Notes on technique: AoA
scroll for Sarah Elizabeth
(Some data on this scroll are lost, because I didn't take notes at first.)
Size: 12x16. The borders are 1.5" left and right, 1" on top, and 2"
on the bottom. The paper is Aquarelle Arches, 140 lb cold press, acid-free.
Scribe:
François Thibault, August-December XXXIII. My seventh scroll.
Calligraphy:
Hand: French Batarde (Drogin). 1/2 mm Brause nib.
Line spacing: 3mm minim, 3mm above and below each minim.
Ink: W&N Black Indian Ink.
Illumination:
The overall design is based on a page from the Beaufort Hours (Royal MS
2 A. xviii, f. 11b; it's illustration #124 in Backhouse's
The
Illuminated Page, page 143). I modified the architecture a bit
for my purposes, and I put text in place of the scene of St. Christopher.
The animals in the side windows are meant to be ferrets (because Sarah
Elizabeth likes ferrets), but they're probably actually more like weasels,
which is what they were more or less based on (they're the same as the
weasels I used as supporters on Crystal's Laurel
scroll, which are based on the weasel in T.H. White's translation of
a 12th-century bestiary).
Outlining: crow nib.
The hearts in the windows are by request.
Paints: gouaches:
-
Gold vines: W&N Gold (Imitation)
-
Purple of shield: probably W&N Spectrum Violet.
-
Green of border is W&N Mistletoe Green.
-
Red of hearts is probably W&N Primary Red.
-
White of shield: W&N Permanent White
-
Browns:
-
Weasels: W&N Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber (half and half)
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Dark parts of arch: W&N Burnt Sienna (I think).
-
Light parts of arch: W&N Burnt Sienna lightened with W&N Permanent
White (I think).