What Makes An Artists' Book

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot, hang on and swing!
—Leo Buscaglia

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Oceano Beach, Oceano, California. Partly the Inspiration for my new book.

Many decisions on the elements that communicate the idea behind the artists' book had to be made last month. This is the fun Ideate stage where all the aspects that are part of the book need to be studied carefully. Being a bit obsessive-compulsive helps with the details!

How do you start establishing the correct elements (images, text, color, structure…) together to bring forward the idea for your artists’ book?

What method do you practice as you explore and select the elements?

What questions enter your mind to verify each of the elements?

These are some of the questions that I ask myself as I start the design, page layout, and choose text if necessary for any artists’ books.

Colors samples studied as part of the ideate stage of the creative process

© 2023 Louise Levergneux. Matching colors a unified look throughout the book. Top two swatches show the colors from the original source photos of different sands. The bottom images come from the same photos but shown after color matching — the process of replicating the hue (the basic color), saturation (the color intensity), and brightness (the lightness or darkness) of the original color.

Deliberating about colors (manipulate color to tell a story), layout, design, and text has been a joy as I relish in the world of Pantone and HEX color codes. I haven’t had so much fun in a while. Colors are an essential component since it sets the tone for the idea.

Another element I play with frequently during the development of the book is fonts. The fonts demand attention to properly present the mood of the concept. I have been trying out these fonts for a playful but readable text.

© 2023 Louise Levergneux. Sample fonts explored while working on the layout and text.

When the elements of the whole work or fit together well, lots of times the rest falls into place and I can start reflecting and planning the layout in more details.

At that moment the brainstorming has been accomplished and most of the images have been chosen and organized. But still, I go through my photo folders to examine, analyze, and make sure there are no other solutions for the visual and written narrative. I recognize the sequence of the images and text to convey to the reader a clear understanding of the book.

I might also do more research to eliminate all other possibilities that will enhance the idea. I’m close to implementing and producing my book by printing, cutting, folding, and assembling all the pages — this will start tomorrow! I’m looking forward to feeling and evaluating my first prototype.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Oceano Beach, Oceano, California. Sand and reading fanfiction stories while on holiday were the inpiration for Incognito.


I will be away from my work table till mid-September but will keep in touch with what is happening with the completion of Incognito! Let’s go! ¡Vamos! Allons-y !

Creative Process — Distribution

Distribution

Identify, contact, and market to potential customers. Finally, complete the administrative aspects of the bookwork.

I’m finally at the last stage of the creative process and I’m delighted to announce the release of my new artists’ book Infatuation. I did it and happy to have met my deadline. This post is the last post on the Creative Process.

The publication of Infatuation came after a long journey starting in November 2021 using photographs from my family albums and stills from streaming the western TV show Lancer. This book documents the concept of “becoming of age” of a young girl in 1968-1970.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Infatuation wrapped with a red cow suede with skeleton key in pink gold.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Infatuation in a Drumleaf structure.

Infatuation was explored in various ways, through the study of adolescent feelings and investigating the background of the actors and the series itself. I viewed videos of the original TV show and visited filming locations in California last July and August.

I chose this particular book to learn about and demonstrate the Creative Process — the optimization of each phase of the creative process. My purpose was to determine the nature and number of stages present in my own creative visual artistic process. I was seeking to understand the explicit creativity phases associated with my artists’ book. I discerned the need to verbalize and document an implicit process and to document it. Normally the process is instinctual. I felt the urge to expose these feelings and insights.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Infatuation opened in the middle of the book showing the small accordion book inserted at the bottom of the book.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Infatuation seen from the top opened in 360°.

Infatuation is an assemblage of folios bound in the Drumleaf structure. Infatuation is meant to be read in a sequential fashion. The narration begins with: “I have a dream, a fantasy to help me through Reality.” Eventually, the young girl’s reality of the celebrity crush matures and the reader is left with “Memories that remain…”

Now comes the Prospectus, along with the identification of potential customers for the book launch. Collections need to be logged and contacts approached to determine the level of interest in acquiring the artists’ book, Infatuation.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Infatuation, page 3.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Infatuation, page 5.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Infatuation, page 9.

This has been an incredible journey. I can only pray that the blog reader has gained insight into the Creative Process and the intricacies of manifesting a concept into an object within the physical realm.

“Everyone sees what you seem, but few know what you are.” Machiavelli.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Infatuation, last page.

