I've been doing quite a lot of writing in the book lately, but the scriptorium last week also put me up to looking through my folder of half finished illumination projects and lots of examples of 15th and 16th century Dutch illumination.
We're getting to a stage in the book where lots of pages have been written and are ready for the next "layer": adding whitework, leaves and penwork. We decided not to spend weeks practicing before starting on the book; we've got everything from gold paint to three different kinds of gesso in there allready, and lots of people have helped, some more experienced that others, and all of that is part of the character and charm of the project. So yesterday, I started doing some penwork and green leaves on one page (see the next post), and it looks pretty good.
At the same time, I do want to try and decide on one style of letters to use, and practice a little whitework and penwork, so I'm planning on doing a sampler. These are some of the things I want to have in there:
-the final version of gothic bastarde to use
-penned capitals
-painted lombardic capitals with and without penwork
-whitework examples, both bars and a few larger letters
-line fillers
vrijdag 30 maart 2012
Scriptorium!
Last Sunday we planned another work session, and this time announced it a bit further ahead of time. We worked with 8 people, and got lots done, yay!
Hilde, Gerulf and Jehan worked on illuminations, Laura filled in some decorated capitals and started on an illumination, Elisabeth painted lots of leaves and her daughter worked on whitework. Bertrik provided paint, and I did a little bit of painting and lots of running around. I also looked up examples of whitework, capitals and penwork.
Bertrik took lots of pictures that he put online: http://www.bertrick.nl/photos/Calligrafie_25-03-2012/#
Hilde, Gerulf and Jehan worked on illuminations, Laura filled in some decorated capitals and started on an illumination, Elisabeth painted lots of leaves and her daughter worked on whitework. Bertrik provided paint, and I did a little bit of painting and lots of running around. I also looked up examples of whitework, capitals and penwork.
Bertrik took lots of pictures that he put online: http://www.bertrick.nl/photos/Calligrafie_25-03-2012/#
zondag 12 februari 2012
Sunday Afternoon
We planned a Sunday afternoon for a group session working on The Book, but due to the short notice, snow, flue rapant and various other things it's just Bertrik and me here. We're using the time to tackle some stuff that we haven't had the courage for on the regular worknights, notably working on some illuminations that have been half or almost finished for about a year: 1993 and 1992.
Bertrik estimated that we have about 1-2 years of work ahead of us before the book is done. We'll see if we make it :).
We're using the shells of paint that have been sitting in a plastic box for the past year or so, and that works fine. The terra verde paint (dark olive green, see the hills in the background of the top picture) is as unpleasant to work with as we remembered.
The top illumination is done now, and on the bottom one we just need to fill in Helena's dress, so good progress!
I also wrote the last bit of page 1990/2 and looked at the word counts. There are 339 words left for page 3 and 4, which have space for 150 words on average. Also, it looks like I've been writing a lot less words on a page than the average, so I'll have to keep paying attention and continue cutting words as I go.
We're using the shells of paint that have been sitting in a plastic box for the past year or so, and that works fine. The terra verde paint (dark olive green, see the hills in the background of the top picture) is as unpleasant to work with as we remembered.
The top illumination is done now, and on the bottom one we just need to fill in Helena's dress, so good progress!
I also wrote the last bit of page 1990/2 and looked at the word counts. There are 339 words left for page 3 and 4, which have space for 150 words on average. Also, it looks like I've been writing a lot less words on a page than the average, so I'll have to keep paying attention and continue cutting words as I go.
donderdag 12 januari 2012
Sticky gesso
The first post in the new year!
The gesso I wrote about last time sticks well; so well that little bits of the cover sheets stuck to it.
Today, Bertrik is gilding the rest of the gesso that we allready applied and trying to dissolve the leftover gesso and use it on a final capital.
I'm continuing the writing, the final page of 1988.
Do next time: write lots of read capitals. Gild page 1993 - 4 so we can finish writing 1993.
The gesso I wrote about last time sticks well; so well that little bits of the cover sheets stuck to it.
Today, Bertrik is gilding the rest of the gesso that we allready applied and trying to dissolve the leftover gesso and use it on a final capital.
I'm continuing the writing, the final page of 1988.
Do next time: write lots of read capitals. Gild page 1993 - 4 so we can finish writing 1993.
donderdag 29 december 2011
Adding gesso
After all the writing I did in the past weeks, there are now several capitals that will need to be gilded, and we found some pages with gesso missing, so we'll be adding gesso to those pages.
Bertrik is making some sugar gesso with dissolved gum arabic as a base, adding about 1 part ground kandijsuiker (sugar cristals) to 3 parts gum arabic.
Bertrik is making some sugar gesso with dissolved gum arabic as a base, adding about 1 part ground kandijsuiker (sugar cristals) to 3 parts gum arabic.
zondag 11 december 2011
zaterdag 10 december 2011
Saturday Afternoon
After a trying morning I setlled down at the table with the kids. They are drawing with dip pens, using diluted paint from a mussel shell, and I wrote a bunch of red capitals for page 89-4, 93-2 and 93-3.
It turns out we already marked those pages as done, so I don't get the satisfaction of marking something off the list, but no matter, we're having a peaceful moment, which is worth a lot, and also, it's a lot of fun to see them enjoying themselves with this stuff.
Next I want to try and finish the text for 1988, 1990 and 1992, all of which are mostly gilded. Page 1993 - 4 should be gilded before I write that page.
In between cooking a wonderful salad ("Sinterklaassalade" van Keet Smakelijk) and miserable pancakes I managed to fix the text for 1988, 1990 and the introduction. Yay! Got to cross off some stuff from the list after all...
Next time we get together to work on the book we should look at the extra text I made for 1991, and some of the stuff on the discussion page to see if/where we can fit that in.
In between cooking a wonderful salad ("Sinterklaassalade" van Keet Smakelijk) and miserable pancakes I managed to fix the text for 1988, 1990 and the introduction. Yay! Got to cross off some stuff from the list after all...
Next time we get together to work on the book we should look at the extra text I made for 1991, and some of the stuff on the discussion page to see if/where we can fit that in.
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