# HOW TO: Old witchcraft books



## Maarkb

Hello! This is me and I'm back for a new episode, I mean tutorial. Here's how to make realistic old looking witchcraft and other dark sciences books.

First you need to buy a few old plain books. You get get some for like 1$ each at a brocante store or something like that. The plus is that the pages are already yellow and the book are already a bit worn out.

Then you need some titles. Find some genuine antique fonts and make some designs. I used AuldMagick, Caslon antique, roman antique and Packard Antique, and Washington Text is also a good antique gothic font. Make sure the titles are the right size for your books. I did mine in Adobe Illustrator. It's important that the titles are white on a black background and don't forget a tittle for the side of the book. Print a test sheet and measure where the titles are. Take an other sheet and paint at the right areas for your titles. Red and gold are both antique and red is good for an evil book. Let dry throughly. Print your titles on the sheet but make sure that you put your sheet on the right side in your printer. I drew a litle arrow on mine to help. Paint any ink defect.

Or you can just print in color but you won't have metallic colors.


















Now paint to remove the existing titles on your books. If there's ornaments on the books leave them, it adds to the effect. But make sure to match your title paint.









Now it's time for cutting and gluing the titles. I cut the closest possible to the letter But if you have smooth books you can leave more space so you can sand the edges after so they disapear. I just used a glue stick but you can use white glue if you want.


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## Maarkb

Now it's time to really age the surface and edges of the book. I used a little metal saw to erode the edges and I sanded them with a rough paper. I also sanded the surfaces and titles. It will leave white marks on the titles so you'll have to paint them after. 









Now it's time for the paint job. With a dry brushing technique, use a light beige and a rich brown to bring out the texture of the covers. The light beige is also very good to highlight the edges. I used brown on the titles also to fade them a bit and stain them. If you want to you wan add drops and spots of very diluted green to fake mold stains on the surfaces. Make sure you let dry thoroughly since it will be mostly water and will drip. As you can see I didn't do it. My books stayed in a dry area so they didn't mold  LOL.









You can finish with a light coat of aerosol acrylic varnish to bring back a bit of shine and vibrance.

Now you're done! 









You can also use new cheap books but you'll have to stain the pages with strong tea or something like that. Coffee works better but it stinks too much haha.


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## Headless

Nice!


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## RoxyBlue

Those look really good.


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## Up_Up_And_Away

Maarkb said:


> Find some genuine antique fonts and make some designs.


Beautiful! Could you share the names of the fonts you used?


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## Maarkb

Up_Up_And_Away said:


> Beautiful! Could you share the names of the fonts you used?


thanks!! I used AuldMagick, Caslon antique, roman antique and Packard Antique, and Washington Text is also a good antique gothic font.


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## fontgeek

Also remember to use period language and spelling for your books, using modern terms, words, phrases, or spelling will read false to most people.

Where did you get the various symbols you used for your covers?


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## Maarkb

fontgeek said:


> Also remember to use period language and spelling for your books, using modern terms, words, phrases, or spelling will read false to most people.
> 
> Where did you get the various symbols you used for your covers?


Yeah good thing. I made some research to find some ancient books and copied the titles . for the illustrations I just searched on google.


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## BobC

Very cool...I was just in a haunt a few weeks ago. They had a whole library scene which consisted of tons of books. They left the outer shell and replaces the paper pages with pink foam sliced fine and painted to look like pages...it looked great.


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## Death's Door

Great job with the books and thanx for the tutorial!


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## Buzz

Cool. 
I wonder if a rub-on transfer would work also.


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## fontgeek

I don't think I've ever seen white or other color rub-on/dry transfer lettering, the only thing I've seen is black lettering. And with dry transfer lettering, you are limited to whatever sizes and lettering styles they have, and those choices are getting smaller and smaller all the time.


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## Maarkb

Buzz said:


> Cool.
> I wonder if a rub-on transfer would work also.


It would have been so much better since there would be no texture difference in the text :O. Thank you for the idea.


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## fontgeek

If you use a printer that uses waterproof ink, print the design on the desired colored paper, then place it between a couple of sheets of paper, put that on some asphalt and run over it with a tire, a rolling pin, etc.
If you don't want that coarse of a texture, place your print on top of a sheet of sandpaper and use a rolling pin or whatever you wish, and press the print in 'til you get the desired look. You can use whatever grit sandpaper you want for the texture. The bumps on your print won't be as pronounced as the sandpaper itself and you can try thee look using different grits for*different looks.
If you are looking to make a handmade book rather than something that's been printed en masse, you won't have any printing on the spine, and the cover will be stitched on or have a thong going through the covers and all of the sheets of paper or parchment in between. *Also, deckle the edges of the paper to help "age" it.


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## Sawtooth Jack

You used to be able to get custom rub-down transfers made in all kinds of Pantone colors, but the computer and desktop printer put an end to most of those shops. Be careful with any rub-down letters though, they are very fragile and could scrape off easily if you did not protect them with a clear coating of some kind.


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