Maastricht Hours (Ice Dragon Entry)

Here's another process post!
I was inspired to make this piece once I realized how small some of these prayer books actually where. I was too weary to make one so small as an award scroll so I made it as an Ice Dragon Entry.

This piece is inspired by the Maastricht Hours, which is an excellent book for grotesques, with hundreds of pages.
Where: Netherlands
When: 1st quarter of the 14th century. 
Size: 9.5cm x 7cm
Materials: Parchment, ink, gold leaf & paint, most likely tempera for the colors.
Info and Images digitized at the British Library and available here. In the middle of the page is a picture of a blank page with the words '581 images available' next to it, click the image to begin viewing. 

My rendition:
Size: 9.5cm x 7cm
Materials: Parchment, ink, gold leaf & paint, and guache. 

I had bought a tiny piece of parchment from Pergamena, and had to cut it down even a bit more!

I penned in the text area with a light sepia. That's right, PENNED. The lines are always still left in the prayer books. Penciling in and erasing the lines when we are done is mostly a modern aesthetic. I used the same number of lines and same dimensions for the text space as the original.

This is one of my first attempts at calligraphy. I felt I needed it for the piece to look complete. I don't know latin so I incorporated an english quote, so it would make sense to me. I also did not cut words at the margins. For how small it is and how new I was to all of this, I think it's pretty good :)

Then I added the rubrication. Yup, red inked words were also called rubrication. They were inputted into books as side notes of a sort. They also shortened words with common abbreviations. I made up some of my own.

Then I illuminated the smaller capitals. They were painted in with gold shell (paint) and blue paint. After painting in the letter, I added the rubrication around them (this time I'm talking about the pen flourishes) in red and blue ink.

I sketched in what would become the illumination. Different pieces are compiled from elements on different pages of the original, and some of it is just made up. The best part of this not being an award scroll is that I didn't need blank borders all the way around.

These are the three pages that I took most of the shapes and grotesques from. f69v, f85r, f92v, if you want to view them bigger online.

This is the point when I decided to try using actual gold leaf instead of just filling in with shell gold. Technically this should be done much earlier in the process, because the gold may stick to inked and painted areas where you don't intend it to go. But I figured I'd give it a shot anyway. 

At this point I realized I wouldn't be able to get the gold as smooth as I wanted. I was having trouble with the gold not staying on while I was burnishing it. It was super thin, as you can imagine. I tried all sorts of stuff to get it to stick, including garlic juice. Yes, this piece smells like garlic, and so did I for a while after that! (It didn't work) I now have thicker gold leaf and proper gesso to work with thanks to my Laurel, Sir Aengus and his wife, Mistress Yvianne. So there will be another shot at gold leaf in my future. Below is what I had hoped to do on the gold leaf, get it smooth enough to stamp a pattern into it:

Close up of the Maastrict Hours f69v.

Painted in the base colors and outlined everything.

After the whitework and some other details where added, the finished product!

Thanks for stopping by!

Inspired by the Prayer Book of Cardinal Albrecht

A while ago, I worked on a scroll for Tadhg Sotal O Neill's Court Baroncy. I wanted to make it epic, and challenge myself, so this one has a lot to it. 

It is based on the Prayer Book of Cardinal Albrecht
Where: Flemish, Bruges
When: 1525-1530
Artist: Simon Bening
Size: 6 5/8" x 4 1/2"
Materials: Parchment, tempera, gold leaf & paint, ink.
All of this info, along with the digitizations of the pages can be found online at the Getty Museum, here. On the right there is a small 'Page through the book' button to view the images. Later in the post I will include some of the inspiration images.

My rendition was done on watercolor paper made by an Italian company (Fabriano) that has been around since before the Prayer Book of Cardinal Albrecht was illuminated. I scaled up the work to make it a more common SCA award size and to be able to fit all the text that Will Parris wrote for it. 

The following are the progress pictures of this project, with notes strewn throughout.

I decided to make it like it was two pages of the book. Here I have blocked out the variously sized margins.

Beginning to fill in the architectural elements. I penciled them in, but there's also images with upped contrast so you can see what's going on.

This was the page that the above above sketches are based on. I freehand the sketches because I feel it makes me learn the style a lot better if I have to think about making the shapes instead of tracing them. So it won't turn out exactly like the original, but I feel that's a good thing.

