County scroll, part 3

I had planned to do two text mockups today, but my hand got tired after the first one and it turned out perfectly anyway, so I stopped. The Irish, which I still can't pretend to understand or even properly pronounce, is getting more familiar anyway, to the point where I can spell most of the words without too much double and triple checking. 

This variation of yesterday's text block altered the border margins just slightly, and gave me plenty of room to fit all the text with room for signatures. The other mockup would also have given me enough space, but it would have done so by writing smaller letters, with the lines more closely spaced together. I was concerned about the lettering looking tiny and delicate next to the very bold illumination style that I've got planned. 

Both these photocopies (from online images of the Mac Durnan Gospels) cut off the bottom border of the images, but you can see that they're chunky and in your face, and not at all like, for example, the delicate tracery of vines and flowers that you'd see in a later period manuscript. I'm mostly going to be using the image on the right, who I believe is St. Matthew in the original manuscript. I'll be altering the hair, removing the book, and changing the crozier to an arrow because the recipient was known as "The Archer Queen" back when she ruled. 

Here's a test drawing next to my mockup of the text: 

You can see that the figure itself seems a little small inside all those knot work borders, especially compared to the size of the text block. I'm trying to decide whether or not the smaller lettering might work okay after all! The real trick, of course, will be getting all the broad lines of the borders and the folds of the figure's clothing mapped in before I start painting. The knot work and "zoomorphs" (twisty bendy critters) will require similar care, but I'm less worried about them.

And that's it for today! Time to rest my hand as I prepare to tackle the vellum tomorrow or the next day. I may dedicate tomorrow to just drawing the figure and testing out knots and zoomorphs that I like. I do have a light board for tracing, but I almost never use it. Maybe I'll make an exception this time and set it up! Even if the light doesn't shine through my mockup, the vellum itself is translucent enough that it might be helpful. We'll see. 

The decision making stage of making a scroll is definitely its own challenge! But once I start, there won't be much room for "winging it". Getting things figured out now saves a lot of stress in the long run. 

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