Red Book of Westmarch help

[kursosawa]

Hello to all, I'm just a casual lord of the rings fan, however my girlfriend into LOTR as much as I am into Star Wars. That being said, I am planning on making her a Red Book of Westmarch for her as a present. Ive heard that there are 300ish pages worth of content in that thing. Can anyone help me procure said content (preferably digital versions)? Thanks to anyone who can help!

 

[propalooza]

I was just talking about this book with a friend of mine yesterday. I plan on making one as well. Wasn't sure about the content of the book but I was going to run BB (Bilbo Baggins) and the star logo at the top on the laser engraver and then gold leaf it.

 

[ob1al]

Indy Magnoli, Dunedain and Myself spent 2 years writing and drawing a replica of the Red Book.

I dont want to rain on anyones parade here, but just to say that if a digital scan of that particular content was made available and effectively recast, I for one would be mighty pissed off.

Not that I have made a single cent out of the thing, not at all, but it was a labor of love.

If anyone has scans of the genuine prop, fair enough, post away - but please have some honor here with regard to our particular replica, thanks.

Al

 

[propalooza]

I think to be on the safe side i'll create my own pages, I just need a leaping off point.

Indy Magnoli, Dunedain and Myself spent 2 years writing and drawing a replica of the Red Book.

I dont want to rain on anyones parade here, but just to say that if a digital scan of that particular content was made available and effectively recast, I for one would be mighty pissed off.

Not that I have made a single cent out of the thing, not at all, but it was a labor of love.

If anyone has scans of the genuine prop, fair enough, post away - but please have some honor here with regard to our particular replica, thanks.

Al

 

[ob1al]

Well, that point would be the books - The Hobbit then Lord of the Rings.

That's the principal starting point for the text element.

The images can be sourced from screengrabs then redrawn into your replica - maps, sketches and so forth.

 

[propalooza]

Thanks for the pointer, its much appreciated.

 

[chris_s]

I would think an easy solution might to:
- nab a free tolkien font online.
- Go to a lorem ipsum site ( http://www.lipsum.com/ ) and generate a whole bundle of text.
- Insert in program
- Drop in selected images and drawings
- Print

The only sticky point would be coming up with diagrams, drawings and illustrations.

 

[AlHazred]

Seems to me the Red Book was supposedly written in Old English or some such. Are you planning on trying to catch the look and feel of the one on screen?

http://www.tuckborough.net/books.html

 

[propalooza]

Yeah I think so, I'm conducting research now.

 

[AlHazred]

I should probably contribute something of worth to this discussion.

You probably already know about Dan Smith's Fantasy fonts: http://www.acondia.com/fonts/index.html He also supplies Tengwar macros for MS Word which are a little out of date but (AFAIK) still work.

 

[propalooza]

Thanks, I've actually been looking at a couple of different fonts but I haven't decided to actually handwrite the book myself or use fonts just yet. What I will probably do is create a handwritten page and age it. And then create a page in Illustrator and age it within the program and print it out and see which direction to take.

 

[N2darkness]

I've been looking for just a blank leather version myself. I contacted Indy but have yet to hear back from him yet. Any one have any suggestions?

 

[Omark]

I am new here and just trying to find some help with creating a leather cover for the Red Book of Westmarch. I really would like to find either a high res photo of the carvings on the cover of the book, or a template of some kind. Right now I am trying to recreate the tooling freehand by eye. It's slow going. This is a gift for my son. I don't need content, what I am making is just a book cover to replicate the Red Book.