The Tell-Tale Heart - splattercon!!!

Ok folks, this is it. The very very last page. Except the credits, but that just felt like a little flourish at the end. This is the important one! As promised, it's covered in ink and 'blood' splatters and I think looks really cool doing it.

I've got a bunch of postcard books and drawings started that I'm going to move on to, so this may be the last post on The Tell-Tale Heart for a few days as the next stages are somewhat time consuming and not at all interesting piece by piece like the text was. Oh, and the Habs won last night and advanced to the Conference finals, so there is still loads of hockey to watch! I know you were all interested.
I think I'll got through and see if I want to add anymore cut-outs, I've been trying to find some thin black paper to cut out fluttery bugs between the pages, and then on to the cover. A couple of people have asked about that so I may try and get few photos up soon. I'm slowly embroidering the name of the book on the cover, which will have a sort of open binding, and then there will be beetles and gears underneath the leather showing through as embossing.

The Tell-Tale Heart - this one's my favourite

I like this layout best out of all the ones I've done (including the almost-finished last one). Maybe it's all the red letters. Anything that's italicized in the text is in capital letters in the book, and with the narrator going crazy there's a lot of that at the end. I really like it. The important one, or at least the one I like best is the part where he hears the heart again "much such the sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton", combined with it being a very long phrase meant I spread it out over the page and inserted the small writing around it. So when it came to filling it in I made that part very brights while the other letters are a little less saturated, just so readings a bit smoother.

I also started dropping some of the scarlet ink along with the black, but it's so thick and dark straight from the bottle it doesn't make a huge impact. I think I'll mix in a little water and have it all over the next page. I like that it looks a bit like blood splattering all over, rather than just ink. Maybe it's because I'm reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies but I'm feeling particularly bloodthirsty at the end of this.

The Tell-Tale Heart - so close now

I'm getting excited as I near the end of copying this thing out. Of course that doesn't take into account all the extra things I want to do and the complicated cover I have planned, but still, the biggest part is almost done. Three pages after this one, if fact!

There isn't much to say about this one. It looks an awful lot like everything else I've done, but the text has more emphasized words so there's more red in it. And some ink made a mess when it bled through a beetle from the previous page. ummm, yeah. That's all.

The Tell-Tale Heart - changes

Alright! He's finally dead and the story has changed, so the layout changes here too. This even even more confusing to read than the rest of the book (so far). The phrases meanders more, turn sideways, and then there's the half size words as well. I hadn't been planning on doing that when I started out, but when I got to this page I wanted something different. I originally just had the large letters all along the right side and open space for the rest of the page, making the final pronunciation of the death really dramatic. But I didn't quite like it and wanted a good way to work things around it, while still keeping that the focus. And eventually inspiration struck! A subtly new layout that allows for a slight shift and new flexibility.

The Tell-Tale Heart - now we're getting somewhere

I'm not sure if this admission makes me incredibly morbid, but I'm quite excited for the old man to die and we're just about there! I'm getting a little bored of this. This page, at least, does mark the end of this format, or at very least, the transition into a slightly different post-murder layout. Patience, I'm afraid, is just not one of my virtues and I'm beginning to despair that I will ever master the art of enjoying the moment. I want to see the finished product! And then I want to get on with the next project, and the one after that! My head is crammed full of ideas and I have to go to work and pay bills and all that other nonsense instead.

A little note on the text. I'm using American spelling because Poe was American, but it's really annoying me. It looks funny and that's all there is to it. Also, I only barely keep catching typos because it's one thing to say you're going to do it, and another to break years of habit.

The Tell-Tale Heart - wating, waiting

You would probably never notice when you're reading a story this short, until you write it out by hand several times, just how much time the narrator spends hesitating. He could have killed the old man three pages ago! Or more! Maybe I'm just grumpy because my hand hurts. A lot. Is that the measure of a productive morning? I hope not, because I'd rather not have major injuries until I'm much older. It's a good thing it turned out well.

The page has the first mention of "the low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton" that I took the watch gears imagery from. That's why this page has the big escapement cut-out in the corner. I also went over the words to make them a little bolder because it comes up again later. This page also marks the end of the third signature and beginning on the fourth. I'm half way done the copying!

The Tell-Tale Heart - don't worry, I haven't forgotten!

