I’m using leftover, irregular sized paper to make a few smaller blank books. I had purchased some light colored book cloth with the intention of experimenting with painting with acrylics or drawing on the cloth. I also wanted to see if I could make a solid color book cover, then cut out portions of it, and inlay a different color book cloth. Then I wanted to see if I could create a drawing or design on the lighter colored cloth.
I’ve never taken any art or drawing classes, but I was content with my attempts to draw some delicate, whimsical flowers on the book cloth. I also experimented with painting on a few pieces of the book cloth. It was harder for me to use a small brush than a pencil so I ended up using the colored pencils on the project. I saw that I could also customize the color of the cloth using acrylics should I need that flexibility for book repair. I had done that previously in a book repair class where we also used the same paint on rice paper to repair an existing book cover. The binding on this ended up being a little tighter than I would have liked, but it’s still perfectly usable. I might want to research a way to “set” the drawing and make sure the colored pencil does not smear from use. I have no idea how to do that on book cloth, so that’s something else to figure out. In any event, this was fun practice.
Of Paper and Ink 