For my final project, I am creating a “lifescape” book. I am conveying a personal narrative of a chunk of my life, including elements that define my life’s journey from my youth to my adolescence focusing on the people and places that have shaped the person I am today. The final book will be printed & bound as a hard-cover accordion book.
I found and collected visual elements to include in my book. I included images of friends and family as well as imagery of my home and region.
After I collected the imagery, I used the Adobe Capture app to create black and white figure versions of the originals. I then opened them in photoshop and removed the white so that when I added them into my book document they were black figure drawings. I kept some of the white in some of them and added color to some others.
Examples of some of the unedited figure images:
In my book document in photoshop, I decided to use an edited and semi-transparent image of Lake George, the lake I grew up on, as the background. It spreads across all the pages. I colorized it so that it matched the color scheme I chose which features variations of orange and red-orange.
After the background was set, I began adding the imagery I chose. I begin the book by setting the scene. I used the map imagery and used text from an image of a sign marking the entrance into the region I live in. I also indicate the location through use of images from my life such as an image of me driving my boat as a child.
As the pages progress I use show the passing of time as I begin to get older. I show the local mountains I skied on and the personal photos I use feature people that I grew up with and who are special to me.
I then indicate through the use of photos the introduction of my niece, who has played a large role in my transition from child to young adult, and I finish the book with more photos of special people and some text from Virginia Woolf.
Finally I converted this book template into a pdf and printed it and I made it into an accordion style, hardcover book.