 

Creative Process, Execution

EXECUTION

Storytelling Development

Bringing to life the visual and narrative of the book.

“Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep-burning, unquenchable”. — Henry Ward Beecher

What comprise the story behind Infatuation?

This project demanded in-depth thoughts and emotions on an almost 55-year old event. Feeling more and more like an actor whose job is to bring a scripted character to life, I wondered what technique I could use to bring the dialogue of a celebrity crush alive.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Studying structures, images, and text.

Infatuation presents this fantasy/reality by juxtaposing personnal photos with appropriated stills from the TV show Lancer. Once the photos were chosen to fit the wanted effect, I used my many years of working in Photoshop to blend images and re-awake a celebrity-crush dream world. Compositing in Photoshop allowed the creation of impossible scenes — the fantasy intrinsic of a young adolescent — resulting in a journal filled with her dream world. To recreate this dream world, I combined multiple exposures and composited backgrounds, making sure each photo had the proper lighting sources to juxtapose the correct images together. Each detaif the composite shifts the reader’s focus on what becoming of age means for an adolescent girl.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. A composite image from three different photos and still. Text/words appropriated from “Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers, 1965.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. A composite image from two different photo/still plus text/words from “Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart” by Robson and Jerome, 1996, original song released in 1967.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. A composite image from two different photo/still plus text/words from “Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart” by Robson and Jerome.

Next came the script, I selected words of songs to yield power to the imagination that are meant to inspire the reader. On the first page, the first few words deliver the initial information about the character — the heart strings that tug a youthful teenager.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Text/words on first page is appropriated from “Johnny Angel” by Shelley Fabares, 1961.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Text on second page is appropriated from “You Don't Know Me” by Elvis Presley, 1967.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Text comes form Eric Clapton’s - "Forever Man"

Option Development

Elaborate the options for the binding and the structure and choose a final format.

With a chosen title of “Infatuation” and a subject in place, I started to visualize and narrate with prototypes. My choice for a structure and page layout had to fully represent a young adolescent’s dreams. What did I remember about this intense but short-lived passion — this unattainable fantasy? I explored the traits of a young girl — the friends, the journal, the dreams, and the secrets. With my initial research on structures and bindings. I decided a mix of accordion and drum leaf would be ideal. The drum leaf structure gave me the possibility of using spreads or multiple images without anything cutting the image. The drum leaf also added to the weight of the folios. A small accordion inserted in the middle of the book brings forward the secrets involved in a young girl’s journal.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Title page.

© 2022 Louise Levergneux. Infatuation open showing drumleaf pages and mini-accordion page.

Pilot Options

Examine and step back from the work, formulating an analysis and questioning one's own work.

I enjoy using Moab Lasal photo paper, after identifying many templates and choosing the size of the book, I found out the company no longer made the preferred size with the correct grain direction in this paper. So back to the drawing board to figure out a different size paper to work with.

I’m still researching how to bind this bookwork. I know that leather needs to be part of the binding but still need to iron out the details.

I’m on a three month journey down the Northwest and West coast of the US. This has given me the opportunity to do more self-reflection and to continue my research as I will be meeting with women with the same interests and visiting film locations, this will help with the finishing touches for the images. With more info and photos to utilize as background I intend to work on my project while on this journey and have a completion date for the beginning of September. We will see… life has a way of sending curves even fun ones!

How does it feel to be in the final stages of a book? It's a time when you're problem-solving at every step. The practical questions are more present. I realize that from reading you because you are also in the final stages: the binding, the paper format, etc. There is a lot of creativity in this period because we think about the materials available, how to handle them, etc. I love this stage of the process.

© 2022 Guylaine Couture. A sprout=an idea

On my side I finished my book "A sprout=an idea". Because I was under a time constraint (one month), the book became more of a detailed model of what the book could be. I didn't measure the size of my pages correctly in relation to the cover, the pieces sometimes didn't fit well, and the pop-ups are far from perfect. But, I made so many nice discoveries though: the pop-up work and the root printing, different from what I had done for another book. I really like the result which motivates me to continue some of the things I discovered in this work.

© 2022 Guylaine Couture. A sprout=an idea

I look forward to seeing your book in the early fall! — Guylaine Couture

Creative Process, INSPIRATION: Observation

INSPIRATION: Observation

Time and research to define an inspiration into a more concrete idea, to construct a knowledge base. My time to reflect is ordinarily achieved in the early morning hours while in a state of sleep. Then I focus on similar ideas/subjects developed by other artists to deepen my inspiration.

