Wednesday, August 1, 2018

My latest project

Well, I've been busy working on something since May, and now that it's nearly done, it seemed like a good time to post about it. This is a commission piece for an award that the client received nearly 20 years ago, but never got a "scroll" for.

It's an award for authenticity in one's presentation as a medieval person in our society, so the client asked that it be as authentic to his time period as possible. He specifically asked for references to his clothing and the crest he wore on his helmet when he fights in our sport combat. His time period is the early to mid 1300s, so I chose the Luttrell Psalter as my source material.

One neat thing I learned while looking over the Luttrell Psalter was that they didn't just lay gold leaf down for the shiny, they textured it with a stylus, like this:


The above is just a mock-up, where I tested the text to make sure it would fit and ran through a couple of illustration sketches and ideas. For a second attempt at textured gold, I think that turned out pretty well. Below is my first attempt, on a smaller capital; it's not quite as elegant, but you can see the stylus that I used to get the effect. I also used the phone's shadow to help show the difference between the smooth and the textured gold.


Finally I was ready for the "real piece", which takes about an hour and a half to measure everything out, put the guide lines in place, and so on, and then maybe another hour and a half to write the words. This is a sheet of handmade vellum, crafted from animal skin using medieval techniques, and I used my friend Ian's iron gall ink, made from a period recipe, to write it.

If you zoom in, you'll be able to see one or two bobbles where the ink misbehaved a little, and an error on the word "rendezvous" at the bottom, where I actually had to take a knife and scrape the ink off the vellum around the letter Z. So we're already not perfect, but vellum isn't cheap and mistakes are also authentic to the Middle Ages, so... I'm keeping it.

Next up: gilding! If you follow this blog at all, you'll know how much I adore gilding. I really do! It's lightweight and fussy and takes a delicate touch, and yet, when it's done it's so dramatic and flashy and elegant. I love it.

First, though, I took some time to ink in the illustration, and then paint the gold size (a modern recipe, because period recipes contained lead) into all the places where I wanted metal to go. The coat of arms in the right margin could have had silver or gold added as well, but the client was concerned about the silver eventually tarnishing, which would turn it black instead of brilliant white. Fair; we agreed to just use paint for the arms instead.


Yeah, that's gonna be a lot of gold.

But how can you not love a process that takes you from this (note the soft brush that will get rid of all the excess)...



To this!






Poof! Wow! I love gilding precisely because of that moment where it all goes whoosh and turns into something amazing. Of course, I had a couple problems because I let the size sit a little too long and it started to get not as sticky as it should have been, so there were places where I had to reapply the gold, or even go over it with modern flat gilding size to "re-sticky" it. That was annoying, but it's still  just all part of the process.

And here's a detail shot of the big capital D. If you look closely, you can see that the gold is not perfectly smooth, darn it; it's got a pattern of ripples in it, and a spot along the bottom of the picture (the leftmost edge of the D) where the gold didn't apply at all. I decided to ignore it rather than risk blobbing my flat size and making the area worse, so it'll just be a little spot that adds character to the overall piece once it's finished.



As flashy as this piece is already, it's nowhere near done; in the next post I'll cover all the base colors and see about getting some shading going. Let me know what you think, in the comments! This blog doesn't get many visitors, and a comment would make my day.

Also, if you like my work and want to help support it, consider dropping a tip in my tip jar; it's the "Buy Me a Coffee" button to the right of this post.

Cheers, all!

posted from Bloggeroid

2 comments:

  1. Nifty! I tried working with gold leaf once and it was HARD. (FYI I think you switched your sizing and finished gold photos in the post.)

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    1. Gold comes in loose leaf and "patent" leaf, which is stuck via static electricity to a tissue paper backing. Patent leaf is MUCH easier to work with.

      Looking at the pictures in my post, I can't see where they're switched. The gold size is a dark yellow, shiny application, while the gold is reflecting the light and looks white. I'll keep an eye on it, though!

      Thanks so much for commenting!

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