Inspirational Warm-Up Exercises
Look at a Blackout Book for Inspiration
My inspiration for this project was a blackout book my nine-year-old daughter brought home from school one day. I loved the way she not only found words to “save” from the black marker, but she also drew pictures around some words to complement her theme. When looked at as a whole, she had created a mystery story within the mystery story of the original text.
FRIGHTENING EYES: MY BLACK OUT POEMS
Annabelle Rivot
Section of altered book on cardboard and construction paper
9" × 6" (23cm × 15cm)
Reference: Find a Text to Alter
The most important thing you’ll need for this project is a good piece of writing to alter. If you don’t mind destroying a book, you can rip out an actual book page and trim it to the size of your wood substrate. You can find interesting old books at garage sales and thrift shops. There are even online resources that will sell you single pages to alter if you like the element of surprise. Another option is to photocopy a book page or find a piece of writing you like and retype it in book form. As I have a poet in the family, I chose this option.
I used the poem “The End Is the Beginning” by Jay DiPaola from a book we wrote and illustrated together called The Red Boots: A Love Story. Since I wanted the poem to fit onto a 5" × 7" (13cm × 18cm) panel and look like a book page, I first retyped it and formatted it in Photoshop. Some great fonts to mimic real books are Garamond, Minion and Helvetica.