Sometimes, after a setback, it's difficult to simply pull ourselves back up and keep on truckin'. We feel as though our inner fire has fizzled out, producing a sense of despair and without hope that we can make "it" happen, regardless of what “it” is! We possess the capacity to release stress, anxiousness, and unresolved emotions through dreams. For me this state of sleep is where I dream ideas depending on my perspective of the world at the moment.

The subject of “a teenage crush” rekindled and helped to reawaken a sense of hope, optimism, and personal power. The vision became clearer.

To interpret and recognize how I was going to express the feeling of a teenage crush, I started reading psychology reports on the meaning of a first crush. I learned that it signified a lot more about the dreamer than the admired. While talking to other female friends and remembering our « celebrity crushes » way back in high school brought on laughter and excitement. It compelled us to feel young and alive.

During our teenage years, we don’t realize as we are awakening to new emotions how it will form our personalities or how it will define future choices. This particular, formative phase of adolescence moulds us into adulthood — without our knowledge. No matter the case, the tingling phenomenon of puppy love/celebrity crush will disappear with life changes. Through the years we tend to overlook how we have arrived to this persona we live with daily.

“First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity” — George Bernard Shaw

I tried to find out what I remembered about this intense but short-lived passion — puppy love and/or an unattainable fantasy — celebrity crush during the 60’s and what it signifies for adolescent girls now days. In the depths of the internet, I enjoyed exploring this goose bump experience and what it symbolized for me.

Above all else, our first infatuation is a statement about what fascinates us — what is aesthetically pleasing to our eye — the movement of the body, the strut, the look, the tenderness, the twinkle of the eye, the infectious smile... For some it might be the sensibility that became the foundation for nearly everything about one’s identity... romance, politics… Are these traits familiar?

As I researched more and more my idea, I experienced some resistance to the word “infatuation,” while others felt it was an appropriate title. These conversations caused doubt on using the word “infatuation” and forced me to reflect deeply on my interpretation of the word.

After reading on various aspects on my subject, I needed some visuals to bring back the feeling of being a teenager. I started watching western, documentary, drama, and beach party movies and TV series of the 60’s.

One of cinema's most successful films between 1965-1967 were the beach-movie genre. These movies symbolized an entire generation's youth and featured teens, bikinis, and a whole lot of good, clean fun. These low-budget films celebrated teen culture and were sheer fantasies since the turbulent social issues of the 1960s never invaded the story line. It was escapism for teenagers, ah! to be young again. Beach party movies are the definition of "You had to be there.” Today's teen entertainment is practically Kafkaesque, compared to beach party movies.

For me westerns provided an all around entertainment. Our family saw many western movies and TV series as they were a smash with my father. My sister and I often played pretend it was our way to discover and explore a wild west fantasy — an era we had no hope of ever experiencing in the real world. Towards the late 60's, westerns began taking on more substantial issues — social issues — with a few grown up themes.

The more I surfed the net for inspiration the more my mind captured other ideas. After my internet rabbit hole experience, I discovered a whole new project: the end of Hollywood’s Golden Age, which happened in the late 1960s. Film infiltrated my every thought and the energy made me think outside the box and my project. I envision tangents as a way of sparking creativity and thinking. This also brought me to swap between thinking about two or more different concepts simultaneously.

As for my research on similar ideas/subjects developed by other artists, I was directed to contemplate the work of Jillian McDonald whose work meditates on celebrity and North American celebrity culture. Julian mines contemporary Hollywood movies before digitally reshaping their filmic narratives. Jillian’s work corresponds to a humourous fiction and obsessively persistent romantic fantasy regarding bad-boy movie star, Billy Bob Thornton. I featured McDonald’s “Me and Billy Bob” video in my blog of December 2021.

In another video, Jillian shares an evening with Nick Offerman (American actor, writer, comedian, producer, and professional carpenter).

My Mr. Darcys, an artists’ book by Laura Davidson, came to mind as I reviewed other works on my subject of infatuation.

© 2009 Laura Davidson. My Mr. Darcy is a tribute to the many actors who have played the role of Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice adaptations. It includes portrait miniatures of 6 actors along with text from each film. An edition of 500 copies.

© 2009 Laura Davidson. My Mr. Darcy, an inside view.

