Book Art Project part 3

You can read parts 1 and 2 to see how I got to this point in my art project.

With the pages glued together it was time to start painting.  I used black acrylic paint and did a fairly good covering.  I wanted to leave a hint of book, so the page edges aren't completely black.  For the covers - since it's glossy paper - I used a layer of gesso as primer before painting over it.

I added some brown (twice) trying to get some contrast but you can't really see it.  I was afraid of messing the project up and I really liked the black (think of watching a Bob Ross painting video where he makes a change and it looks horrible until he does something else that makes it look wonderful.  I was afraid I'd be stuck in the horrible phase and so was afraid of doing things that might make it look even better if done correctly).

I realized that the joined pages at the bottom still wouldn't give my figures much standing room (even assuming the base of the cut out sections were properly flat - which they weren't - so I cut out a rounded piece of cardboard and glued it on as a platform.

I ended up going back in with some pink glow in the dark paint as a kind of cave luminescence.  I'm not sure I'm happy with that...

For the cover/spine, I wanted to build the book up to look like a mountain, so I added several layers of hot glue.  Turns out it takes a lot of hot glue to do that, so I didn't do as much of that as I'd planned. I'm deluding myself into thinking it looks a bit like Devil's Tower.  :)  Paint worked on the glue better than I'd expected.

I used a matte acrylic sealant on the project before adding the final touches.  I used reindeer moss for the grass.  I left some space open as the figures don't stand that well on the moss.  Around the moss I glued down some twigs from a bush outside that looked tree like.  I'd intended to add some leaves (I bought flocking powder which hasn't arrived yet), but decided that with the black desolate landscape dead trees would look more authentic, so left them as is.

And here you have it.  My finished book art sculpture/D&D figure display stand.

The pewter figures are D&D miniatures I bought a LONG time ago.  The mythological creatures are soft plastic that I bought as a set at Michaels - unicorn, pegasus, several dragons.  I have permanent plans for some of them.  I also have plans to make one or two more of these stands.  I want one that isn't painted, that shows off more text and has a less square display box, and one that uses more colour, where I do add blossoms or leaves to the trees, flowers, etc.

Book Art Project part 2

This is part two of my book sculpture project. You can read about how I started it here.

After misting the pages to fan them out, the time came to cut into the book.  It's surprisingly easy to slice out parts of pages - once you get over the horror of defacing a book.  I wanted the cut out part to resemble a cave, so I did a square cut out, leaving rock projections from the ceiling and not being that carful about the cuts on the sides. I did try to keep the bottom level, as I wanted figures to be able to stand there once the project was finished.

Each knife cut went through about 10 pages, and to get good dimension you want to do the same cut a few times before going to something a bit different.

The next step was gluing the pages. I held the book so it fanned in a way that looked good and gave some space for the figures to stand, then used a paint brush to brush a heavy coat of white school glue over the pages. I used a heat gun to help the glue dry faster, being careful not to hold it too close to the pages (as they'll burn/brown if you do). I did this to the top and bottom, leaving the sides free.

Book Art Project part 1

When I was in Paris last summer, I came across a booth selling the most amazing book sculptures. Unfortunately the photo I took didn't turn out and the business card I grabbed was for the other person sharing the booth space so I can't give proper credit for this art project idea or show you what it was supposed to look like.

Anyway, the artist carved books into fantasy landscapes which became stands for D&D figures. I've tried to find the original artist online without any luck, so if my project reminds you of something, please pass their name/website along so I can see if it's a match.

I realized that I'm a crafty person and I have a lot of books I have to dispose of (Advance Reader Copies aren't meant to be passed on or sold, so I typically tear them apart and recycle them).  So I thought I'd give making one of these landscape books a try.

I watched a few online videos, but they weren't really doing what I wanted to do, and some required specialized that I don't have.  So I did a test book, seeing how easy or hard it was to use an exacto knife to cut pages out of a book, how to fan the pages to make a stand for figures, and how to actually keep the book pages in place.

My test book worked out better than I'd hoped, so I moved on to making an actual book sculpture. I've blurred some of the text so it's harder to recognize the book I used - you have no idea how hard actually cutting into a book was for me - and I'd feel terrible for the author to know how I maimed their baby.

Step one was to make the book the right size for my project. I wanted something shorter but thick, and so decided to use a mass market paperback.  The book was too tall for what I wanted, so I took a hack saw and sawed about an inch off the top.  While not terrible difficult, this was a bit time consuming.  It also created a ragged edge, and got less straight as I got closer to the loose ends of the book.  I decided to make this work for me, creating a bit of a peaked mountain look instead of going with my original ideas, which was to sand the paper even.

Once I had the book the size I wanted, I fanned the book while liberally spritzing it with water and then let it dry.  I did this several times, over several days, fanning the pages a lot so it would build in volume.

When the book was puffed up enough, I went on to the next phase: cutting it up. I'll show what that looked like next week.