The Book of Drawings: Final Outcome

This is my final and finished book and the process I carried out to make it.

The pages were the most simple part of the book to make. I used plain cartridge paper to print my images onto because I think it was suitable and durable. I printed my images off back to back so that they fit in the right order and I had the minimum amount of pages possible. To bind the pages together I used a technique called Saddle stitch which I used white cotton for (so it didn't show) and I think it worked really well. The pages were sewn together tightly therefore making it hard to come apart. The images inside where highly inspired by artists that I looked at such as Shaun Tan and Rodrigo Araya. I went for the black and white style with animals inserted into every day situations.

To make the cover of my book I took two pieces of A5 mount board and stuck it to a sheet of black card that was just a little bigger than A4, with a few millimeter gap between them. I used strong glue to board to the card and folded over the edges to create a neat cover. Once that had dried I got another piece of A4 black card and stuck that on top of the folded edges just so that the inside of the book was neat and clean. Once that was dry I got my bound pages and glued them into the gap which I left earlier. When the whole thing was dry I noticed that the book didn't close with ease and realised the problem was that I didn't leave a big enough gap between the two pieces of mount board which created the spine. I left it under weights for a few days and it seems okay now. I was going to make a fabric cover for my book of drawings but I realised that I liked the paper style much better. I researched Sarah McNeil and she makes sewn bound sketchbooks with paper covers and I really liked the look of it. I decided just to keep my cover plain black because I didn't want to put a title on there and I wanted the cover to flow well with the style of the drawings (black and white).