How to Incorporate Your Artwork into Photo Books
Making your own custom photo books is always a creative endeavor, so it’s no surprise that many Mixbookers are very artistic people. If you’re a professional artist or a hobbyist, or if you work or play in a creative field, incorporating your original art into any photo book project will come naturally. There are many different ways to do so. Options range from making an art portfolio book to adding hand-drawn accents to a family, travel, or everyday photo book project.
Here are some ideas for creating an art photo book, plus handy tips for incorporating all kinds of artwork into stunning, personalized photo books.
Art Portfolio Books
A polished art portfolio book is an essential tool for any professional artist or designer working in every medium, from drawing and painting to digital art and graphic design. An art portfolio book showcases your best works, encapsulates your chosen niche and signature style, and shows off your capabilities to potential employees or buyers.
Art students also need to create portfolios as part of their educational journeys, and art teachers might assign portfolio projects as part of their curriculum. Hobbyists also benefit from making an art portfolio book. It’s great for keeping track of your projects, seeing your evolution as an artist, and showing your best works to others.
Art portfolio books typically have minimalist designs and straightforward layouts, with lots of white space and minimal text for essential details only. This keeps all the visual focus on your art. The following Mixbook themes are top choices for art portfolios:
For a successful art portfolio book, be very thoughtful about which works of art to feature, and how you present them on the page. While there is room to show a broad range of skills, each piece should fit your particular niche and showcase your signature style, media, and techniques. Consider including an introduction page and a bio page, which can feature blocks of informative text and photos of yourself.
For more about making art portfolio books, read our comprehensive guide: How to Build an Effective and Stunning Artwork Portfolio
Kids’ Art Photo Books
Celebrate your child’s artistic side and encourage them to embrace their innate creativity by making a special kids’ art photo book. This could be a delightful project to work on together, or a surprise gift that your child will treasure forever.
We have several super-fun photo book themes that are perfect for showcasing kids’ art, including:
Unlike the minimalist themes recommended for adult art portfolio books, these complement the color-packed exuberance of kids’ art with bright backgrounds, fun photo frames, and playful text elements. You could also start with a blank canvas or customize any other theme to match your kid’s unique artistic style.
For more, check out our guide: How to Turn Kid's Art Into a Photo Book
Custom Photo Book Accents and Stickers
It can be really fun and rewarding to use your own artwork as accents and custom stickers for a photo book project that’s not directly related to your art. From fully finished paintings and drawings to casual sketches and doodles, your art can be a fitting complement to photo spreads in any type of book.
Here are some ideas for creating an art-accented photo book:
- Arrange doodles of your cat or dog around the pages of a pet photo book.
- Place hand-drawn or painted portraits of loved ones next to their photos.
- Design fun picture frames to go around select photos.
- Include sketches and hand-written notes associated with projects you’re featuring in a hobby book.
- Turn hand-drawn patterns into borders or linear accents.
Artwork as Backgrounds
Among its many versatile features and tools, the Mixbook Studio™ allows you to upload your own backgrounds for photo book pages and spreads. This means your own works of art (in any media) can span the pages behind photo spreads for a stunning and unique design.
Here are some ideas:
- A watercolor gradient matching the color palette of your photo book.
- Architectural or landscape sketches of the locations featured in your travel photo book.
- Art depicting the foods and drinks you enjoyed during travels, a birthday party, or big event.
- Drawings of the flora and fauna of a place featured in your photo book.
- Illustrated fantastical or other-worldy scenes for a touch of humor and whimsy.
Artistic Lettering and Handwriting
If calligraphy, hand-lettering, or typography are among your artistic pursuits, incorporate those skills into your next photo book project.
Instead of using standard text options for captions, pages headers, the title page, and other text elements, use digital images of your own artistic lettering. Ideas include artistic monograms as accents, the names of a newlywed couple in a wedding album, and decorative lettering for destination names in a vacation album.
Perhaps you, or someone in your family, has beautiful handwriting. You can incorporate this into your photo book instead of the typical type for a beautiful, personal touch. Flourishing autographs are another fun option. You might include snippets of hand-written notes from greetings cards, personal letters, postcards, or your wedding guest book.
How to Upload Artwork to a Mixbook Project
To upload artwork to a Mixbook project, it first needs to be in a digital format. Mixbook recommends the following formats and quality guidelines for best results:
- File types: .JPG / .JPEG, .HEIC or .PNG
- Minimum size: 4MB at 300 DPI for best print quality
- Maximum file size: 15MB per image
- Color profile: sRGB recommended, but CMYK is also accepted
If you work in a digital medium, such as graphic art, you’re ready to go! For visual artists, digitizing your works can be very easy or quite tricky, depending on the size and format.
Scanning artwork is the best option for 2D formats that fit neatly onto a scanner bed, like drawings and illustrations on paper or cardstock. Bulkier art, such as painted canvases, collages, or the contents of sketchbooks, calls for a more creative approach. Here are some options to consider:
- Take your art to a copy shop with equipment for scanning larger formats
- Take photographs of your art with a camera or smartphone
- Use a scanning app on a smartphone or tablet
We have lots more scanning and digitizing tips here: How to Enhance Your Year-in-Review Photo Book with Memorabilia
Once your art is digitized, you can upload it to a Mixbook project in the “Photos” tab, and drag and drop to place it in your photo book project. The image will behave just like any other photo, meaning you can resize, move, and edit the image.
Uploading Backgrounds
(To use art as a custom background, its dimensions need to be 3433 x 4499 pixels with a 228 x 229 pixel bleed.)
- Open the “Backgrounds” tab on the left side of the Mixbook Studio™
- Click the “Upload Backgrounds” button
- Locate and click the file for the art you want to use, then click “Open”
Uploading Stickers
(Sticker dimensions should have the largest side greater than 2400 pixels. A transparent .PNG format is recommended.)
- Open the “Stickers” tab on the left side of the Mixbook Studio™
- Click the “Upload Stickers” button
- Locate and click on the file for the art you want to use, then click “Open”
Ready to Make an Art-Filled Photo Book?
From art portfolios to art-accented photo albums, there are no limits on the creative options available in the Mixbook Studio™. We’d love it if you shared your works of art with us! Share your customer story and use #mymixbookstory on social.
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