Monday, January 23, 2017

Finishing touches

I actually handed off the finished scroll this weekend! Here's what I did after the water was cleaned up.

All the work I'd put in on diapering was actually just base coat, believe it or not, and it was necessary to finish it with detail work in white.



Step one. Add a curvy square shape inside each colored square. I've heard these called "pillow shapes".

Step two. Insert a little loop on each side of the pillow, so it looks like you drew pointy leaves.



And step three, insert a little flick of the brush to look like a vein in each leaf.



You'll do this in white on the blue squares and yellow on green. White on green was rarely done, because the usual pigments used would react with one another chemically and turn black.

The images above should show that the red squares are simply "chained together" with connecting diagonal lines. This was a common motif but by no means the only one. Diapering was really popular throughout the Middle Ages and there were probably hundreds if not thousands of different styles used.

The images should also show some of the white work done in the borders of the miniatures.

I also did a little white highlighting of the vines, but by this point I was getting pretty tired of painting, and I didn't take any pics of that. I completely skipped outlining the vines because I was feeling really lazy by that point.

What else did I do, let's see... I outlined capitals and initials, but I think I already showed you that. Here's a before-and-after version of the initial D.





The lighting probably isn't the best to show it off, but the outline really wakes up the entire letter against the paper.

One last image: the finished piece.



The recipient should get it in their hands within a week or so. They've already seen pictures and are very happy with the work and already talking about how to repay me. I tried to discourage them, but they weren't having it. Making scrolls is my hobby just as fighting is theirs; I don't do it to get a reward, I do it because it is rewarding in and of itself. Still, if someone really wants to say "thank you", I've learned that it's not really my place to deny them that... within reason.

And that's the scroll! I'll be settling back down to regular assignments for now, and getting back to writing and editing now that this big project is off my plate. As always, I learned a lot to carry with me into the next project whenever it comes along.

posted from Bloggeroid

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