We so frequently ignore the images inside the margins because that's where we end up putting in the words, but I decided I wanted to include one. I liked this feast scene as he was recognized for making feasts in the SCA, and I could incorporate people of note easily. Mick is sitting in the back left, next to King Maynard (who is sitting next to his lovely Queen Liadain), who where the Royalty to award him his Baroncy. I put myself (illuminator and calligrapher) in the bottom center left with my artist's mark hanging from my belt, and Will (word composer) in the bottom left with his heraldry, a cinkfoil, on his pouch. The rest of the people do not represent anyone specific.

This is the feast scene I was basing it off of. No, I was not trying to make any religious parallels...

This was the bottom and side of the right page. 

This is the page that my right page is based on. I figured the man on the right was appropriate as using a pole arm. I changed the man on the bottom to be holding a sword. I also incorporated a crest below the column on the right.

Completed sketch.

Then I moved on to the calligraphy. Calligraphy makes me infinitely more nervous that painting. Painting is like meditating while calligraphing is like a very intense game of operation. I think this was back when I was using my speedball nibs. I left space for the capitals to be painted in. I also made some mistakes which I scraped off and fixed.

The full body of text.

This is the next picture I have, I wish I had one before I had done the shading on everything. Fabric looks so weird without the folds shaded in, and always makes me nervous, but it always turns out fine. That escarbuncle was a bit of a challenge not to get red in. I enjoyed painting the stools.

I then filled in the table with settings and food. I did some of the hair.

Hair is hard, but I think I did ok :)

Then I moved on the paint the background of the architectural margins, complete with drop shadows.

Me adding in the base color for the 'gold' parts.

The completed piece. I added the banners of his household to either side of the Aethelmearc heraldry. I made up the capital T based on the other large capitols in the prayer book. There are six little capital letters that are supposed to be in front of pearls, representing the six pearls on a Baron's coronet. They also start the six sentences outlining the awesome deeds of Tadhg Sotal O Neill. This picture I also don't think does the yellow in the painting justice, my phone is not the best camera.

I had a lot of fun making this, it was definitely a challenge! There will be more process posts on others of my scrolls to come!
Thanks for stopping by!!

Commissioned Scrolls

I've done quite a few commissioned scrolls since last posting so I thought I would fill you all in! This will just be an overview post, I'll go into some details about the making of some of these in later posts. Again these are all from period manuscripts, mostly found on online library archives.

I think this was my second puzzle letter scroll. I really started to fall in love with the itty bitty details.

I love the way this one looks, but it caused me much artistic trauma. More on this one later.

This was a Court Baroncy scroll. I decided to try the two page look. I loved the intricacy of the border, though it was a lot more work than I thought it would be. I'll have more on this one as well.

This was an AOA that I really wanted to focus on the heraldry for. I like all the different ways that heraldry is jazzed up in period manuscripts.

This is another grotesque style award that has gone out. It is a mashup of different elements from the Maastricht Hours.

I tried to do some very intricate leaves here.

I had been sitting on a the inspiration for this on my Pinterest for a while before I found the right scroll to make it for. I have progress pictures for this one as well.

I got to make this one right under Will Parris's nose! In the guise of an Ice Dragon entry. I added the heraldry while he was away at the army. This one is actually on parchment. 

Another puzzle letter :) I got really excited to make up what was in the middle of the 'P' so I did a white hart for the White Hart A&S Tourney winner scroll.

This is the scroll I made for the Iron Scribe competition, done in 3 hours and donated to the Bog as a blank at the end of the day.

First Scrolls

I think it has been enough time since I handed in these blanks that I can post them now. These were some of my first endeavors into making scrolls, they are all based on period manuscripts, either found in my Catherine of Cleaves book or online museum sites with digitized images. I put the information on the back of the scrolls, but didn't always write it down for myself to keep afterwards, oops.

I hope you enjoy them!!

Illuminated 'A' and one of my first attempts at whitework.

Intricate border with a deer. I think the one it's based off of had something else at the bottom and a slightly different color scheme.

I remember this one enough to know that it's from The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux. I really liked working with the grey-scale shading on this one. 

This was my first foray into grotesques. It was also pretty fun. It was also before I knew that I should just put in whatever beginning letter I wanted and they would work with it.