I reached out to Laura to find out more about her bookwork. Laura explained the intention of the piece; the story behind the narrative brought a wonderful personal note. In my mind, the obsession with the character still represents very much an infatuation.

It was in fact for my sister Laura — the idea came to me as Paula kept informing me when a new Austen book was being adapted on film or TV, or forwarding me DVDs. I was pretty hooked on them too because I had grown to love the Austen stories and characters. My sister’s excitement, (being an Austenite and film buff), was contagious. We compared the various portrayals of Darcy — who was her favorite character — and many people’s favorite character, especially when Colin Firth emerges from a small lake in the BBC 1995 adaption of Pride and Prejudice.

When I carried out research for this book, I had to re-watch all of the Pride and Prejudice films, taking notes about which line would work with each painted miniature of the actors who played Mr. Darcy. It was total immersion! When it came to the text on the back of my book, I knew which line from Pride and Prejudice I wanted to use, but had no idea where to find the line quickly. I phoned my older sister Paula, a devoted Austenite and the one who introduced me to Jane originally. She was driving, pulled off the road, reached into the side pocket of the passenger door to pull out her emergency copy of Pride and Prejudice and found the passage for me right away. At the time — I was amused by this. But now, of course, I carry an emergency copy of Pride and Prejudice on my phone along with Persuasion.

© 2009 Laura Davidson. My Mr. Darcy

In summary, I have noticed that Jillian, Laura and I went through a similar INSPIRATION: Observation phase. Laura re-watched all of the Pride and Prejudice films and Jillian must have watched many films to be able to select particular clips to convey her idea. My inspiration deepened by re-watching westerns and beach movies of the 60s.

Guylaine Couture’s answer is shorter this time but made me reflect on my process no less.

You are continuing your stage of research and it is expanding, so probably the subject of your book will become clearer. Especially as you share your memories and aspects of your personal life with us.

Interestingly, unlike you, I don't push my research towards other artists' books that work on the same subject. I'm probably missing something. As my own process is started, I look at ways to make a book in a broad sense. I don't have any knowledge of bookbinding, my structures are often creations that are not in the norm and I like to keep it that way. I don't invent anything, I make my books my way with all their flaws and some qualities, I hope.

Since you are talking about visual research, I am presenting you with pictures of the process for my book "The territory of the weeds". Research photos and a print/collage that I tested afterwards. I did a lot of observation in urban textures to make prints on paper that I then used in the collage. A way of doing that I reused later in other books.

What I find interesting in this exchange is that we work a little in the same way and also not at all in the same way. I love it!

© 2022 Guylaine Couture. "The territory of the weeds" research photos .

© 2011 Guylaine Couture. "The territory of the weeds", a test for print/collage.

Next month, the discussion will culminate with the moment of insight when my mind identifies a potential solution to my idea/subject. As long as people recollect, dreams never die. As long as people dream, life continues.

The Process of Creativity

I appreciated all your personal messages in response to my last blog post “Struggle with Creativity.” You took the time to follow and respond, this made me smile, thank you.

Guylaine Couture, an artist friend in Magog, Québec, mentioned I should relax, have fun, and to “go with the flow.” With my personality, the process of creativity has always been a bit difficult. You see, I’m impatient! I dream an idea, I plan, and I finish a book in early morning dreams. It is so completed in my mind’s eye. I want to perceive it as published NOW! Why not?

© 1978 Fred Maheux (artist collection). After my meaningful discussion with Guylaine, I decided to go through the family albums and reminisce on my creative process.

These comments nudged me just enough for the mind to wonder and transport my thoughts back to simpler times. When I studied with Fred Maheux, my mentor some 43 years ago, learning the process of creativity was fun and exciting. We were four artists who met weekly to discuss our respective daily sketches. We would choose the best drawing, then develop the idea during the next week. Our subsequent meeting was to discuss the best way to produce our final piece. The interaction, the discussions, and sometimes a change in direction inevitably presented me with the joy of the process and its development...

© 1979 Louise Levergneux. This drawing and watercolour were inspired by a Pinto Bean which Fred brought in the studio for an incentive.

© 1979 Louise Levergneux. The following item brought in the studio for discussion was a cross. One sketch out of many, the result is the final watercolour on the right. (sorry it's not clear, it’s from an old slide)

© 1979 Louise Levergneux. Drawing and final watercolour of a self-portrait.

