Feeling blue? Is your mood indigo? Maybe you adore the midnight blue Crayola crayon or just the night sky in general. Anyway, if you feel like seeing stars and want to try out or develop your painted paper skills, here's a painted project idea for you that can become a galaxy book.
Here are some tools and materials as well as ideas for how you might approach the painting (detailed instructions for washes, wet-on-wet, layering, sgraffito, and other techniques may be found in Painted Paper: Techniques & Projects for Handmade Books & Cards). Blue is a great pigment to use for this since it is a color that spreads rapidly in water.
Paper: Rising Stonehenge, 22 x 30, white OR 90 lb. watercolor paper
Inks: Daler-Rowney FW acrylic inks, Matisse (Australia), or equivalent—Indigo, Prussian Blue, Payne's Gray, White, one pearlescent color such as blue or white or silver; white gesso
Tools: 3-4" wash brush; eye dropper (if inks don't have dropper tips); toothbrush; spray bottle; kosher (coarse) salt; skewer, toothpick or pencil; water container; vinyl tablecloth or similar to protect work surface; hair dryer
General painting instructions
Using the wash brush and plain water, dampen your paper so it is wet but not puddly. In a circular motion, squirt drops of ink over the dampened paper. Use the brush to spread the color randomly, leaving some unpainted areas. Add other colors and move the ink around. Use the spray bottle as needed to add water and to create water spots. Sprinkle the salt over the page. Wait and watch: little bursts will begin to appear and the salt will dissolve.
When the page seems saturated with ink, color, and/or water, use the hair dryer to dry it out. You can layer more color, more salt bursts, more ink drops, and more water spots here. Spraying water over dry ink spot will make the color expand like crystals. Dry it again with the hair dryer, then put a few drops of white or pearlescent ink on a dry toothbrush. Holding the inky toothbrush over the paper, pull the bristles back quickly to spatter randomly. When the paper is completely dry, turn it over and repeat for the back, if desired. After cutting the painted paper into strips for pages you may choose to paint over one strip with gesso for the cover as I did for the Crossed-Structure Binding shown.
Some Binding Suggestions
(paint both sides of paper)
(paint one side of paper)
Fun fact for the day in this article and the Crayola website: the midnight blue crayon was called Prussian blue until 1958 when it was changed since educators felt that children did not identify the blue color with the Prussian military uniforms and it was hard to explain the Thirty Years' War (1733-1763). As of today, it ranks as favorite color #4.
Here are some tools and materials as well as ideas for how you might approach the painting (detailed instructions for washes, wet-on-wet, layering, sgraffito, and other techniques may be found in Painted Paper: Techniques & Projects for Handmade Books & Cards). Blue is a great pigment to use for this since it is a color that spreads rapidly in water.
Paper: Rising Stonehenge, 22 x 30, white OR 90 lb. watercolor paper
Inks: Daler-Rowney FW acrylic inks, Matisse (Australia), or equivalent—Indigo, Prussian Blue, Payne's Gray, White, one pearlescent color such as blue or white or silver; white gesso
Tools: 3-4" wash brush; eye dropper (if inks don't have dropper tips); toothbrush; spray bottle; kosher (coarse) salt; skewer, toothpick or pencil; water container; vinyl tablecloth or similar to protect work surface; hair dryer
General painting instructions
Using the wash brush and plain water, dampen your paper so it is wet but not puddly. In a circular motion, squirt drops of ink over the dampened paper. Use the brush to spread the color randomly, leaving some unpainted areas. Add other colors and move the ink around. Use the spray bottle as needed to add water and to create water spots. Sprinkle the salt over the page. Wait and watch: little bursts will begin to appear and the salt will dissolve.
When the page seems saturated with ink, color, and/or water, use the hair dryer to dry it out. You can layer more color, more salt bursts, more ink drops, and more water spots here. Spraying water over dry ink spot will make the color expand like crystals. Dry it again with the hair dryer, then put a few drops of white or pearlescent ink on a dry toothbrush. Holding the inky toothbrush over the paper, pull the bristles back quickly to spatter randomly. When the paper is completely dry, turn it over and repeat for the back, if desired. After cutting the painted paper into strips for pages you may choose to paint over one strip with gesso for the cover as I did for the Crossed-Structure Binding shown.
Salt bursts (I don't think this is a technical term)
Salt bursts, Spatter with white ink, Blue ink drops sprayed with water
Water drops, White ink spatter
Crossed-Structure Book
Detail of Cover: strips woven in, painted with gesso, sgraffito, sewn
Sewing tip: Draw shapes in pencil with a circle (or other shape) template, poke holes with an awl or needle, and then begin to sew once the holes are in place. You will need an even number of holes if you want to start with a knot on the back and end with a knot on the back. (More sewing ideas at the previous sashiko post.)
(paint both sides of paper)
- Crossed-Structure: p. 150 in Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms, (see this post to see another Crossed-Structure example)
- Coptic (and make separate painted hard covers—see this post on Distressed Covers) and other Codex variations: Chapter 8 in MHB
- Various Accordions: pp. 108-117 in MHB; pp. 62-64 in CHB
- Snake Book: p. 39 in MHB (and this blog post)
- Piano Hinge with Skewers: p. 58 in MHB; p. 82 in Creating Handmade Books;
- Palm Leaf Book: p. 84 in MHB; p. 30 in CHB
- Fan Book: p. 86 in MHB; p. 36 in CHB
- Volvelle, Flexagons, Woven Accordion: pp. 123-135 in MHB; pp. 116-120 in Expressive Handmade Books
- Woven Accordion: p. 148 in Painted Paper
- Flag Books: pp. 52-74 in EHB
(paint one side of paper)
- Circle Accordion: p. 119 in Making Handmade Books; p. 126 in Painted Paper; p. 65 in Creating Handmade Books; p. 32 in Expressive Handmade Books
- Venetian Blind Book: p. 45 in MHB and p. 144 in Painted Paper; p. 32 in CHB
- Drum Leaf Binding: previous post
Fun fact for the day in this article and the Crayola website: the midnight blue crayon was called Prussian blue until 1958 when it was changed since educators felt that children did not identify the blue color with the Prussian military uniforms and it was hard to explain the Thirty Years' War (1733-1763). As of today, it ranks as favorite color #4.
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