Here are some Illuminations I’ve done recently. They aren’t all from 2011, but that is when they are being posted and the oldest is from the fall of 2010, so pretty close.
Ailire’s Argent Comet
This is an Argent Comet I made for my friend Ailire. She is always working her tail off for the Shire, so it was richly deserved.
I based it on the Hours of Catherine of Cleves which I know Ailire likes, heck, is there anyone who doesn’t like that Book of Hours? I really liked that the border was very full without overwhelming the manuscript. It is light and air and very feminine. I felt that the design matched Ailire’s personality well.
I thought of doing gold leaf on the manuscript, but it was pretty humid when I was making it and I didn’t want to deal with the gold flaking off or having to fight with it to get it to adhere to the gesso, so I went with gold goauche instead. (Thank goodness spell-check knows how to spell goauche, because I spell it differently every time!) I also had some new Schmincke gold pearl that I had been given and I was wanting to try out on a manuscript. It is by far the best gold I have used.
I tried to stick very closely to the hand in the book and I really feel like this is some of my best calligraphy. 
The fancy-pants capitals are also taken from the Catherine of Cleves book, but aren’t quite as airy as the originals. They could get so much detail in the manuscripts. Maybe I’ll figure it out someday.
I also really like the gold seals they put on the bottom. It seems that usually the seals are red and I think the gold ones add quite a nice touch.
This manuscript was also done on pergamenta, which is my new favorite “paper” to paint on. I think it really recreates the look of medieval manuscripts without having to go skin a goat 🙂
Here is the page from Catherine of Cleves that I based the scroll on. Hrm, not a whole lot of imagination went into this copying I’m afraid. Well, I had to imagine the calligraphy, I guess.
Contessa Elisenda’s Rose Manuscript
Elisenda asked me very early in her reign if I would do her Lady of the Rose scroll. I was very honored by the request, especially since Elisenda is such an awesome illuminator herself. I told her that of course I would do the scroll, then I spent the next six months trying to figure out something special to be done. This wasn’t procrastination *I swear* The trouble was that it not only needed to be special, but roses had to figure prominently into the design. Then, I happened to go to an event where, I believe it was Lady Graine, taugh a class on recreating a black hours manuscript. We all got to practice painting gold lettering on black paper. It had never occured to me to paint calligraphy before, but it wasn’t too hard. I was determined that Elisenda’s scroll should be a Black Hours scroll, especially since I know that she loves that style.
Then I ran across a manuscript that I fell in love with. It was a wreath of fruit with a deep purple interior and gold lettering. I loved that it was circular in design and it incorporated the calligraphy-painting that I thought was so neat. This was the manuscript! Of course, I needed to add some roses into the fruit wreath, but I figured I could probably do that. I also liked that the “garters” around the wreath were her blue color.
And here is the original:
Mine is not quite as detailed, but I’m making it up as I go along.
Temair’s Laurel Manuscript
My friend Temair asked me to do her Laurel manuscript and I was really honored. Then she mentioned that she wanted an early period manuscript done in the style of the Book of Kells. I was totally lost. It was time to hit the books and research. I am not an early period person and I don’t know how I feel about all that celtic-y knotwork. But I wanted to do the best job I could on her scroll. I had just a few rules. The manuscript needed to be from the Book of Kells, she wanted the four elements, earth, fire, air, and water represented, peacocks to figure prominently (because they are cool), and she wanted a lot of plants represented because she is very much into herbalism both in cooking and apothecary. Also, she asked me to keep the design round-ish and to limit the yellow and orange because she doesn’t particularly like those colors. Of course, when I finished and stepped back from the design, the whole thing was square and full of yellow and orange, but she swears she likes it anyway. I really hope she does.
Luckily for me, Temair has several books on designing celtic knotwork and she has the coolest thing ever: a complete pdf file of the Book of Kells. Sweeeet! I immeresed myself in the book of Kells and found myself liking it way more than I had before. I still don’t know that I could tackle some of the more knotty designs, but it is very beautiful.
I decided to represent the elements as animals. Fire: lion, water: fish, air: bird, earth: bull. Luckily, medieval people also used a Lion, bull, and eagle to represent the four Evangelists: Mark, Luke and John. Matthew is represented by a person, so I didn’t need him. Sorry Matthew. So now all I needed was a fish. Unfortunately, the book of Kells is lacking in fish, so I had to make something up with the help of a google search, but it turned out okay. There are a bunch of peacocks in the Book of Kells because peacocks represent the resurrection of Jesus and the Book of Kells is a bible, so lots of Jesus imagery. The knotwork is plant-y with most of it coming out of vases. Those were actual designs from the BofK, but Temair’s books on how to draw the knotwork helped me make them look even otherwise I would have been totally lost on how to draw them. The only glaring thing that sticks out to me is that I couldn’t do the white line that runs up all the bars in the Book of Kells, but I didn’t think my hand was steady enough to do it, so I left it off. In the middle I put a picture of Temair and she is teaching students about herbs, as she so often does. This is modified from a picture of Jesus and the disciples. Anyway, here are some pictures of the scroll that were taken by our friend Ailire. I totally forgot to take any pictures of it before I took it to the event. I’ll try to get some, but in the meantime her are Ailire’s pictures. Also, notice the wonderful display they had for the manuscript. Really beautiful!