After relaxing for a couple of days I'm back the big project that is hanging over my head. It's amazing how much a task I set for myself feels like a giant unavoidable weight. But in a good way, if that makes any sense.

I like the bottom of the left-hand page, where the new paragraph starts with only a couple of words. I'm glad I didn't more that to the next page, especially since it's an important bit of the story, with everything so far leading up to this moment so that the old man can be killed. I like how the splatters turned out too, though I'm wondering if I can find a miniature eye dropper because mine makes everything quite uniform, and the upcoming pages will needs loads of messy splatters, but some have smaller writing so I don't want to cover up large sections.

The Tell-Tale Heart - out damned spot

This layout is one of the ones that fell on a centre page, so I could play a bit with the layout as it's all one instead of separate pages. I managed to get the emphasized words on this page, so I broke the borders of text and spread them across the full layout. I didn't really like the ampersand at the top right so I tried to get a couple drops of ink on it and ended up with ink everywhere! Actually, I really like how it turned out.

The Tell-Tale Heart - again and again and again

I'm afraid I'm still without anything particularly interesting to say about this page. It's, you know, pretty much the same thing I've been doing all along. I like the 'oh, no!' bit on the left. Some of the ink spots on the very edges are leaks from the next page. But it's ok, they look good and didn't smudge. I did a couple of words oriented vertically ('when' and 'been'), and now I've noticed they're in the exact same position on each page. I'm not sure if I should be annoyed at that or claim it's a design choice for very good and artistic reasons. If I learned anything at art school at was how to bs and so I will think of something clever to explain why it was necessary and how that makes me smarter than everyone else. Oh art school.

The Tell-Tale Heart - still ticking away

I'm afraid I don't have anything terribly interesting to tell you about this page. Things are going pretty smoothly and I'm really happy to just be getting some good work done. This page is a little different because the short paragraph on the left (starting with the big 'I' in red) ended at the bottom of the left page, so the writing doesn't go all the way to the bottom, and starts at the second line of the right hand page. I suppose that did provide a little bit different layout.

This is the last of the second signature and first of the third, so I'm about 2/5 done the text portion of this project. I majority of the work was the planning, though, and even if I'm not sure exactly how much work will go into the binding, so lets say I'm about half way! It feels good to be at a stage where I can look at it and tell what it's going to be.

The Tell-Tale Heart - Devil in the details

Here we go with another page. I traced the layout in green and it was much much easier to see the words through the paper. I copied the page following this one as well, before I had gone over the writing to thicken parts up and added the red and whatnot, because there was much less ink in the way. (Take a look at this photo of a page at that point.) So much quicker this way! This should make the upcoming pages much easier to copy, especially since some of the end pages are very complicated.

Here's a close-up from the top right corner. I've done this sort of thing all over the place - using one large letter to begin two words. In a few place I've used the same word to begin different phrases as well. I like to do this if I can especially when the phrases are repetitive. I think it works with the strange placement of the words and the whole feeling that the author is crazy.

The Tell-Tale Heart - don't panic!

The playoffs are on, posting may be a little sporadic!

I always worry when I've been away from a project for awhile if I'll be in the same place when I get back. You try to do the same things and match everything up, but change just a little and the whole thing looks different. I hope after the week or so off this project, you can't see a change. I know when I was doing the layouts I would change day to day and I had to go back and change a whole bunch of stuff to make it more consistent.

But it was nice to get back to it! Especially because I finally did something sensible and brought the stereo downstairs. It hardly needs to be in the room next to the computer, after all! So maybe I can ween myself off tv and get some work done now. Especially since when I was all done I realized that if I traced the layout in coloured ink instead of black I would have a much easier time tracing it. Stupid! Three pages ago would have made my life so much easier. And made so much more sense.

Learning my lesson from the last page I kept my cool on these mistakes. Small typo, not big deal. I forgot the 'h' for some reason on the first pass, and so I made the 't' into one, added a little one on the end, and covered it up with an ink splotch. Easy! I did find a couple other mistakes on my layouts, I missed one word and misspelled another. But those were pretty easy to squeeze in.

The Tell-Tale Heart - panic!

