Materials - mixed media paper, Windsor and Newton and Holbein gouache, Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors, and Calli ink
A Sable Compass is the Barony of Iron Bog’s first level award for arts and sciences. I was happy to receive this assignment for Mairi as she had recently made my Maunche scroll.
Since this was for an arts and sciences award, I wanted to do a scroll that was complex, but also was fitting for Mairi. I found this examplar and immediately wanted to make it.
The following exemplar is the Da Costa hours (MS M.399). Ghent, Belgium, ca. 1515.
The IHS pendant was a perfect place to add in the award. Also, I wanted to add in the Iron Bog punks, which I decided to replace it for the white pendant at the bottom. After I sketched out the design, I started with background color. I mixed the gouache for the background color to try to match the exemplar. Also, added in the “branches”.
My next challenge was how to paint the pearls and gems which I have not done before. Years ago, I had taken a class on painting gems taught by my friend, Sara the Limner. I still had the handouts. In order to practice, I used one of my scribal classes so we would all practice pearls and gems. I then took that knowledge and used it to paint the pearls on this scroll. For the pearls, I used Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors, as it gave the pearls more of a shine. I also started to paint the flowers.
The next steps were to finish the other gems, finish the flowers, add in the whitework, and add the calligraphy.
This is my favorite flower on the scroll
Comments