Haggadah Project

Blank pages, just waiting to be illustrated

My next big project...

A complete haggadah, fully illustrated by me :)

Yes, it's ambitious.  I have already set out my deadlines and figured out how many pages and illustrations I will need.  I will use this blog (as I did for my mural project) to inspire me and keep me going as I work all the way up until April 2.

This haggadah will contain the full traditional text, highlighting a few songs along the way (and at the end), as well as a little bit of commentary.  There won't be any specific "bend" to it, it's not a "feminist" haggadah or a "revolutionary" haggadah.  It's just a regular family haggadah... made by me.

The final project will be printed in limited quantities for me and my family to use, and then will be available for purchase in a few formats.  I'm hoping to have a cheap PDF downloadable format as well as a full-color printed format.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure these will be ready to purchase by Passover (my goal is to use them by then but I don't know if I can realistically pre-sell them), so follow along and maybe buy one for next year!

Since I'm not going to post this until after Found Object Art Month, I will continue to update this post until I reach Dec 5, when it will be officially posted... if that makes sense.


November 23

I'm already behind!  Today's check-list was to finalize the spread and make 5 illustrations.  Finalizing the spread took longer than I thought it would.  There were so many options to have the book printed but none of them seemed flexible enough.  I felt that I needed to figure out exactly how I would be putting the pages together (and their measurements) before I even began my illustrations, which I imagine will be full pages.  I want to be able to print a limited quantity on my own, and then export a PDF so that it can either be available to download online or I can send it to a real printer.

AandIBooks seemed like a good option - they had a downloadable software that would help me do the text layouts over the images.  Predictably, their software only exports to their printing website, and any "proofs" export with huge watermarks all over them.  I spent a good portion of the afternoon investigating this option, losing at least an hour in the process, but at least I found this out now, before I base my whole book on their layout and format!

So I'm back to my iPhoto printing option for the limited quantities (or Kinko's I guess).  The problem is that iPhoto doesn't do text layouts the way I want them to.  So, instead, I figured out how to rig Pages to do the text layouts.  I'm planning to cut full-sized sheets of watercolor paper anyway, so I'll just import the images into Pages and then do a text layout on top of them.  THEN export that as a PDF, change it from a PDF to a JPG in Preview, then import it into iPhoto, then turn it into a book.

I could also skip the PDF -> JPG step and get it printed at Kinko's or wherever.

So this evening I finally got started.  I was hesitating because of this decision, I think.  It is a major decision, one that is hard to backtrack once I've gotten started.  But now I have cut some paper and I'm ready to start illustrating (beginning with bedikat chametz).  But I'm already behind.  Even if I start illustrating now, I won't be able to finish five tonight.