Notebook 'M' vanishing fore-edge painting

In which I indulge in some Disney-title-card-esque whimsy

I have been hugging this little finished project to myself for the past month and waiting to reveal it, since it was a Christmas gift for my sister, M.

The book is a very nice, blue, faux leather notebook from Officeworks. It was a bit unwieldy to fan out and film, so apologies for that. The gilding isn’t great quality, a bit scratchy (and more glitter than gild), but nonetheless delivered a pleasing result.

All in all it took around ~17 hours. I took some step-by-step shots of my daily progress on the book which you may or may not be interested to see (click on the photos to enlarge):

Initial ‘M’ and border done, book is setup in the painting press.

Detail work filling in the background. You can see the faint lead pencil marks of my outline image, which I used to guide me.

Frills and furbelows nearly complete, just the birds to fill in next.

Final shot of the completed painting!

So there you have it, another vanishing fore-edge painting under my belt.

Lesson learned this time: Placing a slip of scrap paper underneath the book means that if you accidentally dab beyond the bottom edge, the scrap paper soaks up the excess paint & water and also protects your press from getting paint on it.

Stay tuned for a post soon on another project I’ve just completed: a Hans Christian Andersen vanishing fore-edge painting. I’m very excited about it and can’t wait to show you all.

Happy new year to all!

xx The Inky Baroness