Design and Contruction I'm really happy with the way these books turned out, but the methods I used make it time consuming and ultimately too costly to reproduce on a larger scale. |
Each piece of art was created in Adobe Photoshop using various images I have taken with my Nikon 3100 over the past year. Once completed, they were printed (four to a page) on 90lb rough watercolor paper with my Epson Stylus 670. Once the images were dry, I cut them apart leaving a significant margin around each image. Next, I used a brush and water to soften the watercolor paper so I could rip the edges for the torn look. Diluting a few drops of plaka in some water, I made a wash to darken the torn edges. I went over the edges several times to get the shade of grey I wanted. |
For the pages, I used Strathmore canvas paper. The printed pieces were affixed to the canvas paper with decoupage glue. Two additional pages were made with parchment paper and a sturdy, black paper. All text and titles were hand drawn using a Pentel Hybrid Technica gel pen. |
The front and back covers are squares of watercolor paper connected with two strips of black paper to create a more attractive spine. The front cover has a layer of torn tissue paper of various colors with an overlay of white handmade paper. The front title strip is a piece of handmade paper. The edges were wetted and torn like I did for the pieces inside the book. Three holes were punched so the pages could be sewn together. I used a tapestry needle and white embroidery floss. |
Images and design for this site and all artwork and the photos used in their creation © Cynthia Lin, 2004. No images or material may be reproduced in part or whole without permission. |