This is a custom-designed scroll I made for a friend. ^_^ I didn't have any particular period example in mind, but I have looked at a lot of illuminated manuscripts by now, and I hope this one looks somewhat plausible as a medieval design for someone who likes knitting and has two cats. Since I don't do calligraphy, I set the verbiage for the scroll in Microsoft Word. I balanced the arrangement of the text as best I could while making sure there was plenty of room left for drawing in the margins, then printed it. With a pencil, I drew the top and left borders and the kitty over on the top right. Then I inked all the outlines so I can trace it onto multi-media paper using a lightbox.  I used some graph paper to draw the knit stitches that surround the letter N. I figured this was a good way to make sure the lines are all even. I put the grid paper down on the lightbox and traced it onto the multi-media paper. I also sized a Phoenix Eye image to fit in the circle and traced it onto the multi-media paper along with everything else.  The text for the name of the recipient, the award, and the event are in a color other than black at the request of the Baroness. ^_^ (I recall she said something like "can you guys start writing the person's name in red so it stands out?" but I obviously did something different. :P ) Then it was finally painting time. The painting was the quickest and easiest part on this one - I spent way more time drawing everything and fussing with the text layout. I took this picture before it was completely finished - it did get touched up a little before it went out the door.  The date is blank because we weren't sure what day and time this scroll would be awarded in court when I was still at the tracing stage. I'll fill it in later. :) |
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