Guided by Book Arts and Design teacher Rebecca Goodale, learn basic art and design principles of using black and white to achieve balance in composition in your work.

There are no available registration dates at this time.

NOTE: This Class will meet in a live, online format using the Zoom Platform.
Class meets 3 Wednesday evenings, Feb 1, 8, and 15,  6-8pm EST.

Nuphar Advena - By Rebecca Goodale
Nuphar advena from Cathance River, 2011. By Rebecca Goodale.

In this Introduction to Design and the Visual Book Series, you can take both three-week workshops or either one. In the first workshop of this series, we will cover the basic art and design principles of using black and white to achieve balance in composition.

This will be a two-hour zoom class for three weeks with a small amount of homework each week.

Black and White – Balance in composition, we will cover:

  1. The cutaway book, using black and white paper
  2. The Sensuality of Direct marks – black and white ink on black and white paper- Accordion book
  3. Texture and the two-section book – black and white china markers on black and white paper. 

Supplies needed: 

  • Black paper 
  • White paper
  • X-acto knife and blades
  • White dental floss, white or black binder’s thread, or black or white embroidery floss
  • Black and white bottle of ink
  • A set of small brushes ( or anything you have on hand)
  • Pencil and notebook
  • Small Elmer’s glue (or PVA if you have it)
  • Black and white china marker

This workshop is part of the Introduction to Design and the Visual Book Series:

  1. Black and White – Balance and composition (Online) – This workshop.
  2. Achromatic Values: Contrast and Subtleties and the Visual Book 2 (Online)

Images by Rebecca Goodale.

Share This

Instructor: Rebecca Goodale

For the past twenty years, Rebecca Goodale has been creating a series of artist’s books about Maine’s rare plants and animals. Recently she has been revisiting her training as a textile designer by employing that aesthetic and various printmaking techniques to create large-scale repeatable patterns. Rebecca has taught Book Arts and Design at the University of Southern Maine for 4 decades. Her work is in many collections including the Maine Women Writers Collection at UNE, Bowdoin College Library, Herron Art Library at IUPUI, Boston Athenaeum, Yale University, Harvard University, the Library of Congress, and the Portland Museum of Art.

Learn More