Old Book Watercolored

Being in photo shoot mood lately and living my life so fairy tale minded, I have been seeing things through a whimsical perspective.  I found a big old stained book at a garage sale that had beautiful gold embossing on the cover.  It reminded me of those magic books that a kid would find in a movie that takes them to another land and all that good stuff.  Immediately I was inspired.  But, like I said, it was stained and with the light cover, very noticeable.

Because the cover is fabric, I decided to use watercolors to paint the book.  I was going for the aged, distressed look, you know, the typical old magic book found in the woods look.

First I started with a big brush and very watery watercolor paint.  I brushed the entire book with the watercolor and then wiped it to absorb some of the water.

                                          
After the cover was the color I desired.  I used drier watercolor (basically wet my finger and dipped it into dry watercolor) and used it to accent the embossed area of the book.  I liked using my fingers because I could be more precise (and I love getting my hands full of paint!).


Afterwards, I used the watercolor to paint the edges of the pages of the book.  Be careful to protect the bottom cover by sliding in a piece of paper behind the last page.


Finally, I used distressing inks and dry black watercolor to add distress details to the edges of the book.