Materials

The book cover for this project was repurposed from a leather notebook purchased at Camden Market. To accommodate the A4+ sized pages with an additional 2cm for binding, the spine had to be adjusted. Fortunately, the extra leather provided at the end of the cover allowed for the addition of more pages.

Parchment paper weighing 90 grams was chosen for the pages to give an aged appearance without the need for dyeing the edges or excessive manipulation. The desire for flat pages led to the printing of watercolour backgrounds to avoid curvature, which is common with painted pages.

Extensive research into traditional paint and ink recipes led to the creation of handmade red, black, blue and purple inks using ingredients such as charcoal, Arabic gum, dragon blood resin, and lapis lazuli. Handmade glue was also utilized in the creation of this project.

The book concept, its design, and the story are entirely original, granting the writer full creative freedom while simultaneously integrating an augmented reality component. The project represents a true collaboration between the writer and designer, who worked in tandem to maximize its potential. It represents a unique fusion of literary and visual artistry. By combining different mediums and techniques, this project demonstrates the versatility of illustration and the ways in which it can be used to convey different messages and emotions.

Grimoire

Spell / Sketch book

Ongoing project

Highlighted fields:

- Creative pictoric techniques

- Book Layout

- InDesign

About the book

Molly Roberts once said that books are not only containers of knowledge, but also containers of culture. They are both beautiful and dangerous. Throughout history, people have burned books in an attempt to get rid of certain ideas. And yet, books remain intimate objects that we carry with us, touch, and even take to bed. They are an essential part of our lives and the way we learn and experience the world around us.

In a similar way, a grimoire is a compendium of magical knowledge that represents the author's journey to achieving their skills and abilities. It's much like an artist's sketchbook, where they document their progress and techniques, including how they mix colors or why they draw certain lines in a particular way. For an artist, color recipes are like potions and layouts are like spells.

With this in mind, I embarked on a project that would be entirely dedicated to creating a book that blends old traditions with new technologies. The book features a mixture of handmade drawings and printed typeface, as well as gold and silver outlines. The materials used include flowers, leaves, sand, and even ash. The ink used to write some of the text is handmade, and even the water used to mix the gouache has a mystical quality to it.

Through this project, I aimed to create a book that not only showcases different artistic techniques but also captures the magic and mysticism that books and grimoires hold. My hope is that readers will be transported to another world, where the lines between reality and fantasy blur, and where the imagination runs wild.

" The Universe is mind.

True transmutation is a practice, a method, an art."

The water element section cover features a printed watercolour background and typeface outlines coated with handmade blue paint and ground sea sand.

The introduction to the recipe section has a handmade typeface, inspired by the Runitaria font. The ink is handmade from ground charcoal and applied with a turkey feather.