This was my next attempt at whitework. 

And some more whitework and bar and ivy stuff. I liked the idea of a place for the Royalty to sign, hence the thing on the bottom right. In period manuscripts there was no one really doing any signing, so there was nothing to base this off of, but I thought it was cool, so I tried to make it look the part. 

And last, but not least, I remember this as an Hours of Catherine of Cleaves one absolutely. I love how the clouds (or pie crust haha) are the paper peeling back and revealing the sky and the little demons are fighting over the little gold orbs. I won the White Hart A&S tourney with this one 2 years ago.

What Rules?

A lot of people establish rules for themselves when making illuminations. Since we are striving to make these pages seem 'right' in the eyes of medieval Europe, this tends to be beneficial. We just have to remember that there are exceptions to every rule. I'm going to post some 'rules' and show the period manuscript page that breaks it. If you follow me on pinterest, this will be a little redundant.

Don't write over your art.

Write in straight lines

Don't let the image go off the page

Use white or 'natural' colored paper

I'm not advocating breaking every rule all the time, it's just a reminder that there are no strict rules. Have fun and be creative!

About Me and Why I'm Bloggin'

   About a year ago I started studying illumination and calligraphy within the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). I'm starting this blog to document my experiences learning all there is to know about the subject. Because I am in the SCA this means I will be doing awards (blanks and commissions), and closer studies of what was actually done in the period that I am studying. And commission doesn't mean that I am getting money, it just means they know who/where/when/and why the award is being given out and ask for the illumination specifically. Blanks are used for things like tournament awards or other awards that come up fast.

   I have the good fortune to be the formal student of Mistress Yvianne de Castel d'Avignon and Sir Aengus MacBain, a parchment making, calligraphing, book binding, illuminating duo. They do much more than that, but those are the ones that more directly apply to me. And I need to give a big shout out to Anna Leigh who really got me all started with this. She's given me supplies and the use of her books! Thanks!!

   My plan with this blog is to post about the projects I'm working on (if they are awards I will wait until after they are given out, so no surprises are spoiled!). It is a good way for me to gauge my progress as well as allow others to benefit from the things I figure out. I also like sharing my hobby with friends and family. 

   I will post the things I have done in the past year, minus the blanks that I don't think have gone out yet. 

This is my very first attempt at illumination! I donated it as a blank and it became an Award of Arms for someone in the East Kingdom. It is Guache (the paint) and two different shades of fake Gold Shell (gold powder) mixed with Gum Arabic (a binder). The layout is a replica of one in The Hours of Catherine of Cleves. I simplified the color scheme to blue and gold. I have to thank Anna Leigh for providing me with ALL the materials for this project.

This one I did on commission for an AoA. It is done on pergamenata (a replacement for parchment that is made from vegetables) with water colors. It is based on a Book of Kells page. I changed the color scheme a bit. The intertwining animals were very fun to do, and I think they turned out well... just don't look too closely at the knot-work on the corners.  Calligraphy by Sir Aengus MacBain.

This one was also a commission for an Award of Excellence for Duchess Anna Blackleaf. Hence the black oakleaves instead of trifoils at the end of the flourishes. This was done with a combination of guache and watercolor. I also tried gold leaf, but used the adhesive included in the packet and it was a mild disaster. I think it still turned out pretty overall. The design was based off the style of the Maastricht Book of Hours (go to f75r).   

This was a commission for an AoA. It is done mostly with red and blue ink with a little gold shell. It is based off a Dutch book of Psalms. I did the calligraphy myself. I think the calligraphy took me longer than the illumination! I also messed up a solid three sheets of pergamenata attempting the calligraphy. Words by William Parris. Link to Inspiration: Here!

I made this as a study of actual manuscript creation. It is on actual parchment and made with ink, watercolor, gold shell, and gold leaf. It is also based off the Maastricht Book of Hours (go to page f69v). I did the calligraphy and chose the words. The words are from the Canterbury Tales. The piece is the same size as a page of the original, about 3 inches tall!!

This is a Gage that I did on commission. It is done in guache on pergamenata. It is based on the German 'The Crests of Conrad of Green Mountain'. Calligraphy by Kieran MacRae and words by William Parris. Link to Inspiration: Here!

That's all for now guys!