Black Hours, part 3

With the text block finished, it was finally time to move on to the fun part: as elaborate as they seem, vine work borders are actually not too complicated to do, and they are surprisingly quick, too, once you get used to how they lay out; being set on a black ground isn't really going to change that. First, I wanted to do a light pencil sketch for the largest areas, the acanthus leaves which will be done in silver and gold.

For some reason, the pencil that was sold to me as "chalk" behaved a lot like a wax colored pencil instead, and also the strange properties of this vellum meant that in some places the marks were very faint indeed. In the end, in a few areas, I ended up using a regular pencil that left a visible impression in the waxy residue on the vellum. It isn't visible as a mark but as almost a scratch. I'm not sure this photo really captures it well; you may mostly just see the waxy sheen of the vellum itself.

Finally, though, it was time to start laying in the acanthus leaves. These tend to be the largest elements of a vine border, along with any "grotesques" or "drolleries": monsters, birds, people, or animals either hidden in the vines or engaging in silly activities. In general, you want to fit your largest stuff in first, then work your way down in size until you're filling in small details at the end.

Note how I've also outlined the text block with a ruling pen; the source material didn't include a perfect rectangle around the entire text block, but only went up to the bottom of the capital on the left hand side and didn't go across the top of the block at all.

Here I've finished some preliminary vine work prior to taking off on vacation for a week. I wanted to get a feel for how it would look and how the paint would behave. These are Coliro (formerly known as Finetec) mica-based paints, and they are wonderful.

Below, I've finished the silver acanthus leaves, as well as two creatures that were part of the source material. They were hidden so well that I didn't notice them at first, until I started breaking he decoration down into its basic elements like this.

The vellum did continue to give me some trouble with the paint; if you look below you can see where the gold is a little blotchy in places.

On the suggestion of one of my feedback experts, I tried adding other ingredients to the paint, including ox gall (which we thought might react with the fats and allow the paint not to bead) and gum arabic (which, being a tree sap, makes paint a bit more "sticky"), but the best result seemed to come from working with as little water as possible, so that the paint would stick rather than beading on the surface.

Below, most of the gold now is finished. I will have to go back after my flowers and things are added to put in stems, leaves, and little fiddly bits like that, but the bulk of the gold is finally done.

I could have chosen to work the gold acanthus leaves first and then finish with the silver; it was  entirely arbitrary that I felt like working with the silver first instead.

Here are a couple of detail closeup shots, one of the fiddly bits around the I...

And another of the filigree I added around the D. The I decoration was in my source material, but the D I had to more or less invent. I think it mostly fits the theme and style of the page.

Detail shots of the two critters hidden in the vines; above, a bird (it will have red legs added), and below, a grotesque with a sort of beast or goblin's head, bird's body, and animal legs with cloven hooves.

Finally, at long last, the bulk of the gold and silver are done! I will still have to go back and add stems, leaves, and shading later, but the large areas are done. Now it's time to move on to the colors, and also not coincidentally step down to a slightly smaller scale of "thing to be added in". The blue will be almost exclusively flowers, the red will be both flowers and fruit, mainly; I haven't started the green yet, but when I get there, there are only a couple of fruits and the rest will be large leaves to add to the overall background.

Here above, the blue is mostly complete; I thought it was entirely done, but when I went back to start the red, I discovered areas where the source had been damaged and blue areas were missing. You may remember from my first post that every surviving example of a Black Hours is damaged in some fashion.

Below, the rest of the red has been added. The fruits look a lot like strawberries to me, and the detailing on them suggests gold seeds and little hairs, so I'm pretty sure that's what they're supposed to be.

And that's where I am as of today! Tomorrow, in other news, I start my new job, so it will be a bit before I'm able to come back and finish this with the green, and then the rest of the gold and silver detailing, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how it comes out.

Thanks again for all your comments and questions! I really appreciate them.