catcher-in-the-rye-desktop-background-space

First of all, YES I made a Catcher in the Rye wallpaper / desktop background! YES I am still painting books. What are you going to do?! I read, write, and paint books. I can’t help it!!! (If you don’t like books, you can check out some various other Unemployment Projects here.)

Second of all, you can click on the above picture and you’ll get a much larger version, that YES would be *especially* perfect as a desktop background if you happen to have a 15″ Mac Book Pro, though I am sure it can be usable in other formats, especially if you just use the all-over design below.

Or, if you are unemployed, you can just go off and make your very own wallpaper, like me. The best part is you can tailor your paper to your exact needs and likes! For example, I started with the overall print (below) and then realized I HATE OVERALL PRINTS because all of my icons, which I keep on the right half of the screen, get visually lost. So, I made a new version (above) which has a clear side for my personal convenience.

catcher-in-the-rye-desktop-background

Here is a larger version of the above wallpaper in case you need larger (just clicky):

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Anyway, here’s a How To if you want to make your own book wallpaper like mine. As usual, I will stress that you can have very little drawing / painting ability to get something cool. For example, I have this brush which mightaswell be a collection of twenty bristly dog hairs. It’s horrible. And stumpy. No one should ever paint with it. Yet I do. Because I do not have another little brush. I actually cut it all up with scissors to make it smaller. It’s awful. Moral: Professionals need not apply.

You will need:

  • Photoshop or other some-such program
  • Scanner or possibly a camera
  • Paint or artsy supplies
  • Book you are obsessed with (must have simple background if you want it to be easy, dirty and creased is acceptable!)
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    how-to-catcher-in-rye-background
  1. Paint a picture of your book. Ugly and miss-sized is okay. It will most likely look cute later. Let dry, then scan.
  2. Scan the real book.
  3. Use Photoshop to combine covers. For example, this is how I combined my covers. I used the Magic Wand Tool to cutout the background from the painted book, and then I used the Clone Stamp Tool to get rid of the words and designs of the real book. Then I put the painted book on top of the real book. (I did this in pieces, so I could re-size each piece.)
  4. Fashion your layout. Make a page the same pixel size as your desktop. Group your combined book together (but save copies of it ungrouped!) and lay it out as you will, using different elements to spice it up as you like. For example, I used my rainbow in the upper corner of my first wallpaper and I also used the Eyedrop Tool to take the slightly-yellowed book-background for my wallpaper background. As I was doing this, I thought about all the awesome book screens in the Royal Tenenbaums movie:
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    family-of-geniuses

    Other Posts You Might Like:
  1. Bell Jar Book Art Wallpaper!
  2. Unemployment Project: Book Card Gift Sets
  3. Unemployment Project: Paint a Free Bag
  4. Unemployment Project of the Week: Create a Portrait of your Bookshelf
  5. Unemployment Project of the Week: Recycled Sketchbook

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