Illuminations 2009 – 2010

Here are my illuminations for 2009 and 2010. My website was down for the past year, so I don’t have great dates on when I did these, which is why there aren’t separate pages for these two years. I’ve been doing a lot more calligraphy lately, and not as many scrolls, so I haven’t done as many as I would have liked.


This is an AOA I made based on the Fuchs Margin by Utrecht, Master of Catherine of Cleves, Lieven van Lathem, a Dutch manuscipt from 1460. I  decided to make the design into an AOA because I feel that that is such  an important award and is sometimes the only award people receive, so I  feel that the scroll should be special.

I was drawn to it because I loved the unusual colors of the manuscript. It had both aqua and bright orange. I  decided to do gold leaf because I was working on this the same time I  was working on another gold leaf manuscript and I figured as long as I  had all the stuff out I might as well use it. I particularly like the blue dog reading. In the original, the dog is brown, but I wanted him to stand out more and I didn’t think I cold make the brown look nice.

Here is a close-up of the gold leafing and some shading on the acanthus.

This is another blank scroll I made. It is an Order of the Bough, for some reason the kingdom always seems to need those and this had greenery on it, so I though it would make a nice Bough.

Here it is before shading and whitework. I always like to look at the comparisons.

Post whitework, it looks like a different scroll and the whitework really covers up the mess I had trying to get the blue an even color.

This is a comissioned scroll I did for a court barony. It was for an early period persona, an era that I’m not as familiar with. This design is from the Bury Gospels from Canterbury. They are an early 11th Century manuscript. I tried to follow the design as closely as possible. There was a ton of gold leafing on this project and I had a lot of trouble getting it to stick to gesso. I don’t know if there was weird humidity or what, but it turned out okay in the end. The calligraphy is based on Drogan’s insular majuscule.

Here is a closer view of the top, the flash from the camera is washing it out a bit.

Here is one of the event award scrolls I made for our Crossroads of Jerusalem event March 2010. I made three scrolls, one for rapier, one for heavy, and one for A&S. One of my scribal ladies, Mary, painted the Heavy scroll. The calligraphy is based on the calligraphy on a scroll that I received. I contacted the lady who made the design and she said that this calligraphy is based on an old hand from Tournaments Illuminated. Anyway, here is my take on the hand using my scroll as the inspiration. I think it makes a pretty cool looking pseudo-Arabic hand that is still easily legible.

In this picture, that calligraphy is a little more visible. I borrowed the gold ink from my friend Ailire. Unfortunately I don't know the brand, but it goes on really well.

Here  is a King’s Champion scroll I made based on the Luttrell Psalter.    This is the first time I had used pergamenta paper and I don’t want to  ever use anything else.  I think it gives a really authentic look to the  manuscript.  The gouache really sits on top of the paper and  stands out even more that it usually does.

One  note if using pergamenta, I’ve found that the oil from your hand really  sticks to this paper and causes issues with the ink and gouache  adhering to the paper, so I’ve taken to always putting a piece of paper  under my hand when using this. (I know, you’re supposed to do this  anyway…  :P)

Closeup of the Sidebar.

Closeup of the bottom fighters. The blue guy is clearly the bad guy! The good guy always wins.

This is based on a Missal from the Collegium Ducale Vienna, c. 1420-1430.

This is a Meridian cross and has a bit of gold leaf on it. I made this the same time I made the Baroness scroll, so I went ahead and used the gold leaf.

My favorite part of this scroll is the shading in the green border. I just used yellow and one side and brown on the other and it gives it a 3-D look. It is how the original was done and I think it looks really cool, I’m going to try to remember this trick to use on future scrolls.

My least favorite part is the calligraphy. I tried to use Drogan’s Gothic Littera Bastarda and I can never get it to look good. I think it looks like spiders crawled all over the paper. Oh well, at least the shading is cool.

 

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