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Scroll 5 — Middle Kingdom — Scroll Blank
This was a blank I did that was inspired by a page from the Visconti Hours, a late 14th Century Italian Book of Hours. It was later calligraphed on court day by Lady Ambr Stormwatch and used for an Order of the Willow at the Cornonation Court of Pieter and Nan Astrid.
I love this scroll. It was very labor intensive. I was seeing leaves for days. Just when I thought I had too many leaves, I would show it at our scribal gatherings and be told that I was looking at it with a modern sensibility. Add more leaves, Philippa! It’s not that it’s too busy, it’s that it’s not busy enough! I’ve always meant to do another one since I liked the design so much.
Scroll 6 — Middle Kingdom — Scroll Blank
This was a blank I did that was inspired by a piece by Michelino da Besozzo. It was from a Prayer Book circa 1420 in Milan, Italy. It was later calligraphed on court day by Lady Ambr Stormwatch and used at the Coronation Court of Pieter and Nan Astrid. I do not remember what type of award it was used for.
I had a difficult time getting all the flowers to look alike. I finally ended up drawing one I liked and then made a template to trace all the others. The original design had a gold border but I wanted something more colorful. I thought I’d try doing it in red and blue instead. I didn’t like the result at all, the red and blue jumped out despite the larger flower border. To balance everything out, I added red dots to the center of the pink flowers and I added small blue flowers into the border design. That seemed to be enough to bring it all into balance again and I was quite pleased with it. This was also one of the first scrolls where I used a brush to do the whitework.
Scroll 7 — Middle Kingdom — Award of the Purple Fret
This was Purple Fret I did for someone who was a dance minister . It was inspired by a page in the Visconti Hours, although I simplified the design to accommodate my drawing capabilities.
I was quite pleased with the miniatures of the dancing woman and the drummer keeping the rhythm. It may look rather rudimentary, but I felt like a master artist when I was done. If someone would have told me weeks before Scroll 1 that I would actually try to draw figures and it would come out pretty decent I would have told them they were crazy. I was a Master Stick-Picture Artist.
All in all, I was very pleased with this scroll, at least as far as challenging myself and seeing some reward in accomplishing the task.
Scroll 8 — Barony Scroll — Award of the Acanthus Leaf
This was a scroll done for the Barony of White Waters. It was an Award of the Acanthus Leaf being given to a person with an Irish persona. It was my first attempt at drawing Acanthus leaves and I have a long way to go. I took artistic license and did a modified Celtic design and tried to have the acanthus leaves swirling around the bar. I went with the assumption that just because Celtic manuscripts don’t have acanthus leaves, doesn’t mean they didn’t know of their existence. The Uncial calligraphy hand was also something that was new for me and I think it turned out horrible.
I was not pleased with this scroll. I think the past few scrolls had given me confidence to try things but I wasn’t ready to do either Celtic style, Uncial Calligraphy, or acanthus leaves.
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