Creating an Ever-Folding Book with La Scarlatte

I've enjoyed watching artist Pauline Teunissen, who calls herself La Scarlatte, on her Substack and YouTube, where she demonstrates a design for a multi-page illustration she calls an ever-folding book.  

Above is the front page of my ever-folding book.  I had some pumpkins leftover from a drawing class I taught, and added rose hips and chestnuts to the still life.  In the mornings at the breakfast table, I'd sketch as the light came in through the windows.

With three sheets of paper, each folded in quarters, there are a lot of different views in this one book.  Below is a page where I added a blue shadow behind the pumpkin stem, then decided I didn't like the look of it, and turned it into a blue bottle.

Mistakes can lead to "happy accidents" as Bob Ross would say, and I love the effect of the blue glass against the orange pumpkin.

Flipping another couple of pages, I added this turkey feather in a blue jar.

I found it tricky to make each page make sense in the context of the other pages, so I ended up repeating the large pumpkin in most of the pages.

But this gave me the opportunity to create variations, like using the blue from the bottle and jar to create shadows on the orange pumpkin in the bottom right panel.  I like the way using that blue in three places connects the pieces of the composition.

Another page flip, and I added an animal to the story to liven things up a bit.  I found a photo of a little Carolina Wren on Pixabay, and added her to the scene.

Pixabay is a source of copyright free photos you can use to make art from.

And a final flip shows my favorite drawing of the little pumpkin.  The light coming in the windows the morning I drew this was bright enough to make lovely shadows.  I had so much fun drawing this little pumpkin!

I enjoyed the challenge of creating a new composition with each flip of the page, and liked drawing on different colored papers.  I didn't plan the drawings out, really.  It was more like a puzzle to be solved the moment I turned to a fresh view.

You can find instructions for making an ever-folding book by joining La Scarlatte's Substack here:

https://lascarlatte.substack.com/

You can see her ever-folding book on her YouTube channel here: 

https://youtu.be/WS7lG5Qxnpk?si=MgE0kx2SEll32zM0

I hope you'll give this a try!

Happy Creating!

Color in the Dead of Winter

I just came back from a birthday celebration with my family, and our dear friend Brad.  Brad and I share birthdays within a week of each other, and so we celebrated today with lunch out.  Brad gave me the most delicious box of colors -- Prismacolor Art Stix.  They are much like Conte Crayons -- squared sticks of pure color -- but in a rainbow of rich colors.  I grabbed some fruit from the fruit bowl to test them out on, and was pleased with the way the flat sides laid down smooth shadows and the crisp edges created bold contour lines.  They lay down rich tones easily.

Outside, it's 17 ℉,  and intermittently throughout day, snow spit from the low clouds.  The world looks monochromatic.  These Art Stix were just what my eyes hungered for.  Can't wait for the first spring daffodils and greened-up grass to test my new toys on!

My cat, Chubby, flopped by my side while I drew.