mixing traditional medias with organics (ie. flower petals, leaves, butterfly or beetle wings, etc) and layering of the two. In the example above I layered translucent African Violet flower petals I had previously used to naturally stain paper. The image below shows a collage where I extended some of the images with acrylic paint and superimposed my selected quote by using a translucent strip of tea-bag paper.


Next post I'll elaborate a bit more on layering and mixed media.

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