I got to work again today, my goal being two pages (or one full layout) a day. With writing on the first side it's now very difficult to see all the way through to the penciled words, so I traced over them in pen to make them darker. So when all is said and done I will have written this out three times to get the finished product. Then onto to real paper at last. When I got to the bottom I realized that I'd added an extra cut and there wasn't as much room as I'd planned on. So much for my careful layouts! But it ended up being easy enough to work around.

I put up this photo because I realized that last time I'd skipped a step. This is what is looks like between the background and the finished page. It's actually kind of lame and spindly here, before the scribbles and splatters and red highlights.

I went over quite a few of the letters to make them bolder, added scribbles, and started splattering the page a bit, just throwing a bit of ink at it. I remembered to put a piece of paper under the cuts to it wouldn't get on the pages underneath, and thought I was being quite clever until the ink spread under the paper onto the previous page. It actually looks pretty good, so no problems there except to rescan the page to reflect the changes.

The real problem came when I splattered some in the middle of the pages, and it seeped under and spread. Then I freaked out a little and tried to take some of the excess ink off, which just spread it around. argh! Stupid stupid stupid! So I panicked a little and turned it into a beetle cut-out because that's a little what it looked like. But it took up way more paper than if I'd thought about it and made a smaller circular gear, which would have been easier to rework the words around. Plus then it ended up going off the page, and I had to continue it on the next one. I didn't want to end up then having to continue it on the next and the next throughout the whole book. So I did it only in outline on the next page so that it doesn't look weird to have half a bug in the middle of a page. I removed the smears with some sandpaper and covered the last of it with some watercolour. It would have been so much easier if I'd just not touched it. I don't even have anything to blame it one, what with my gin and tonic sitting there untouched. Maybe next time I'll have it first, after all cucumber's are veggies and veggies are good for you.

Back to the point. I finished another page, and here it is.

The Tell-Tale Heart - process and first pages

Finally I'm actually at the stage where I'm producing some finished pages. Here's my studio while I'm working on the text. I've got a (very) makeshift lighttable, consisting of glass leaning against some books with a little lamp under it because I'm broke and can't make a proper one right now. Oh well.

It's got the template for the entire book taped to it, on tracing paper, and on top of that is the individual page all penciled out, so I basically trace what I want onto the finished product.

Pages that are side by side get taped and done together so that they will look as seamless as possible once they are bound. I may got back through once it's all done to make sure, but that could be asking for trouble.

But let's get to the good stuff. The book is small enough to fit in my scanner, so the images are quite nice.

Opening page, just a bloody thumbprint. I like starting slowly.

Title page.

First page of the story. There's more red on here than I had planned. I used it to fill in the opening letter and emphasized words (anything in italic in the text is in those capital letters, as are the first letters in each sentance) and I guess I got carried away with all the large letters, 'I's, and filling in the background. It works for the first page, since that's usually got something to set it apart, but I may tone it down for the rest. The words didn't go on as smoothly as a would have liked. Partially my own fault, and partially because I'm using waterproof ink (so that I can paint on top) and it just doesn't flow very nicely in the nibs.

There's some paper cutting on the bottom right corner. I put the page underneath it for the scan, but that will look a little different with the words on, because you'll see through and really notice the outline of the cut paper.

The Tell-Tale Heart - background

I've finally completed the background for the book. It took longer than expected, of course, but I did have to go to work in between so I suppose I won't let that bother me. I like it, I think it'll be really neat with the words on there, and shouldn't take too much tweeking, adding bits around th the big opening initials and whatnot to get it perfect.

First came the scribbles in sepia ink, supposed to look like the narrator's journal or something of the sort. I wrote out bits of the story and lots of 'once upon a time's actually, since it's illegible. There are little pictures of gears and stairs (from those M.C. Escher prints I've been looking at, see the post about the inspirations for the project) as well. I did the background for both pages of each layout together so that they would match in when it's bound together.

Next came some washes in navy blue and more sepia ink. This really reminds me of the 'Journal of Impossible Things' from Doctor Who, which was an awesome prop, but that could be just because I was watching the new one at the time. I am such a geek.

Close-up of the final product. The ink and paint did cause a little bit of warping around the delicate cuts, but I wanted it after the cuts regardless, because then the background would look correct in relation to the cuts and the edges wouldn't be bright white when the page wasn't.

The last step was to put 'bloody' fingerprints over it in my favourite fantastic scarlet red ink.

