Moldy Alchemy Textbook Progress Pics
I appear to have developed a positive aversion to sleep. I've horse-pilled myself with melatonin and tryptophan, and hopefully a massive pseudo-turkey-nap will descend before the madness does.
I don't know why going to bed is pissing me off like it is.
Anyway. More arty stuff. I posted a link last week to this simple Halloween book tutorial. Being me, I'm going to take it a little further, so I'm adapting ozarque's nifty altered book tutorial to suit my evil needs. (I've seen the collage work she does in person, it's very cool and her method yields really cool results.)
I took an old schoolbook, gutted it, and refitted the outer cover. Voilà! A skanky old alchemy textbook!
You can do this, too. It required very little actual talent. Just persistence and a hairdryer and some cat help.
Tazendra approves. I love this picture. It's so very . . . bell, book and candle.
Fur interlude. Obtrusive cat intrudes!
Here it is, spread-eagle.
It's not pretty inside yet. Eventually it will be fully bound with endpapers and everything. At least, that is my eventual goal.
The back.
I am mostly satisfied, though I should've included an area for text on the spine and I may yet go in and apply some flaking and scabby gold leaf to the raised areas.
The tutorial did not include this step, but instead of painting directly onto the wet glue/water mix after applying the "leather," (*cough*papertowels*cough*) I slathered on two heavy coats of gesso to seal it and prevent it from absorbing everydamnthing I painted onto it. My first attempt did not go well and the colors washed out way too much. I recommend an acrylic-friendly spray primer or sealer, or gesso if you have it. You will also need a good matte or satin-finish topcoat to stop your hard work rubbing off the raised areas.
I'm having a blast writing the interior text, which will be printed out and then antiqued before being glued into the book.
SECTION I: POTIONS
Potions are mixtures of herbal, elemental, and animal components that have been reduced to a powder, suspension, or colloid and then refined by one of the twelve core alchemical processes. The refined ingredients are combined and refined again. Their innate properties are thus concentrated and released into the preparation.
They are superior to herbal elixirs in that they are more potent at lower dosages and can be easily tailored to an individual, and inferior in that they are more time-consuming, expensive, and difficult to prepare.
Great care must be taken in the preparation of all potions, as a failure in the preliminary refinement of any of the components, as well as failure in the final refinement, will result in failure of the potion. Such an error at best causes the potion to become inert; at worst, the effects can be lethal.
The conscientious alchemist is careful to record each step in a workbook so that no step of a known recipe is missed, and so that any errors may later be detected and addressed when attempting to alter a mixture or create a new one.
I would just leave the interior as-is, but the scruffy and evocative look of the new old cover is far superior to the old old cover and at odds with the predominantly orange and pale blue Spanish textbook innards. I felt the need to put some actual interesting text in there, even though I'm the only one who will probably ever bother to read it. It's really fun to invent bizarre, disgusting, and funny formulae, though.
I want to do a couple of others to go in my wunderkammen where they can sit and look cool while being propped up by skulls; I'll do a pirate-themed one for sure, and probably a really evil stitched-together looking one, though realistically I probably won't write text for the interior of those. Bind up some blank books, maybe, and use them for journals.
Looks like that artificially-induced turkey nap is hitting, and both cats are in bed and waiting for me to go snuggle them, so I'm off. Enjoy the pics!
I don't know why going to bed is pissing me off like it is.
Anyway. More arty stuff. I posted a link last week to this simple Halloween book tutorial. Being me, I'm going to take it a little further, so I'm adapting ozarque's nifty altered book tutorial to suit my evil needs. (I've seen the collage work she does in person, it's very cool and her method yields really cool results.)
I took an old schoolbook, gutted it, and refitted the outer cover. Voilà! A skanky old alchemy textbook!
You can do this, too. It required very little actual talent. Just persistence and a hairdryer and some cat help.
Tazendra approves. I love this picture. It's so very . . . bell, book and candle.
Fur interlude. Obtrusive cat intrudes!
Here it is, spread-eagle.
It's not pretty inside yet. Eventually it will be fully bound with endpapers and everything. At least, that is my eventual goal.
The back.
I am mostly satisfied, though I should've included an area for text on the spine and I may yet go in and apply some flaking and scabby gold leaf to the raised areas.
The tutorial did not include this step, but instead of painting directly onto the wet glue/water mix after applying the "leather," (*cough*papertowels*cough*) I slathered on two heavy coats of gesso to seal it and prevent it from absorbing everydamnthing I painted onto it. My first attempt did not go well and the colors washed out way too much. I recommend an acrylic-friendly spray primer or sealer, or gesso if you have it. You will also need a good matte or satin-finish topcoat to stop your hard work rubbing off the raised areas.
I'm having a blast writing the interior text, which will be printed out and then antiqued before being glued into the book.
SECTION I: POTIONS
Potions are mixtures of herbal, elemental, and animal components that have been reduced to a powder, suspension, or colloid and then refined by one of the twelve core alchemical processes. The refined ingredients are combined and refined again. Their innate properties are thus concentrated and released into the preparation.
They are superior to herbal elixirs in that they are more potent at lower dosages and can be easily tailored to an individual, and inferior in that they are more time-consuming, expensive, and difficult to prepare.
Great care must be taken in the preparation of all potions, as a failure in the preliminary refinement of any of the components, as well as failure in the final refinement, will result in failure of the potion. Such an error at best causes the potion to become inert; at worst, the effects can be lethal.
The conscientious alchemist is careful to record each step in a workbook so that no step of a known recipe is missed, and so that any errors may later be detected and addressed when attempting to alter a mixture or create a new one.
I would just leave the interior as-is, but the scruffy and evocative look of the new old cover is far superior to the old old cover and at odds with the predominantly orange and pale blue Spanish textbook innards. I felt the need to put some actual interesting text in there, even though I'm the only one who will probably ever bother to read it. It's really fun to invent bizarre, disgusting, and funny formulae, though.
I want to do a couple of others to go in my wunderkammen where they can sit and look cool while being propped up by skulls; I'll do a pirate-themed one for sure, and probably a really evil stitched-together looking one, though realistically I probably won't write text for the interior of those. Bind up some blank books, maybe, and use them for journals.
Looks like that artificially-induced turkey nap is hitting, and both cats are in bed and waiting for me to go snuggle them, so I'm off. Enjoy the pics!