Monday, February 8, 2010

Seeing Things in Black & White




A black & white page spread for Orly Avineri’s Art Journaling class in my XL Moleskine journal. Using vintage images, vintage fonts, vintage advertising, decorative tape, white gel pens, Sharpie poster paint pens, acrylic paint. This spread took on a life of it’s own and was very difficult to know when to stop. With Orly’s help I flushed out the face on the left hand side. I liked that the peice was very collaborative and there was a lot of talking over it as it evolved. It also started out with a smaller picture of the man with the beard or I call him M.W.B. The spread contains a secret page can you guess where? The answer is farther down in this post. Blogger is not working to view a larger size. Click on the images on the left hand side under Flickr to view my pages in Flickr and you can see larger sizes there.

It was really fun to work only in black and white and shades of grey. I am not really a black or white thinker… I’ve always been about the shades of grey. How about you?

The left side of my black and white spread for Orly Avineri's Art Journaling group in my XL Moleskine Journal do you see a face?


The right side of my black and white spread. I love the M.W.B. I brought a couple of sizes to the group, Orly liked the larger size and used in her spread for the evening and I used a smaller one, you can see part of Orly's spread here. Can you guess where the secret page is?



Tada, the secret page...


A close-up of M.W.B. This page folds out to reveal more and a secret mini journaling page tucked in. The photo courtesy of ookami_dou on flickr.

My secret journaling page. Enjoy!





16 comments:

michelle ward said...

brian - love the black and white! it's a great learning experience to compose with just imagery...no distraction from color. love the hidden piece too. bravo!

The Muse said...

there are times when B&W simply fits the bill. in this case, i think i agree. there is so much to see, graphically, color would have taken away from the overall piece.

truly memorable.

Shelly Hickox said...

This is really cool! Fantastic work.

Paper Paradise said...

There's loads of work gone into this great spread! Love black and white so much, and love how you are obviously enjoying the process of journalling.

BellaKarma said...

Very cool! Love the idea of the challenge to create a spread only in B & W.

Just like with photography, sometimes B&W images appear more "vibrant" than when in color.

Anonymous said...

Very very nice Brian...even nicer though to touch it and flip the big MWB and find little MWB, and a letter...it's that giant journal page that keeps on giving... fantastic B&W images. Love the big face too...strong piece of art journaling.

Seth said...

That is so cool. I love the secret page. I rarely work in just black and white but seeing this inspires me. Thanks!

Dianne said...

black & white is a favorite of mine...this is stunning! thanks for stopping by my blog. your art journaling is varied & unique, you seem to be very prolific. perhaps the "prompts" help with that...your blog is inspiring!

Diana Trout {Nan.DT@verizon.net} said...

Hi Brian, This is really fantastic! Love the B&W, you made it so rich! and secret page. I'll bookmark your blog for sure! Where in the world did you get the x-l moleskine? Just how big is it?

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I can't believe your perseverance with this spread. There are so many details to look at. Yes, I saw the face. Very Gestalt.

Anonymous said...

...Teaser...
I'm intrigued...
XOXOrly

Dylan said...

I,m loving it babe, its sooo me...I,ve always been black or white, never grey, could you tell..?? lmao.. Okay its challenge time for you now..Take out all your frustrations on your own fuck you page, promise you,ll feel sooooo much better
laters xx

Glenda T. said...

Hi Brian, this is gorgeous!!! I've yet to try a black and white page, very inspiring!! Here is a link for some sillouettes where I made my bird stencil that you asked about:

http://www.fun-with-pictures.com/printable-silhouettes.html

I am always on the lookout too for good sites to download free images! Have a great week!

inge said...

hello Brian,

WOW : this is a faboulous page ! I liked it at first sight, but taking a closer look, I really like all that is going on on the page , I hardly have eyes to take it all in!

I'm not a black and white person too, much more in into color, but I really, really like this. I worked for ATT in black and white for a tag swap and it was a challenge.I DO like the result, so maybe I should give this black and white experiment more chances to develop :)

greetings from belgium
Inge

Chris said...

I'm all for black and white! I'm starting a black and white journal. It was great to see this piece. Lotsa depth and interconnection.

bockel24 said...

This turned out great! I love b/w but am not able to do it myself, there´s always some colour in it ;-)