Combining Book Writing with Scrapbooking

I've had great fun illustrating my picture book about my Uncle William "Buffalo Bill" Mathewson using sketches and scrapbooking techniques.  I wrote the story of his life first, then came up with the illustrations.  Since I'd been teaching scrapbooking and family history research, I decided to incorporate some of these art techniques into the art work of this book.

The book initially was written to share with my family about their ancestor.  Then I was asked to share the story of the life of my ancestor who was known as the first Buffalo Bill in the schools.  So I began drawing pictures to accompany my presentations.  These evolved into illustrations for the book.

The original book contains the scrapbooking additions and has somewhat of a 3-D effect.  This comes through fairly well when I photocopied the book. Since I self-published the book, I was able to be creative and use some unorthodox techniques.

I'm also making postcards of the cover as promotional pieces.

Be creative with the books you write and publish.  It's such fun.

Illustrating my 250th Anniversary Book

I'm working on some illustrations for my 250th anniversary book about Plymouth, NH.  I'm also looking to find the negatives for photos I took when writing the original newspaper columns and magazine articles. 

I've discovered, the more I do it, the more I enjoy sketching for my books.

The Excitement of Getting Back to My Art Work

Something seems to be nudging me back to my art work. Many years ago I worked in oils, acrylics and watercolor. I also sketched and did pen and ink.

I took private lessons and my teacher, a well known artist in Waco, TX, encouraged me to keep going when we had to move from the area. Eventually I took a two-year correspondence course with the Famous Artists School. That stretched me in my abilities and introduced me to various medium.

I sold quite a few of my paintings. In looking over those remaining, I have to admit, I'm impressed! I can envision reprints, greeting cards and postcards, perhaps notepaper, even items like mugs, aprons, t-shirts and more.

Is that cheapening my work? I think it allows more people to enjoy it...and hopefully be uplifted.

Some of my variety of work:

• Scenery
• People
• Animals
• Home portraits
• Birds
• Abstract
• Mystical
  

In the form of:

• Canvasses of various sizes
• Greeting cards
• Postcards
• Book Illustrations

Then I became more involved in quiltmaking and writing. Nowadays, I find myself sketching on note paper and envelopes. I've pulled out a small sketch book I can tuck into a pocket or purse.

Something tells me I can combine all of these, especially with the new innovations of selling online.

(Image by sxc.hu)