Yay! I am a published author now! Of course, I had to self-publish. And I also typeset and illustrated all the pages, printed them, and bound them myself. So there's only one copy of my book, and - full disclosure - it's more or less a fan-made copy of another book:
The Necronomicon Ex Mortis. Legend has it written by the Dark Ones. Roughly translated - "The Book Of The Dead". The book served as a passageway to the evil worlds beyond. It was written long ago, when the seas ran red with blood. It was this blood that was used to ink the book. In the Year 1300 AD, the book... disappeared.
So I made one of my own, hooray! I know some crazy kids from Michigan also stumbled upon another possibly apocryphal copy, but I can't imagine how their story could be any more interesting than mine.
If you haven't been following JSVB for the past while, please click on the following links to see the previous One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six steps I took to hand-build my own Necronomicon, reasonably faithful to the one featured in the Evil Dead movies. Click on any image to embiggen it:
The seventh and final step was the painting, sealing, and binding. I took my baked Necronomicon cover and spray painted it matte black. Yes, it looks shiny in the picture. I could have made a better choice with my paints. I spray-painted the inside cover as well, which obliterated the library mark from Lansdowne Elementary School, as well as covering my duct tape repairs.
I painted over the black paint with student-grade acrylics. I used burnt umber and black to make a series of muddy, leathery browns.
Again, the colours are bright and shiny, but acrylic darkens when it dries. I started by dry-brushing the colour on and using careful washes and layering, but the pigments I used were ultra-cheap, so I slathered on the paint like it was cake icing.
It took a night for the paint to dry. I returned my Necronomicon to its lair in the garage to spray matte acrylic fixative on my paint:
Once again, the Necronomicon smelled horrible. I cannot imagine exposure to these chemicals was good for me. But then again, now I have my own Necronomicon!
The ultimate step was to bind the pages. I cut a long strip of thick cardboard to match the inside of the book spine in length and width. I used hot glue (Smells bad? Check!) to fasten the cardboard to the inside of the book. I stapled the printed, coffee-coloured pages together and hot glued the edge of the folio to the cardboard backing, making the crudest binding possible. I didn't take any pictures of the process since it required at least three out of my two hands to achieve. Imagine a big fat guy swearing in the wee hours of the night at hot glue that dries before the pieces are pressed together and you get the idea.
Below is the picture of the final product, a fully-functional Necronomicon Ex Mortis (but please do not use the incantations lest you invoke possession by Kandarian demons!). I wouldn't play with it much as it is a little fragile, but then the book in the movie got ripped to pieces anyways. Scary!
Today is both Hallowe'en and my 1300th JSVB post! Normally, every one hundred posts, I like to share one of my larger art projects that turned out well. I hope you enjoyed following me as I built my Necronomicon decorative prop! Happy Hallowe'en!
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