After some discussion, Guylaine sent me her creative process to share with you, my readers.

Je suis passionnée par le processus créatif depuis des années. J’ai essayé toutes sortes de démarche, d’exercices, par moi-même et avec mes étudiants.

En graphisme, mon principal métier au départ, il faut être créatif sur commande, répondre au client. Comme artiste cela change bien sûr, mais le processus reste le même. Je pourrais vous en parler longtemps.

Maintenant que je suis une artiste à temps plein, je me fais un devoir de toujours pratiquer même et surtout quand l’inspiration n’y est pas. Tout devient prétexte à essayer des choses : des défis en ligne, des collages dans mes cahiers, des cartes ou autres courts projets qui ne demandent pas trop de réflexion. Ça peut être d’aller sketcher quelque part, il faut retrouver le plaisir de faire. En profiter pour sortir de sa zone de confort, de nos automatismes et de délaisser les écrans.

J’aime bien dire qu’en créativité, la quantité est plus importante que la qualité. Si vous faites bien vos devoirs, la qualité sera quelque part dans la quantité d’essais, de recherche, de tests que vous aurez faits. La valeur ajoutée est que dans cette pratique vous aurez appris des choses, c’est inévitable.

Avoir des débuts de projets n’est pas un échec, c’est de la recherche. Ces idées n’aboutissent pas? Ça fait parti du processus, ça nourrit notre pratique même si on ne les termine pas.

Dans les périodes un peu creuses, il faut visiter des expos, prendre le temps de regarder des livres d’art qu’on a acheté et qu’on n’a jamais vraiment regardé. Il faut nourrir l’inconscient de l’artiste que nous sommes.

Ne pas avoir d’attente, ne pas vouloir absolument trouver, accepter l’échec est sans doute la chose la plus difficile à intégrer dans une pratique artistique. Suivre la vague… Guylaine Couture

I have been passionate about the creative process for years. I have attempted all kinds of approaches and exercises, by myself and with my students.

In graphic design, which was my main profession, you have to be creative on command, to respond to the client. As an artist this changes of course, but the process remains the same. I could go on and on.

Now that I am a full-time artist, I make it a point to always practice even and especially when inspiration is not there. Everything becomes an excuse to investigate things: online challenges, collages in my notebooks, cards or other short projects that don’t require too much thought. It could be sketching somewhere, one must rediscover the pleasure of doing. The idea is to embrace the opportunity to get out of our comfort zone, of our automatisms, and to abandon screens.

I like to say that in creativity, quantity is more important than quality. If you do your homework well, the quality will be somewhere in the quantity of trials, research, and tests that you will have carried out. The added value is that while practicing you will have learned things — that is inevitable.

Having the beginnings of projects is not a failure; it is research. These ideas don’t come to fruition? It’s part of the process, and it feeds our practice.

In the slow periods, you have to visit exhibitions, take the time to look at art books bought and that you have never really looked at. We must feed the unconscious artist that we are.

Not having expectations, not absolutely wanting to find, accepting failure is arguably the hardest thing to integrate into an artistic practice. Follow the vibe... Guylaine Couture

© 2021 Guylaine Couture. Book made in spring 2021 — "Interest & exchange in the dirt." Guylaine did a lot of experience in printing. Also seen in the next two photos.

© 2021 Guylaine Couture. Guylaine wanted to print from a carton box of milk and then tried all kinds of vegetables directly on her press to see the textures she could get out of it for her book "Interest & exchange in the dirt."

© 2021 Guylaine Couture. Always for the same book "Interest & exchange in the dirt" , Guylaine tried to make paper threads following a technique discovered on the internet.

© 2021 Guylaine Couture. "The Detailed Correspondence", book created in the summer of 2021. Guylaine wanted to make a series of false stamps by trying various ways of doing them since she had a few colours and 25 copies to make. With some testing here and there, Guylaine finally used a gelli plate with acrylic.

© 2021 Guylaine Couture. For Guylaine’s last book "4 seconds" made in the summer of 2021, she tried drawing, sketching, collage and salvaging old prints. The result is quite interesting.

© 2021 Guylaine Couture. More drawing, sketching, collage and salvaging old prints for "4 seconds."

The correspondence received from my previous post inspired my thoughts and ideas. The nudge is what I needed. As a result, next month, I will outline the fun I’m having with my research on what might be a new project. Many thanks again for your comments, while I share my curiosity of my art world.