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Probably the method I used for this prop is pretty obvious. Thanks Dave Lowe. And inspiration came also from all the Necronomicons out there (too many methods to link to).
But since I knew I'd be sewing parts of this up, I couldn't work directly on the existing cover of the book. By the way it's a very large, very cool edition of The Divine Comedy. So I started by cutting out a piece of thick paper (the cover of a used-up pad) with about 3/4" extra on every side. You can see where I notched it on the spine in this pic.
The first thing I did was build up the flat surface here and there with masking tape, and create folds (with the same tape) where I wanted the eyes, mouth, and seams on the back. The nose and ears were very simple pointy shapes, taped on and built up a little the same way.
Then I mixed water and school glue about 1:1, placed paper towels over everything, and slathered on the glue/water. Just like you see in Dave Lowe's tutorial. I should have added some flour or something, to better fill it in. If you look at the pix, you can see the texture of the paper towels still, even with more than three layers of paint on it. Plus one very obvious place where they overlap!! Ugh. The stuff you don't see until you are taking photos. Then I let it dry overnight. Then it sat around for a week or more while I fretted over whether I was wasting my time and did other stuff.
Honest to goodness, I do not remember how or when I made the evil nipple. It might have just sprung up there...
Then I mixed a near-black dark red (never use straight black. It doesn't occur in nature) and coated the whole thing, and let it dry overnight. The next day I mixed a slightly lighter and thinner red and let it wash on and settle wherever it liked. I do not recall how long that dried. Over the next few days I added red and black and red and black until I had something that was not too solid and not too patchy. I didn't dry brush at all. As it did when I applied glue/water/paper towels, it wrinkled like there was no tomorrow and made me sure several times that I'd ruined it and wasted my energy. But the wrinkles mostly flattened as it dried.
Next I got a dang big needle (I think that is the technical spec) and some thread so thick it is basically yarn, and recklessly sewed it up. After that, I needed to apply a thin but dark wash to all the holes I made, which showed through white (the color of the paper under all the paint).
I glued it on before adding the horns. I used Elmer's Wood Glue, I have no idea why, except that so far wood glue works well for everything I want to glue. I glued the spine first, which was a terrible mistake. This is the second attempt I've made at a book cover, and both times, my front cover has ended up shoved too far to the left, so that part of the first page shows (is not covered). Since we are in the business of ugly, not pretty, I decided not to fret over it much. Maybe this is the right order and I just screwed it up?
After that I glued the back cover on. The way I did it was to put the glue on the back of the book, not on the cover, and wrap the cover around the book board. Then wipe away the excess, put a wooden paint stirrer over the flaps, and clamp it down with one of the big ol' office/paper alligator clips (I believe that is correct nomenclature). To keep the clip from damaging the outside of the cover I just made/painted, I put a piece of scrap pink foam between the clamp and the cover. You do that on all three flaps and let it dry overnight. Then do the front.
With the cover on, only the horns remained. I made them tonight out of polymer clay (solid, no armiture, but baked for about 40 minutes). Before baking, I pushed bent pieces of craft wire into the bases so that the two ends of each wire were sticking out of each horn. When they cooled, I painted them.
Then I drilled two tiny holes in the cover where each horn was to go, routed the wires (the ones sticking out of the bases of the horns) through the cover, and bent them into place. Simple. Them horns ain't going nowhere.
The doodads (bookbinders assure me that this is indeed the correct name for this piece of hardware) on the corners are polymer clay. Nothing special. Paint and glue 'em on.
I didn't like that the edges of the book were white, and I intend to use a lot of gold Rub -N-Buff on other WIPs, so I colored these green. It's nice against the dark reddish cover, I think.
Probably I will touch up the paint a bit.
But since I knew I'd be sewing parts of this up, I couldn't work directly on the existing cover of the book. By the way it's a very large, very cool edition of The Divine Comedy. So I started by cutting out a piece of thick paper (the cover of a used-up pad) with about 3/4" extra on every side. You can see where I notched it on the spine in this pic.
The first thing I did was build up the flat surface here and there with masking tape, and create folds (with the same tape) where I wanted the eyes, mouth, and seams on the back. The nose and ears were very simple pointy shapes, taped on and built up a little the same way.
Then I mixed water and school glue about 1:1, placed paper towels over everything, and slathered on the glue/water. Just like you see in Dave Lowe's tutorial. I should have added some flour or something, to better fill it in. If you look at the pix, you can see the texture of the paper towels still, even with more than three layers of paint on it. Plus one very obvious place where they overlap!! Ugh. The stuff you don't see until you are taking photos. Then I let it dry overnight. Then it sat around for a week or more while I fretted over whether I was wasting my time and did other stuff.
Honest to goodness, I do not remember how or when I made the evil nipple. It might have just sprung up there...
Then I mixed a near-black dark red (never use straight black. It doesn't occur in nature) and coated the whole thing, and let it dry overnight. The next day I mixed a slightly lighter and thinner red and let it wash on and settle wherever it liked. I do not recall how long that dried. Over the next few days I added red and black and red and black until I had something that was not too solid and not too patchy. I didn't dry brush at all. As it did when I applied glue/water/paper towels, it wrinkled like there was no tomorrow and made me sure several times that I'd ruined it and wasted my energy. But the wrinkles mostly flattened as it dried.
Next I got a dang big needle (I think that is the technical spec) and some thread so thick it is basically yarn, and recklessly sewed it up. After that, I needed to apply a thin but dark wash to all the holes I made, which showed through white (the color of the paper under all the paint).
I glued it on before adding the horns. I used Elmer's Wood Glue, I have no idea why, except that so far wood glue works well for everything I want to glue. I glued the spine first, which was a terrible mistake. This is the second attempt I've made at a book cover, and both times, my front cover has ended up shoved too far to the left, so that part of the first page shows (is not covered). Since we are in the business of ugly, not pretty, I decided not to fret over it much. Maybe this is the right order and I just screwed it up?
After that I glued the back cover on. The way I did it was to put the glue on the back of the book, not on the cover, and wrap the cover around the book board. Then wipe away the excess, put a wooden paint stirrer over the flaps, and clamp it down with one of the big ol' office/paper alligator clips (I believe that is correct nomenclature). To keep the clip from damaging the outside of the cover I just made/painted, I put a piece of scrap pink foam between the clamp and the cover. You do that on all three flaps and let it dry overnight. Then do the front.
With the cover on, only the horns remained. I made them tonight out of polymer clay (solid, no armiture, but baked for about 40 minutes). Before baking, I pushed bent pieces of craft wire into the bases so that the two ends of each wire were sticking out of each horn. When they cooled, I painted them.
Then I drilled two tiny holes in the cover where each horn was to go, routed the wires (the ones sticking out of the bases of the horns) through the cover, and bent them into place. Simple. Them horns ain't going nowhere.
The doodads (bookbinders assure me that this is indeed the correct name for this piece of hardware) on the corners are polymer clay. Nothing special. Paint and glue 'em on.
I didn't like that the edges of the book were white, and I intend to use a lot of gold Rub -N-Buff on other WIPs, so I colored these green. It's nice against the dark reddish cover, I think.
Probably I will touch up the paint a bit.
