Confused. Flattered, but confused.

I'm kind of confused. The above image is a inhabited initial that I did on a small scrap of pergamenta that I had sitting around. I don't think it's an exciting image, nor do I think it is my best work, but, for some reason, since I posted this to my Flikr account, it received almost 450 views in a month. This is the single most viewed photo I've posted. And I don't know why: no one has left any comments for it. Are people visiting the page to figure out what it is or because they like it?

New scroll assignment

I have just started a pair of scrolls for Ice Dragon 2015 for the Prince's and Princess's choice for the Arts and Sciences Pentathlon.

I picked a pair of images from the same source (Walters Art Museum Ms. W.171), similar enough so that all will know that they are a matched set, but not copies of one another.

Broken face

I was working on a new scroll and I really messed up on a face:

I need to let it dry and then scrape her face off and try again. Or maybe have her hold a fan in front of her face.

I let the paint dry for a couple of days and then carefully scraped away the top layer of the paper along with the paint. I then sanded the area and smoothed it down with a stone. I then re-penciled and inked in the lines of the face and re-painted it.

I'm still not happy with the results, but the lady now looks less like a neanderthal with a uni-brow. I had also messed up the "windows" above the ladies's heads, but I didn't feel like fixing them.

Almond Milk

Milk was an important ingredient in medieval cookery. The problem with animal milk (milk from cows, goats and sheep) was that it had a very limited shelf life. Also, the taste and quality of milk changed with the seasons and with the feed of the animals. Add to that the fact that animal milk was prohibited on fast and lean days. To get around these issues, medieval cooks turned to other sources for milk. Almonds, as well as hazelnuts and walnuts, can be turned into a milk-like substance.

Like animal milk, almond milk can by churned into butter, can thicken sauces and carry fat soluble flavors. Since it contains no animal products, almond milk could be enjoyed on fast and lean days and during Lent. Almond milk also had a more consistent flavor than animal milk and does not spoil easily. It could be made as needed and any excess could be stored for several weeks. While it was an ingredient in many dishes, almond milk was also consumed just like animal milk; by the glass. It was recommended, by physicians, as "blessed with qualities that were very close to the healthy human temperamant"[1] and was prescribed for those who were sick or had digestive problems.

Sources:

From Du fait de cuisine:
28. And again, flans of almond milk: according to the quantity of flans which you are making take the quantity of almonds, have them well and cleanly blanched and washed and then have them very well brayed; and take very clean fair water and let him strain his almond milk into a bowl or a cornue which is fair and clean according to the quantity of flans which he should make....

-----------------------------

From Le Viandier de Taillevent,
Take peeled almonds, crush very well in a mortar, steep in water boiled and cooled to lukewarm, strain through cheesecloth, and boil your almond milk on a few coals for an instant or two.

-----------------------------

The redaction from A Boke of Gode Cokkery
1 cup ground almonds
2 cups boiling water

Combine almonds and water. Steep for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sieve the mixture to remove coarse grains OR (preferably) blend mixture in electric blender until grains are absorbed. Yield - 2 cups almond milk.

-----------------------------

The redaction from Medieval Cookery
2 cups blanched almonds
3 cups hot water

Grind almonds until fine, almost like flour. Pour hot water into almonds, mixing well. Allow to soak for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour through a fine strainer into a bowl, discarding solids (they can be used again with more water, but the resulting almond milk will be thinner and won't work as well in recipes).

==============================

My method is as follows:

1 cup whole, blanched almonds
2 cups boiling water

Grind the almonds by hand, using a mortar and pestle: grind until you end up with a gritty paste. This will take a while, but the finer the paste is, the better the end result will be. Once you have achieved paste, set two cups of water to the heat and bring it to a rolling boil. Once you have a rolling boil, add the almond paste and take the water off of the heat. Let the mixture steep for ten minutes, stirring every few minutes. After ten minutes, strain the mixture through cheesecloth; make sure to squeeze all of the liquid from the cloth. Be careful, the liquid will hot. Cover the almond milk and let it cool on the counter. Once cool, feel free to drink the milk or use it for cooking. In a sealed container, your almond milk will last about a week on the counter, or up to three weeks in the 'fridge.

Observations:

By following this method you will end up with something with the taste and consistency of almond-flavored skim milk, and while it can thicken a sauce like milk or cream, it doesn't do it as well or as quickly. Also, the almond flavor doesn't cook out. Also, almonds have no sugar, so almond milk isn't sweet like cow or goat milk[2]. Modern, mass-produced almond milk is not the same thing as our period product: they are vitamin fortified, with extra fat, sugar and emulsifiers added to give them the flavor, and mouth-feel, of cow milk.