The Tell-Tale Heart - planning

Here's a quick glimpse into my sketchbook for the Tell-Tale Heart project. After figuring out the basic imagery and deciding what size my watercolour paper would neatly fold into, I started drawing out the book itself.


A page for fonts. Art Nouveau on the left, Gothic variations on the right. And then my scribbles as I try to figure out how to combine the two.


This is my first draft, so to speak, of what a finished page will look like. The background scribbles, drips, and colours I like, but the font was still very Art Nouveau and much too pretty to be appropriate.

So I tried it again in the font that I ended up deciding on. Imagine this, but with the red opening letter, and muted background. I've penciled in the cut out bottom corner as well.


I planned out the entire book on tracing paper. The page layout is the same on all of them, so it's on one sheet (so I don't have to draw and erase pencil lines on each sheet), and the text itself is all planned out on these sheets (because the spacing and layout is all odd and different) ahead of time. I'm going to be using a light table, and basically just trace all of this onto the proper sheets.

This is where it's advantageous that I work in a boring store no one ever come into. There's no way I would have this all done, or possibly ever finish, if I'd started it at home only a week ago.

Here's the layout so I know how many pages, signatures etc there will be total, and what pages go together. The paper will be 90lb cold press, so decently thick enough that there will only be 2 pages per signature. This is to help me keep track of everything, since the folding pages mean the consecutive pages will actually be on different sheets, and it's easy to get it all mixed up.


Not that I really needed anything, but I popped in The Paper Umbrella because it's fabulous, and ended up finding some paper I had to have. Surprise! But sarcasm aside, this is a terrific find. The dark red colour is close to that of blood and it has raised ridges that look like veins. It also has woven threads visible on the back side. So I can't use this two-sided but I may take advantage and 'unravel' or 'fray' the edges. It could look cool, not to mention work well with the entire 'narrator loses his sanity' theme.

The Tell-Tale Heart - a brand new giant project

I am starting a big new project! I want to do another book, something like John, only not quite so symbolic or research intense. I've decided on The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe because it satisfies my three requirements:

1. It's in the public domain. (read it here)
2. It's full of vivid imagery.
3. It's short

I anticipate that it will take me about a month to finish it all off. To start an explanation of what I'm doing, here are some of the images and inspirations going into it:



This is a calligraphy piece I did a few years ago. I think I was going for a vintage poster/label sort of look. The way the words are all misshaped and oddly layed out is how the entire book will be.This is a sketch I did of Sir Philip Sidney's Sonnet 39 (Astrophel and Stella). This is the font I'll be using for the majority of the text. The capital letter will be a mixture of Art Nouveau and Gothic fonts.

I like the black and white look of Frank Miller's Sin City, especially having the illustration in negative. There may be a whole lot of masking fluid going into this.

Vintage scientific instruments. I'll see if I can work any of this in, especially because of the imagery of the eye.

This story actually uses the image of a watch. Well, sound, to be more precise. Either way, it's an excuse to justify my steampunky tendencies.

These sketches are by an artist named Eric Freitas. I think they're incredible and the spikey, gothic feel with be prefect! I wish I could afford one of his clocks.


Death watch beetles. Only mentioned once, I think, but there will be plenty of these creepy crawlies all over the pages.

Possibly in machine form! At very least in spikey, scary versions.


This is an illustration by Vladimir Gvozdariki. It makes my drool just a little bit. I really like the handwriting in the background, and will likely use some of that. And the rest is just awesome.

I'm really into paper cutting lately. I haven't tried it yet, but there will be some around the edges of the pages, and possibly on some black paper in between the pages. This one if from etsy seller Artomanut.

M.C. Escher's drawings and optical illusions.
Vintage anatomical diagrams.

John, con't (14)

So here we are. The end of John at last. This page is the confrontation of Doubting Thomas, with his response in nice big letters because it was a fitting ending. The drawings and colours are continued from the previous page.

John has an 'Appendix,' chapter 21, that was likely added after the rest of the book. It closes very nicely and I didn't really want to have this directly afterward because it doesn't quite fit, and would mess up the nice ending. So I did what the book does, and just added it on after. This is the very last page layout. It goes back to the plain font and columns from the very beginning of the book, and I didn't add an illustration at all because I didn't want it to take away at all from the ending of the proper ending of the previous page.