Sunday, May 18, 2014

Tutorial on how to make the Thievius Raccoonus

Hello there and welcome to my first tutorial ever~! On Tumblr themoonlight945 asked me how did I made 
Thievius Raccoonus book I posted.

I started answering but I noticed I was writing way too much and had a lot of pictures to show. So I decided to make a tutorial for everyone that wants to make the book for themselves. I looked up in google to see if there where tutorials but sadly couldn't find one. Please pardon me if you don't understand a concept I wrote, English is my second language.

First, I looked up for a picture to use for reference for making the book and my female Sly Cooper Cosplay. This is from the very first game of Sly if I'm not mistaken.


Materials:


  • 1 hard cover notebook
  • Tape
  • Silicon glue and/or normal school glue
  • Scissors
  • Acrylic Paint (Copper, Royal Blue, Lemon, Sunflower, Sun Yellow, Black, White, Bright White, English Rose, Rose Bouquet, Expresso, Bright Yellow. {The last four are optional.})
  • 1 Blue Ribbon
  • 10 or so white pages
  • Ground Coffee
  • Water
  • Watercolors (Yellow and Orange)
  • Paint brushes
  • Cardboard 
  • Pencil
  • Color pencils
  • Color markers


To make the cover, I took apart a hardcover notebook that had a smooth surface.
After putting tape on the middle to reinforce it, you can start painting it. 

I used a mix of the following acrylic paint colors to cover the real colors of the notebook:
English Rose
Rose Bouquet
Expresso.

After being sure that I couldn't see the blue anymore nor the lines of the angry birds I started painting with the color Copper. (Little pun there.)


While I waited for the cover to dry I started making the pages.

For the pages I used strong a scrap booking paper I had lying around the room. Since the Thievius Raccoonus is supposed to be from different times I decided to make them look different each.

For a couple of pages I painted them lightly with yellow watercolor paint, others with a mix of yellow and orange watercolor paint, and the rest nothing.

To make them look old and used I took grounded coffee? (I don't know if that is the correct translation for Cafe Molido)

Mix it with water and get this substance:

After you have this mix you take it and rub it against the paper and let it dry. The more you apply the mix to the paper and leave it, the older it will look. But if you only want it to look a little bit old, then just rub it lightly and clean it.  After the paper is dried, clean away the bits of coffee and it will look like an old paper. 

Now for painting the pages...




As you can see, I started looking in youtube for the cutscenes of the games in order to replicate the pages. Some information is accurate while the profiles of the family members of the Cooper Clan I took them of this site. In that site are many references I took to make the book. Other pages where made up. I used paint, coloring pencils, markers and glitter. 

Now with the pages almost done, it is time to burn some edges!


A little tip for when burning the paper. Before actually starting to burn them with a candle, or whatever you are going to use, do this: 
Use a paint brush with water and  mark where you don't want the fire to spread. Start burning the edge and you will see that the fire will automatically stop where you placed water. 

Before starting to glue the pages to the cover, glue or tape the iconic blue ribbon the Thievius Racconus always have.  

After you have all the pages done, you can start gluing it to the cover. I used Silicone Glue and Normal School glue.

Now that the pages are done, back to making the cover.

To make the cover letters and symbol I printed it and traced it over the cover. How? Well I flipped the paper over where the picture is and did this:

After I did that to the entire paper where the image is, flip the paper again, place it on the cover and trace it with your pencil. Once you finish, take away the paper and you will see that the cover has the printed image easy to paint over it! 



 For the yellow iconic edges I used the cardboard from an old shoe box  and painted them with Sun Yellow Acrylic paint first (since the original color was black and had to cover it) and then gave them the final paint with Lemon Acrylic paint. After they dried I cut them to the figures I needed.

You would need:
  • 10 triangles 
  • 2 small rectangles 
  • 4 special shaped
And once you glued them it would look like so:



To make the yellow dots just place a little drop of acrylic paint of color Sunflower and let it dry overnight.
Warning! Clean your work station. If it is dirty like mine you would have to repaint everything again since the yellow tends to stain easily. 

And I think that is all! Now you have made the Thievius Racconus! It would look like this:














Obviously, I still have some pages I need to fill but it wasn't until I finish doing the majority that I found this little fella: 




I got so angry because it was difficult to find references to make the pages and look what I had laying around my room! Oh well. Time to finish the pages inside of it ^.^

I hope this help you!

Edit: If you make one using my tutorial, be sure to credit me so others can see it too! Oh and please show me your book! :D

Edit 2: Steve Blum saw my Thievius Raccoonus and loved it! He even signed it! 




Friday, March 14, 2014

Airport Security Screening Controversy

Hello there! I need your help! Currently I'm working on a school project about controversial topics. The one I choose was about the concerns of many people in reference of the screening progress and extreme security measures that seem to violate our rights.

I would appreciate if you could fill this survey for me in order to make my statistics. I apologize that the only ages available are from 17-19 years.

Survey link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/B8HTXYX

Later I would post my project and the results.



Friday, February 28, 2014

Photogenic Lizard


This kind gentlemen stood still for 5 minutes and posed for me in order to take pictures.

You can download the picture here.