Zombie Squid: October 2012

This project is to take an existing book and alter it in someway. this can be achieved by making a 3d structure for the book components such as the pages and cover or making a 2d work by working on the pages of the book for example drawing illustration related to a book on the pages over the text.

I chose to focus on the ways I can take an existing work and develop an idea related to the story.

Looking at possible ideas for what book I can alter I choose to look at Moby Dick by Herman Melville and or Twenty Thousands Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.

Looking at how other artist have approached the Idea

I decided to try and find some visual research on how other artists have altered books. I found many different images showing creative ways to alter a book on Pinterest.com but two artists work I thought were unique were:

Guy Laramee, whose work focus on creating miniature landscapes from carving into hardback covered books.

part of "the great wall" series by artist guy laramee - books carved to create landscape.

I feel this idea was really well implemented and the work itself demonstrate strong use of the 3D form through the layers of the structure from the mountain rock like section to the flat sanded down steps that shape the model and gives us a sense of dimension, scale and perspective.

the second artist work I looked at was Brian Dettmer.

Brian Dettmer manipulates books by cutting into them using surgical tools. He reshapes them using only parts from the books themselves and adding nothing but only making marks based around the books illustration amplifying the content to an interactive point for the reader. his work is normally very intricate and planned out, forming a collage of images and shapes from the book pages that together helps form the artwork as whole for the viewer rather than page to page.

I looked at many other works that can be viewed on the pinterest page of my blog.

Ideas in Sketch book

Ideas so far

I have chosen to go with two initial ideas which are:

to make a 3D model using the materials of the books. the models would be depicting a scene form the books.
possibly make a flick book using paperback versions of the books.

At this point I have only been able to get hardback copies of the books and have tied to get some paper back copies by ordering them but I feel moving forward with the model idea would be best and would be something I am more interested in doing.

So I want to make a 3d model using pages from the book showing the moment in the book Twenty thousands leagues under the sea, where the giant octopus attacks captains Nemo's ship. I would like build the structure so it appears the octopus is rising out from the text on the page.

This shows a page form my book thinking of ways to build the tentacles for the octopus and how they would suport there own weight

I also thought about making a simular idea with he Moby dick book showing the moment in the book where the whale is attacks captain Ahab But focus in time management I decided not to continue with the idea until the first model was complete and if there is time before the dead line.