Hello everyone.

It was suggested to me that I should join the 21st Century and start a blog, if, for nothing else, to document everything I've been doing A&S wise. Someone had mentioned that I do very little in the way of A&S; I felt the need to correct that person by listing off what I had been doing. It was after running down a dozen or so things, I was told that I need to do a better job documenting what I do. So, here we are, with a blog.

This evening, I finished up a scroll blank, number 145 since I started the A&S 50 Challenge in March 2011.

This scroll is based on two manuscripts:
Border was inspired by Duke Albrecht's Table of Christian Faith (Winter Part), A Church, Walters Art Museum Ms. W.171, fol. 110r.
Figure inside of the "O" was inspired by the Lothian Bible MS M.791 fol. 142v.

The scroll is Arches 100% cotton, 140# hot-press watercolor paper. I prefer getting the blocks of paper over loose sheets. This scroll is 9x12". I use gouache: Reeves for colors and Holbein for the gold.

The border had a number of crows, inside of the "O", attacking a dove. I removed the middle of the letter, using Picture Publisher, and replaced it with the figure from Lothian Bible, who was standing inside of a "T". I printed out the resulting image and, using a lightbox, traced the image onto my paper. The diapering was done by printing out a checker pattern on a seprate page and tracing the boxes behind the figure.

Once the image was traced out, I inked over the pencil lines and then erased the graphite. After that, it was a simple matter to color in between the lines.

I did the diapering work before I figured out what colors to use for the figure. I wanted his to stand out from the diapering. In the end, I used purple for the tunic and light blue for the cloak. Neither color would blend in the blue and red of the background.

I went heavy on the gold to give it some texture. For the diapering, I used a thick coat of dark red and blue. For the figure, I used a very watered down base coat all over, with three layers over each area; each layer thicker and thus, darker, than the previous one. Once the paint was dry, I added the white work. I have found that with the Reeves gouache, the added white really makes the paint pop, especially the dark paints.

The full image can be found on my Flikr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/10954659705/