A purely modern method would be to put a cup of blanched almonds in a bar blender with two cups of hot water and blend until smooth. The bar blender will whip air into the mixture and pulverize the almonds, releasing more of the drupe's[3] natural emulsifiers, thickening the liquid. Like modern almond milk, the bar-blender method would give you almond milk closer in mouth feel to cow milk than what you would attain with hand grinding the almonds.

You can use the same method to make milk from hazelnuts, walnuts and pecans, but I do not know of any documentation for pecan milk before the American revolution.

[1] Master Chiquart, Du Fait du Cuisine
[2] I've never had sheep milk before.
[3] Almonds are drupes, not nuts.


BIBLIOGRAPHY:
A Boke of Gode Cookery. Almond Milk 2000. James L. Matterer. http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec31.htm Accessed on November 7, 2012 , 10:12 am.

Chiquart, Maistre. Du fait de cuisine. translated by Elizabeth Cook
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Du_Fait_de_Cuisine/Du_fait_de_Cuisine.html. Accessed on November 7, 2012 , 10:15 am.

Le Viandier De Taillevent: 14th Century Cookery, Based on the Vatican Library Manuscript. Authors Taillevent, James Prescott. Translated by James Prescott. Contributor Biblioteca apostolica vaticana. Edition 2, illustrated. Alfarhaugr Pub. Society, 1989.

Medieval Cokkery, Almond Milk Daniel Myers 9/15/2006
http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/almondmilk.html Accessed on November 7, 2012 , 9:42 am.

Scully, D. Eleanor, Scully, Terence. Early French Cookery: Sources, History, Original Recipes and Modern Adaptations. University of Michigan Press, May 7, 2002

Scully, Terence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1995.

Scully, Terence, ed. Le Viandier de Taillevent. An Edition of all Extant Manuscripts. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1988.

Done!

Done! A to Z in only six months. It was a challenge to do 26 consecutive initials. I tried to change up the style to make it more interesting. THL Beatrice de Winter helped me with the poem: the appropriate line was written on the back of each scroll.

A is for Axes we throw very hard,
B is for Singers who we call a Bard.
C is for Celtic, the style we adore,
D is for Duty, for service and more.
E is for Exchquer who looks for fine deals,
F is for Feastocrat who make tasty meals.
G is for Garb, the things we wear,
H is for Heralds, who always speak with flair.
I is for Investiture, a coronet to wear,
J is for Jester, a new joke to share.
K is for King, who wears a crown,
L is for Lion, who never backs down.
M is for Maiden, who's favor we wish to earn,
N is for Novice, who has much to learn.
O is for Officers, the people in charge,
P is for Populace, the group at large.
Q is for Queen, who inspires all peers,
R is for Rattan, which make swords and spears.
S is for Scribes, who make beautiful scrolls,
T is for Trencher, which holds many rolls.
U is for Unbelted, not yet a knight,
V is for Viking, so full of might.
W is for Pennsic, the War we all want,
X is for Saltire, a joke for the pursivant (yes, I stole it, but it made me laugh).
Y is for Yeoman, who always stands guard,
Z is for Zen, 'cause rhyming is hard.

THL Beatrice deserves all of the credit for the clever bits; the other 23 lines are my fault.

On the last three

U, V and W are complete. Visit my Flikr page to see them.

Now, onward to the last three:

T is for Trencher, which holds many rolls.

I finished up T, this evening. https://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/15305132370/ I dropped my brush while working on the dark blue.

Splat! Right on the paper. After a wonderful Anglo-Saxon word that can be used as a verb, adverb, noun and an adjective, I used Mistress Ragnhildr Sthyrmisdottir Caithnes patented method for fixing such mistakes.

1) Blot up as much of the wet paint as possible.
2) Let the paint dry.
3) Let the paint dry some more.
4) Let the paint dry for a few hours. Overnight is best.
5) Using a X-acto knife, carefully scrape away the paint: gently. The idea is to scrape the paint off without removing too much of the paper. Take your time.
6) Using white emery foam (found in the nail care section of your favorite grocery or drug store), sand the paper where you scraped the paint away.
7) Using a smooth stone or a dog tooth tool, smooth the sanded area down.
8) If everything is done correctly, it should look as if you were never clumsy.
9) Eat some bacon to celebrate.
10) Never admit to anyone you made a mistake.

Alphabet Challenge, update

R and S are done and T is half finished.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/sets/72157644141662762/

Q is for Queen, who inspires all peers

Q is complete. Finally. I had to put it aside while I autocrated Summer's End. I plan on starting R and S, tonight.

Alphabet Challenge update

I have finished up to P in my Alphabet Challenge: https://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/15209436241/in/photostream. Q is laid out and has some paint on it.

