#ranthebowart

[ranthebow]

1/4 - Earl Gray Pigeon, stickers available online

I love birds and tea and pigeons and stickers, what can I say?

[ranthebow]

On Writing and Hand Binding Your Novel

I've been given the wonderful opportunity to talk about a personal project completed last summer, one that took over a year to finish actually! It's what made me get into writing and book binding.

So, without further ado, last year I wrote a novelized version of the homebrewed dnd campaign I was in for about two years. And not only did I write it, I illustrated a cover, made a pretty typeset, printed the pretty typeset, and hand bound two copies of what eventually became titled "That Time I Nearly Broke Down & Cried (and other such stories)".

For some progress shots and more about what I put into it:

The Story

Near the end of the campaign, I decided to take my notes and write them as novelized journal entries from my character, Casrius Diki's, perspective (this man right here)

This ended up taking me over 6 months to complete as I started to enjoy the writing more and, thus, each journal entry got longer and more complicated. During that time, our campaign also imploded in a fairly soul crushing way. So there I was, with all these feelings and a creative project half done that brought up these feelings, and a general sense of no closure for anything. So, I decided to change that. For both.

I was already interested in book binding. And I had a novel length book almost-written. Why not end the campaign for me, on my terms, with a project I could be proud of?

So, the writing continued, followed by some serious editing.

And before long, I had formatted my writing for printing, and it was off to be bound.

The Creation

My novel ended up having enough words for 327 pages when formatted for printing, or 17 signatures to fold and sew together, the largest book block I have ever worked with.

(don't mind my non-setup, this was done over many days, and even involved a move to a new apartment.)

The book press is plywood from Home Depot that was cut into 12x12" squares, then clamped with plastic clamps. String, beeswax, needle, bone folder, PH neutral PVA glue, and headbands were all purchased from Hollander's. I used normal printer paper for the pages to attempt to keep the thickness down.

For the cover, I had previously drawn the illustration of the team in the forest as an anniversary drawing for our first year. But it didn't have the proper dimensions for a book cover, so I had to expand the illustration and give it more space for the title and such.

The text was done in Canva, then the whole cover was printed on 13x19" Canon Matte Photo Paper. I had read that this was a good paper to use for book covers, but I don't know if I would use it again in all honesty. Any glue that came into contact with the print rubbed it away, making the whole cover feel a little fragile.

For a final touch, I painted the edges of the book block a solid turquoise. This was done just as sprayed edges were starting to become popular for books, so I thought it would be cool and make this feel more special, but now it is so mainstream that I honestly don't know if I like it on my book anymore oops

The Fun Stuff

Here's where I show off the parts of the book that make me really happy!

The endpapers feature paintings of the group that I had done as another gift. They are in ornate frames and "hung" off the endpaper - I actually cut them out of a thicker cardstock and glued them onto the book so they have a little depth to them!

This specific page ( a fake copyright with lots of fun goodies)

The list of contents, both for the fun chapter titles (one chapter for one session) and for a playlist created during the campaign

Speaking of the music, the footnotes on each page where a song is relevant, explaining where and why it is relevant:

And finally, the typeset itself, which is peppered with illustrations I did at the table for fun little moments in the campaign

All in all, truly a labor of love for my character and for the campaign. regardless of other emotions attached to it. I gave myself, and the dnd version of Cas, closure. I also discovered how much I love writing and making physical copies of my writing. Is there another personal writing project of mine that ended up in a book that I have not ever mentioned? 100% yes. Maybe one day it will get its own post.

Anyways, thanks for sticking around! I hope you enjoyed/maybe even learned something about bookbinding. I'm pretty new at it, but if you have any questions, I will do my best to answer lol. And if you have ever thought about book binding or writing or any other creative endeavor that you have wanted to try but just haven't, in the most immortal words of all...

[ranthebow]

The next in this series was one of my favorites as I got to draw a little (or very big!) furry companion! 🐻‍❄ I was not going to let the crop on this one cut his little ears off!! 🥺💕

If you could have a furry companion (or animal friend in general), what would it be? I would love to have a bird, like some sort of owl or raptor! 🦉

4/5 - The Fall

[ranthebow]

I woke up to a dusting of snow this holiday season so perfect to post my snowy scholar ❄️

Can you tell I was inspired by Japanese wood block carvings (ukiyo-e) for this series? I think this painting most accurately captured that ✨️

3/5 - The Winter

[ranthebow]

The Moon is The Sun's lover, so their paintings mirror each other in composition and color 🌑☀️ I love the details on this one most of all~

2/5 - The Moon

[ranthebow]

I spent a lot of time this summer painting a series of 5 gouache illustrations, my first time exploring gouache as a medium. While it's no oil paint (❤️), I found them vibrant and fun to work with!

1/5 - The Sun

[ranthebow]

I painted this about 6 months and it’s finally making its way to social media lol

Our ranger had a real boss moment where she sniped some would-be thieves from the roof of a nearby building. Between her and our paladin using Moonbeam for the first time, they never stood a chance 😎

(Character belongs to the lovely @emilyofthegreenwood )

[ranthebow]

Let me sleep / I am tired of my grief

Cas doesn’t actually cry tears made of gold, but I find it a nice aesthetic for him