The Sinister Scribe

Turned in my first scibal assignment today. From what I can tell, it was well received. I am greatly relieved to be done with it. I was really worried that I would not get done with it in time!

I also gave my brief talk about medieval bestiaries to the shire. I have no friggin idea how that was received. It was a challenge to do it with the kids there. At one point I had to stop and take Jessie for a potty-break. Ahhh, the joys of dealing with a 3yo bladder! Anyway. Folks listened intently enough and asked some good questions.

I think I’d like continue to research bestiaries for fun and because… I haven’t seen anyone else in the SCA focus on them. So much in C&I (calligraphy and illumination) seems to have been done ad nauseum that I’d like to find something… anything a little different to add to the knowledge pot. *shrugs* At some point… I’ll add a page here, like the viking and Japanese pages, with what I’ve learned so far and add to it whenever I get a moment.

You know, for as simple a thing as it is, whitework really makes illumination pop. Or maybe it is just me. But the past two pieces now I’ve been happily surprised at the amount of depth some simple whitework can add.

I added the midtones and whitework today. I still need to do some minor re-inking here and there but I am nearly done with this. Huzzah!

Here’s a close up. You really can’t see the whitework in the one above.

I was rereading a bit on guilding and saw mention of adding a few drops of honey to the size for flexibility and stickiness. The piece in question was about gesso but perhaps it could help me with the gum arabic size. Or, as Ilaria suggested, a bit of sugar.

Overall I am not happy with the visual impact of this scroll. I should have done the lines of text closer together. Visually, there just is no focal point. If the lines of text were closer together, it would have more weight and give the piece a focus. And I think the scale of the illumination is off too but I can’t quite put my finger on that.

OK, as always, ’tis late and I’m off to bed. I hope to wrap up this scroll tomorrow and take it to Ilaria on Monday when I give my first talk/class on Medieval Bestiaries. *sigh* When HRM looks at you, smiles, and suggests you’d be perfect for something, what do you say….

OK, maybe not merrily, but I’m feeling punchy. I’m tired and my host is really sloggy tonight, so I don’t know how this is going to look, or even if it will work, but here is my scroll progress in brief

Here, I’ve shaded, in red, the areas I want to guild.

Here is it guilded. I am SO unhappy with my guilding efforts. The sizeing cracks and little bits of gold flake off. I saw a note somewhere about combining gold leaf bits with (I think glair, to make a kind of shell gold) Maybe I can use that to fill in the flakey bits?

This is what I did tonight, lightly indicated where I thought the colors should go.

Here’s the best shot I could get of my crappy guilding.

OK, I’m tired of fighting this interface. G’Nite!

Finished inking today! Have I mentioned lately how much I love working with real vellum?!?

I modified the pencil draft a bit since my last post. I added a hammer in the upper right corner and a feather shap (it will be red) as a line filler. I’ve been toying with the idea of trying to incorporate a small red feather into the scrolls I do as a way of pictorially signing them. I guess I could have used a cinquefoil.
Next, I am going to put a red tint on all the places I plan on guilding. The gum arabic is already softening. Most of the guilding will be small dots here and there. I am debating if the bar across the top and down the left will also be guilded. I may do it half red and half blue with white work on it. Hmmmmmm…..

Oh. My. Gosh. Calliging on real vellum is like eating the smoothest chocolate. Oh soooo addictive. I’ll never go back to bristol! I hope calliging on the perga is as enjoyable. I can’t afford to do everything on real vellum. Here’s the scroll so far, the name has been blurred to protect the innocent.

The inking went a lot faster than I expected. I don’t know I’m necessarily good at ‘gothic book’ or if I’m just really bad at insular magiscule (which is what I was trying with Eilidh’s scroll). LOL! I should have put vertical lines in there every so often to help with the ascenders and descenders. But regardless, I am rather happy with the calliging.
I’d originally thought to do an initial cap where the dragon’s head is, but it wasn’t working out like I wanted. Couldn’t find a good example of a letter “T” to help out either. I’ve never seen a dragon done in this way but, drawing on the advice given me at QPT to inject more creativity into my work, I decided to try it.

I have my first ever assignment! Woohoo! Ok, I’m being silly but still I am excited.

A large and lovely piece of vellum has been entrusted to my care for this project too. I am thinking of doing something like this from the Burnet Psalter. Oh, and I have the text too! If all goes smoothly I may do gold leaf, we’ll see.
So, I gotta start practicing my book gothic (I think that’s it anyway) and see how tiny a space I can fit it all in. I always have so much trouble with that. Someday I hope to be good enough that I just *know* how much space I need. LOL!

I think that’s all the details I can give about it. If I post progress shots, I’ll have to remember to blur out the who and what.
The nice thing about Calontir scrolls, there doesn’t have to be two huge seals on the bottom taking up the last 3 inches of space! Calontir hangs their (smaller) seal from an inkle loomed cord at the bottom of the scroll. Of course, that additional space seems to be needed for longer text award text.

I’ve been working on the re-do of Eilidh’s AoA scroll. Got the design penciled in enough to know I’d be happy with it but not so much that if I botch the callig-ing I’d be bummed to loose all that pencil time.
So just about every day/night I’ve been spending a little time practicing my Insular Majuscule. And I’m to that same old point where I can’t get the callig-ing to fit into the area I’ve left for it. I’m using the smallest nib I can and the smallest spaces that will work. But it is not fitting.
Now, I’m wondering if I need to do things in reverse. That is to say, do the callig-ing in the largest area I have available on the scroll. (on practice paper first) Then see what if any is left over and design the illumination accordingly…

Just a thought.

… is not my best hand. ‘Course I really don’t have a best hand, yet. Maybe I’m being too picky but I want it to look just like the writing out of the Book of Kells. Is that asking too much? I’ll try to post a pic later today. I’ve been practicing a little each night.

Coolness! Scribblers Guideline Generator: Input your ascender, body, descender and space between in millimeters and it gives you a practice page! Woot.

OK. Gave it a try. Bit disappointing. At 2-3-2-7 mm respectively, my printout is a bit wonky. Every 3rd set has a big space the 2-3-2 part. Views just fine, so I could do a screen print into MSWord if I were desperate.