SCALEY THE TURTLE

JUNK MAIL BOOK

INSPIRED BY ILLUSTRATOR CARLA SONHEIM

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

junk mail, gesso, watercolor, marking pens, charcoal

This is such a great assignment;

part bookmaking, part written story, part illustration and part interactive.

It requires huge critical thinking on the part of each student,

and is fairly difficult to finish on time.

It is their First Quarter Final and a bit of a challenge.

This year I'm only featuring one finished book.

It was done by former senior Sarah Oh.

She writes about a true story in her life,

a big life lesson for her and her younger brother.

And it's sad, poignant & funny all at once.

It's brilliant!

Take a gander.

And please enlarge to be able to read the text.

To build these books we start with recycled junk mail that I save all year long.

I ask the kids to pick out their favorite pieces visually and try to organize them within a color scheme.

I also have them pick out a couple of envelops.

They gesso lightly over all these pieces of junk (both sides)

so that you can just see thru to the visual/text underneath.

When the gesso is dry then they pick a color scheme 

and watercolor those colors over both sides of junk mail.

This whole time they are thinking and about and writing out a story to tell based on a theme.

I really enjoyed this glimpse into Sarah's childhood and her traumatic event with her turtle,

and the lesson learned.

Because this book is interactive where one page must flow into the next

 from top to bottom and side to side,

the kids must pick where to begin their drawing.

Most start with the front cover then work their way inside.

They use a marker for this.

Then they go back into each page's drawing and paint in additional gesso

to make part of each drawing pop.

I also ask them to bring some Zentangling into the drawings,

as well as a bit of charcoal for value and shading.

It's a heck of a lot of work, 

but usually the kids rise to it.

But there is always usually one child who doesn't quite finish on time.

Yet it's a valuable learning experience on so many levels.

As you can see in Sarah's book,

she is a gifted storyteller as well as illustrator.

I was laughing out loud reading her book for the first time.

We've reached the end.

Thank you Sarah for sharing your story with us!