Illuminated borders

Hello! As promised yesterday, today I have Karie Westermann here on the KNITSONIK blog speaking about her forthcoming tome, This Thing of Paper. In case you have not heard about This Thing of Paper…

Illuminated letters

From Lady Grey's gallery

From Medieval manuscript - cropped

One of the most fascinating aspects of illuminated manuscripts is the range and diversity of the borders. Elements can include stylized and naturalistic foliate drawings, (flowers, ivy, leaves, bu…

This scroll was drafted by Maria del Monte for Avacal Royal scribe HL Fionnghuala ingen Chellaig and painted by HL Alyne of Kendal. It is a new design for Their Highnesses Kirk and Brynja of Avacal, and has not yet been awarded. It was a lot of fun to paint. Apologies for the slight parallax distortion. This was the sharpest of the images of the scroll. Photo by Glenn Eilers (HL Wolfram Cordeau).

I seem to be taking to illumination. I originally bought two pads of bristol board. I have used them both up. I have drawn out 40 blanks, and inked 36 of them in. Sketched four new ones last night, but haven't inked them or scanned them in yet. Now I really need to start the painting. After attending a scroll blank workshop I realized that I had been making mostly later period scrolls. I decided to shift a bit and try my hand at early period Celtic style scrolls and I really LOVE it. The…

The Calligraphy Blog

Title: Rejoice II Media: watercolor and gold leaf on Arches hot press Size of Original: 12 x 15 inches Text: Philippians 4:4-7 Original: in the permanent collection of First Presbyterian Church, South Saint Paul, MN Traditional illumination techniques, similar to those used on ancient manuscripts 700 years ago, were used in designing the vine work and illuminated initial. Here is the process I used: 1. Layout — carefully planned and drawn in pencil 2. Gesso — applied with quill to areas that…