The Complete Guide to Altered Imagery - Mixed-Media Techniques for Collage- Altered Books- Artist Jo Description:

The Complete Guide to Altered Imagery : Mixed-Media Techniques for Collage, Altered Books, Artist Journals, and More review:
1 stars (Highly Disappointing) - Much too vague to be called the complete guide. A few helpful techniques are included but for the most part it was a huge disappointment. Think I will stay with the tried and true collage artists who are well versed in sharing their knowledge.
5 stars (Incredible artist, amazing book!) - I was so excited when I heard Karen Michel was writing her first book and was willing to share her incredible photo altering techniques with us.



These techniques will get you to break out all your old and not quite "perfect" photos and will help you turn them into amazing works of art.



The instructions are clear and the graphic design is beautiful! This book has a permanent place with my other favorites on my night stand so I can look at it again and again!



- claudine hellmuth

author, Collage Discovery Workshop and Collage Discovery Workshop:Beyond the Unexpected
5 stars (Layering, texture and the pleasures of distress.) - Here is a visual feast of lush painterly textures and fabulous vibrant coats of color upon gesso upon color, and while I am for the most part completely satisfied with the amount of how-to information and the spare style of presentation, it was obvious to me from the beginning that artists not previously experienced in paint materials or not as familiar with the use of paint and gesso in a book format might be a little disappointed with the very sparsity of step by step photos that I'm actually a little relieved to be skipping over this time. If you've had some art classes or are fairly familiar with common AB techniques and have perused the other AB how-to books and maybe keep up with threads on blogs or mailing lists about popular materials, chances are you won't be left behind by Michel's straightforward but not intensively detailed instructions. This is not a book where you follow A to B to C to instant "Karen Michel" art. There are progressive photos of steps, but not in the same minute way we've come to expect steps in other craft books. The message is more, "be free! experiment!" than it is "do this exactly!" which is precisely what I liked about this book.



I was delighted to finally gain more insight into Michel's now famous photo altering techniques, which I'd heard about for years but could never quite get the straight dope on without taking a class from her (believe me, I would if I could!). The only thing I'm slightly disappointed in is that many of the images of her work are readily available either in other artist's books or online. I was thrilled to see more of her work but still I wish there were *more* of her previously unreleased work here. The section including other artists' work is also marvelous, though, and did include images I had not already hunted down elsewhere online. The only other tiny thing I'm not entirely clear on that I would appreciated more information about is her use of hard gesso for book pages, which I've read blurbs about elsewhere (for example; is it the type you make from a mix?), but then I think I'll be intrepid and just buy some myself and see if I like it better than acrylic gesso. I'm more than happy to run with the lively, color-saturated inspiration offered here without getting every single technique in exquisite detail.



All in all, I'm extremely satisfied with this release and even after repeated readings I'm still picking the book up and going through it again.