Vanessa (she/her) is a Canadian archaeologist and artist who lives abroad. Currently in Beijing, China, Vanessa firmly believes in the magic of art. Her work is centered around the idea that ritual and a mindful art practice can bring so much to one’s life.
7.1 The Return to self This art spread is a celebration of the heroine’s return home, the return to feeling whole and happy. We will be using tissue paper to create a multi-layered spread. If you have some, try to use printed tissue paper that recalls some of your...
1.4 The Heroine Feels DifferentOur heroine, regardless of the word we chose, often has an inkling that something is about to go down. We feel a certain pull before the journey starts. It’s just that we are not always aware of that little voice or that little tug...
Now we enter the thick lushness of the Underground Forest. Our heroine makes her way through the Road of Trials and she meets all kinds of monsters and dragons that she has to fight along the way. The Underground Forest This may seem a bit dramatic but navigating the...
4.4 dEATHNo matter how deep within she goes, the heroine realises that she has to let go of many things in order to carry on. In essence, she has to die - her old self has to go - and then she can be reborn. This spread is a monument to that moment when the heroine...
6.1 HEaling the splitThis moment when the heroine heals all parts of her is almost anti climactic in that it is a softening of the self. There are no big trumpets or announcements, it is something she feels within. We will be using transparencies once more to show the...
2.1 The CatalystTo mark the arrival of the catalyst, we will be using the idea of the door. The catalyst comes knocking and once our heroine opens that door, she cannot close it easily! In the video below, I walk you through the process, including how I chose some...
3.3 Boss MonsterWhat happens after our heroine has been on this road for a while? As with any good video game, there comes the meeting with the Boss Monster. This meeting can be an actual moment with a person or it can be a situation where things came to a head. It is...
5.1 Meeting the GoddessMeeting a goddess is no small feat, don’t you agree? Before making spread about the encounter, we will use the idea of imagery under imagery. We will create doors that open unto the goddess herself. We will be using all the sequins, confetti and...
6.4 Walking Back through the ThresholdOur heroine makes the conscious decision to return to the Known World. She is stronger and more complete for having traversed the trials held within the journey. We will be using the same interactive technique as for the first...
1.2 A Simple wordFor this second spread, we will choose a word that speaks to how our heroine is feeling at the start of this journey. Kind of like when we choose a word for the year, this will represent what will guide our heroine at the start of this journey. We...
2.4 Getting Ready to GoNo one sets off willingly on a journey without properly packing. Even when the journey is not of our choosing, we can have agency by taking a moment to gather our tools (even if these are truly just metaphorical tools). For this spread, we will...
4.2 dOWN TO THE cOREThis realisation that something has to change within is one that the heroine feels down to her core. To illustrate this we will be doing a “peel and reveal” spread. This term I first heard from Orly Avineri. You may remember a similar tutorial that...
5.4 Taming the Inner FireOur Heroine has come a long way. Meeting the divine - whether it’s the divine within or without - has allowed her to tame the uncontrollable urgent burn-everything-down fire that was consuming her. Now, our heroine is better equipped to go...
7.2 The GiftThe gift of putting the words in my Inner Heroine journal was really special to me. This journal was started at the end of 2019 and finished in mid-2020. So you can imagine how much transformation happened in between those dates. Adding in the words,...
0.1 Inspiration Flip & Other JourneysThe next two videos are meant to serve as inspiration. I looked through my previously completed altered book journals to see what kind of spreads I like to do and how I best use the images that are already present in the books...
In this first lesson in our Inner Heroine’s journey, we are setting the scene before the journey begins. We will take a look at which heroine we are, using archetypes and storytelling tropes, and we will also figure out the best way to tell our story using the...
0.2 Choosing Your BookChoosing the book that you will alter is super important. The book must support your storytelling. The ideal book gives you lots of fodder to work with: it has images, a font or words that inspire you, that make you want to interact with it....
1.1 Title PageFor this first spread in our altered book, we will make a title page. In the video below, I show which supplies to gather and how to go about this. Have in mind which archetypes you associate your heroine with, as well as some symbols that may help to...
Welcome, welcome! I am so glad you are here. This class has been a long time coming and I am full of all the emotions at the thought of sharing it with you. The point of this class is to document a journey. It may not be the first that your heroine undergoes. She may...
0.3 SuppliesIn terms of supplies, you need to go for whatever supports your storytelling. Just because I am using this or that doesn’t mean that that is the supply that works for you. Always adapt my lessons to what works. The important thing is not that it looks like...