I've recently been trying the method of book binding to aid my illustration portfolio as it is one of the factors of the course and to see how it could aid me in my own work and illustrations. The inspiration behind wanting to try this method was of a note book I purchased two days before Christmas eve back in 2016, it was an manga illustrated cover and I wondered if I could create my own piece using work that I try and perfect for my illustrations. I tried this method on 22/1/17 as I had free time on my hands from work for college and Art with a Heart, and to aid me I watched a Youtube tutorial by sea lemon on copic binding as thats the method I wanted to try and is common for many books. I first folded forty sheets of A4 mat coated picture paper to act as the pages then folded them into sidles in groups of four.
The binding holes were then marked out on the top page sidle and using a rule marked down each one with a line to show the hole points for the stitching. Using an Awl I pierced holes into each sidle but took great care when using it to avoid pricking my fingers or compromise one of the sidules. For the stitching I had started out using nylon thread but its fault was when tying the knot in the end of the thread so seeing this as ineffective I used conventional white sewing thread. This did help in the sewing method, but whilst working it was difficult getting the correct stitching and positioning of the threads in the holes and it did start to get infuriating. As a result my first sidle was compromised and I needed to start again, thankfully though I did start to make progress and rewinded the video back making sure I was doing it right.
Once completed I followed up on what to do next and that was to apply PVA glue to the side of the pages. By using two of my heaviest books they kept the pages down and tight so that I could apply PVA glue to the side. When dried a second coat was applied to strengthen the bonds in the pages.
For the cover area of the book I wanted to use two of my best fan illustrations that I put onto my Hero Central Tumblr blog as the cover to act as a starting point, but this was the most difficult as I needed to make sure the paper size matched up with the cover I was planing to do. Using Clip Studio paint I placed the two chosen illustrations which were crossovers between two of my favourite TV shows and placed them in a size format that seemed to match the size of the cover and boards in A5 scale but leaving room to fold the image over.
My first attempt seemed to be okay but it didn't fit the size of the cover boards that I was using so I felt that larger images were needed, so I altered the size of the images to compensate. I used flexible cardboard as I wanted the cover to flex slightly with the rest of the book, and using the measurements recommended in a cover tutorial I followed which were 12.4 Cm X 18.4cm I cut the card using my cutting knife and laid them out loosely to get an idea of where to stick them down.
Using a mechanical pencil the shapes were marked out and then the board was glued down onto the cover then rubbed down on the image side to reduce the risk of lumps in the cover. The sides of the paper on the illustration were then folded over onto the boards slightly along with the cover pages on the inside to work with the rest of the cover. Before glueing the page bang to the cover I stuck down a piece of red ribbon from one of my older journals using double sided tape and placed on the other end of it a woodcut that I'd done of Excalibur from the film The Magic Sword Quest for Camelot as this would be used as the book mark which I attached with PVA glue.
The book and the starting pages were then glued down and joined to the cover and page bank, followed by being pressed under my heavy books to be sealed together and to prevent the glue lumps. Once dried I applied sticky back plastic to the cover to prevent any damage to the illustrations in terms of weather or accidental damage. The pages were then cut down to size with the use of my craft knife and straightness of the book cover though further tidying up would be needed on the rough edges.
Looking back at this book I felt that I'd done well although I thought refinements would be needed on the cover size and on the page length and height. However this was my first time using the technique so this was to be expected on the first go, further refinement would be needed for future use.
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