The Maps Project: Task I Completed

Well, I did it! Task 1 completed!
I went on a shopping spree on Tuesday, buying lots of supplies I couldn't afford.

Most importantly, I picked up 3 sheets of heavy-weight (400 gr) cheap watercolor paper, and a large jar of PVA and of gesso. I cut the sheets into 12 pieces of 35 cm hight. I alternated the width, making half 40cm and half 50cm. This will allow me to play around with foldout pagesand diffident styles.

I also bought a dark blue Conte paper. I will cut it to 35, and have it expand lengthwise.

In retrospect, I think I could actually have gone for a simpler paper--the PVA and gesso offer enough strength. That way the paper would be more flexible (these surfaces are so stiff, I'm not sure I'll be able to bind them)--and more cheap. Something to keep in mind for next time.

Today was a beautiful, sunny day, which made it perfect for preparing the surfaces. I took all the pages out to the roof, and began playing with them. There was no specific plan. I just wanted to make 12 different surfaces that would inspire me to approach them differently.

The first few were very simple:

Tea staining to age the paper

Splashes of ink

Sponged liquid acrylic
(I apologize for the photographs. They're taken at night, with a flash, just to give a feel. I wanted to post this before the end of the week, and knew that if I got precious about the pictures, that would be the end of that).

As I went on, I began to get more creative. There is something incredibly freeing about working on so many pages at once, and knowing that they are not a final product.

The one I had high hopes for--rubbing loose pigment directly into the PVA-- did not come out as well as I had hoped.

But a boring yellow liquid acrylic livened up with spilled coffee grinds splashed with PVA became quite dramatic

And a not quite-successful-attempt to use dead leaves began to work better when I spilled coffee over PVA, and then let it run down.

By the end, the prepared surfaces were almost becoming independent collages--especially in the case of the last one, where I combined old books, my music notes, pages from school books, and torn up drawings from my sketchbook:

Which made me think that since I am anyway not binding the papers until I am done, it might be better to make the preparation an essential part of the project, so that the collage elements will fit the topic.

Something to consider for next time!

I do think that I will buy I few blank papers, just in case...

Hope to see some other people joining!