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Maisie Matilda is a fore-edge painter whose reels on TikTok have gone viral. She is recognised by Britain’s Heritage Crafts Association and has painted nearly 1,000 books.
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English, French , 4 more 
English, French , 7 more
Paint a complete scene on a book in three stages, from first wash to fine detailDiscover the history of this critically endangered craft: fore-edge paintingPractice easy techniques to grow your book painting skills step-by-stepChoose, assess, and prepare your favorite book for paintingPlan and sketch out a design on paper first to avoid headaches laterTransfer your design directly onto the clamped fore-edge with pencilsMaster the rules for watercolor painting on the page edges Add special flourishes and unique touches to your finished piecePaint all three edges of your book for a fully transformed art objectPreserve, display, and gift-wrap your finished painted bookYour favourite book is about to become a stunning work of art. Fore-edge painting is a centuries-old craft where a painted scene is created on the edges of a book’s pages. Maisie Matilda, a UK artist whose book painting reels have gone viral on TikTok, breaks down her entire painting process step by step for the first time ever!
You might be thinking you need serious experience to paint on such an unusual surface. Nothing of the kind! This course was designed for complete beginners, covering every step from choosing the right type of book to applying the final fixative spray. Better yet, the total materials cost is around $20, with everything available from a hardware store and your local art shop.
You will start by learning what fore-edge painting actually is, its 1,000-year history, and why it sits on the Red List of Critically Endangered Crafts. Then Maisie walks you through every tool and material in detail, including all the budget alternatives she actually uses herself. From there, you will learn how to choose a suitable secondhand book, how to clamp and prepare it correctly, and how to plan a design that works with the fore-edge’s unusually long, narrow proportions.
The painting unfolds across three careful stages: first wash, building depth and detail, and final fine touches. Along the way, Maisie shares the surface-specific watercolour rules she has developed across nearly 1k painted books: why you always work light to dark, how to control water on paper grain, and when to reach for gold ink. You will also learn how to paint all four edges of your book, how to add a personal quote in watercolour, and how to sign your finished piece as the work of art it is.
By the end of this course, you will have a completely painted book to display, give as a gift, or simply keep as your greatest creative achievement so far. You will also have joined a very small community of people keeping an endangered craft alive. And that, as Maisie will tell you, means something.
Ready to zhuzh up the edges of your favourite book and make it stand out on the shelf?
2+ Hours of on-demand videos
3 Assignments
Bonus video content
Certificate of Completion
Meet Maisie Matilda, the UK artist whose fore-edge paintings have gone viral across TikTok and Instagram. She shares why she built this course, what to expect across the lessons, and why learning this craft is about more than just making something beautiful.
You will discover the history of the craft, the anatomy of a book, different fore-edge painting styles, and dive into your first assignment.
Everything you need to get started fits in a bag you could carry to a charity shop and back. Maisie walks you through every tool required, honest about the budget alternatives she actually uses herself, then turns her attention to the most important decision in the whole process: choosing the right book.
You will learn what makes a book suitable, what to avoid, and why secondhand copies with inscriptions and personal messages often make the most meaningful canvases of all. An extra lesson of real book examples gives you plenty of practice reading suitability before you commit.
This is where the craft gets physical and the real excitement begins. Maisie walks you through the ‘book sandwich’ clamping technique that locks your pages flat, how to protect the covers with tracing paper, and how to set up your workspace for the best light and viewing angle.
Then she tackles the trickiest design challenge in fore-edge painting: planning an image for a surface that is very long, very narrow, and will compress slightly when the clamps come off.
This is the heart of the course, and Maisie guides you step-by-step through every stage. You will start with a practice run to get comfortable with the surface. Then sketch your design directly onto the clamped edge with a coloured pencil.
You’ll build your painting from a careful first wash all the way through to layered detail, gold ink, and a personal addition of your own choice.
The section finishes with the top and bottom edges, a quote painted in watercolour, and the moment every fore-edge painter loves: signing your finished work.
The painting is done, but the book is not finished yet. Maisie runs through the complete fore-edge process in one satisfying watch, then gives you everything you need to look after your finished piece for decades to come.
You will also discover how to build a themed shelf display around your painted book and how to wrap it as a gift that no amount of money could replicate.
Get an insider’s look at the real Maisie beyond the paintings! In these bonus vidoes, you’ll learn the surprisingly simple five-minute hair curling technique she gets asked about all the time on TikTok.
Then step into her personal book collection to discover the rare pieces she’s kept and the incredible stories behind them, from her very first painting to the books signed by George R.R. Martin and Ewan McGregor. Discover her own ‘Unexpected Journey’ that transformed a lockdown hobby into a full-time career that she loves.
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Maisie Matilda is a UK-based professional artist known for specialising in Fore-Edge painting, a Medieval craft she has practiced full time since 2021.
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