Illumination

I love to paint, but don't get as much time for it as I used to.  So, when I was asked if I would design an original award scroll to be presented to a member of the SCA (a medieval recreation group that I haven't had much time to play with lately, but do enjoy when time allows [avacal-sca.org]), I was quite happy to jump in.

As the award is an induction to the Order of the Red Oak, and the preferred time period to be reflected was late medieval German, I combed through sources, and was happy to find a trompe d'oeil style illuminated prayerbook available for viewing online at ludos.leeds.ac.uk (Brotherton Collection MS 11)

My calligraphy, while passable, takes a very long time to be worked up to passable, so I was very happy that the Principality Scribe was willing to put her hand to the task.  The bottom right leaf curls around the Royal seal, so that was applied later before being presented.

I substituted oak leaves and acorns for flowers, worked with it a bit more to make it look more natural, and did several sketches.  I enjoyed watching the drawing become more refined with each new copy, and, when I was pleased enough with it, transferred the design (rather than using medieval transfer techniques I simply traced it using the window), and got to work. 

I worked on this in steps during the evenings, so I'm glad it needs to be broken down into stages anyway: Lay base colours; Shading; Highlighting; Gold (paint, as it it was real gold, that would be first.  I often apply gold paint first too, but since there was just a wee bit to fancy up the illuminated Initial, I did it last).

I'm pretty pleased with the results, as well as all the fun I had, so I wanted to show it off a bit: