When I finished up my assignments for Twelfth Night, I immediately got antsy to do more. I felt confident this was a good sign. I really felt like I was happy with doing scribal work, even if I’m still so new, and things look a little rough.
I was a little impatient, so I prodded Mistress Camille. As it turned out, she had a backlog scroll hanging out on her “To Do” list. She wasted no time in shipping it my way. Maybe in part so I might pester her less. Just kidding, she has been an incredible resource for me.
The scroll was a Silver Rapier given out by Brennan and Caoilfhionn during their second reign. The words had already been written by Nicol mac Donnachaidh. All I needed to do was get everything on to the paper. I started by taking a look at a few fencing manuals to get some inspiration. I landed myself on the Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica from 16th century Germany. The art on each of the pages was wonderful to look through, and the calligraphy was a subset of Gothic, which I had been working on.
In looking at a few pictures of Allerick, I found a panel I felt would suit him based on appearance, and one I felt confident I could recreate. Folio 33r provided some opportunity for me to improve my beginner’s skills and also display my own confidences.
I went through a few rounds of practicing the calligraphy before I began work on the scroll. I wanted to do my best to recreate the page, and in doing so, the block of calligraphy was important.
Once I had the calligraphy in hand, I blocked out the page. I used a piece of 11″x14″ Strathmore bristol with a vellum finish. I measured in margins and then added in the block for the image itself.
Rather than drawing lines for my calligraphy on to the sheet, I put them on a piece of cardstock and taped it to the back which allowed me to put the calligraphy on with the use of a light table.
The calligraphy seen here is a form of Gothic, sometimes called “blackletter”. Thankfully, I had done a piece recently which also featured gothic writing (Lorencio de Matteo’s OSM). I had the opportunity to improve my skills a bit and felt I was able to get a better handle on the spacing as it relates to the width of the nib I was using. I did a couple of practice runs before getting in to the nitty gritty and putting the ink to the scroll.
Then came all the paint. There was so much paint! But I really had a lot of fun with it, and hope he likes it. Layer after layer went in to create the characters and I feel I did a pretty good job capturing the likenesses. Flesh tones will forever be the bane of my existence, though. Below you’ll find the process photos for the piece.
Paper: Strathmore 300 series Bristol – Vellum Finish 11×14″
Ink: Higgins Eternal
Paint: Holbein Gouache
Words: Lord Nicol mac Donnachaidh
The Voice of Audrye Beneyt 