So far we have:
A is for Axes we throw very hard,
B is for Singers who we call a Bard.
C is for Celtic, the style we adore,
D is for Duty, for service and more.
E is for Exchquer who looks for fine deals ,
F is for Feastocrat who make tasty meals.
G is for Garb, the things we wear,
H is for Heralds, who always speak with flair.
I is for Investiture, a coronet to wear,
J is for Jester, a new joke to share.
K is for King, who wears a crown,
L is for Lion, who never backs down.
M is for Maiden, who's favor we wish to earn,
N is for Novice, who has much to learn.
O is for Officers, the people in charge,
P is for Populace, the group at large.

Almost half way there.

Just finished inking L and M.

Challenge update

Two more scrolls are done: J is for Jester, a new joke to share.
K is for King, who wears a crown.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/sets/72157644141662762/

I is for Investiture, a coronet to wear.

I is done and J is in progress. https://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/14685775194/

E, F, G, H, and I will be donated to the West Kingdom Pennsic Gift basket.

Generic procedure for re-creating any medieval cordial without distillation.

The following are "bullet" notes from a class I teach about medieval cordials. Since distillation of drinking alcohol is illegal in the USA, we have to fake the end product. The vast majority of cordials I've encountered, over the years, in A&S competitions and brewing roundtables, are vodka infusions based on modern recipes. We, as SCA brewers, can do better. I do understand the concept of "Creative Anachronism" but I believe that there is a huge difference between using modern equipment (stainless steel, digital thermometers) to make a medieval product and ignoring anything period, all together. I have heard from many brewers that they use modern ingredients and recipes because they taste better than period ones. That might be true, but it is hardly a method of producing and perfecting period beverages.

Here are my 10 points for faking any period cordial without distilling it yourself.


1) Use period recipes. While there are a plethora of modern cordial recipes, we are a historical organization and we should be attempting to produce a medieval product. There are plenty of period recipes to choose from, you just have to look. Curye on Inglysch, The Johnstone Manuscript, The Sloane Manuscript 521, L'Agriculture et Maison Rustique, Harleian Manuscript 2378, Delightes for Ladies, The English Housewife are all cookbooks, from 1615 and earlier, that contain cordial recipes.

2) Use good quality ingredients. Fresh is best. If the ingredients came out of your garden, then bonus points to you. If you have to use dried ingredients, then make sure that they are as young as possible. Don't use "el cheap-o" brand dried herbs or spices that you found in the back of a shelf in a store. There is a big difference between fresh, ground nutmeg and generic nutmeg powder.

3) Match your ingredients as best as possible. Make reasonable substitutions: spearmint for peppermint; California sage for French sage. White rose petals for red. Do not substitute an orange for an apple, or vodka for wine, or cilantro for parsley. I'm not talking about documenting various ingredients from multiple sources in order to create a new beverage; I am talking about taking a period recipe that calls for wine, cinnamon, sage and cloves and producing a beverage that is made with vodka, sugar, chilies and Frank's hot sauce (yes, I have seen this entered into an SCA A&S competition). Period chocolate cannot be substituted with Hershey's syrup. Vodka cannot be substituted for wine. Pork cannot be substituted for sturgeon. If you use a recipe that calls for strawberries, use modern strawberries if you cannot collect any wild ones, but note in your documentation that you made that change. Do not substitute blueberries.

4) If you cannot make your own wine, or have access to someone else's home made wine, use wine from the region the recipe is from. Use German wine for German recipes, French wine for French recipes, Spanish wines for Spanish recipes, Italian wine for Italian recipes and French wines for English recipes. No one had anything nice to say about English wine. If you wish to use "imported" wine, please take the time to demonstrate that the wine you used was found in the country where the cookbook was written. There is plenty of documentation showing that England and Scotland imported a lot of French wine. If your recipe calls for sherry, use Spanish sweet, or cream, Sherry.

5) Use un-aged, un-flavored "white" brandy to simulate your distilled wine. If you cannot find "white" brandy, use the least aged brandy you can find. As brandy ages, it will pick up some vanilla flavor from the oak in which it is stored. The longer it ages, the stronger the vanilla flavor becomes. Just document the added flavor.

6) If you are making a cordial based on distilled ale, or Usquebath (whiskey), I recommend using moonshine. Legal moonshine is readily available at lots of liquor stores and is closer to period whiskey than vodka. If you have a variety, pick one made without rye. Most moonshine I've seen in liquor stores are based on bourbon recipes, and can made from a blend of grains: barley, wheat, corn and rye. The rye gives a distinct flavor, so, if you have a choice, avoid it.

7) Make two beverages: the first you should follow the recipe up to distillation. This will be the "before" portion of your project. Then infuse the same ingredients into brandy (or moonshine) to simulate the post distillation liquid. Document that since you cannot distill, legally, you are producing the before and after products.

8) If you don't know what something is, don't use it. Cordials were medicine and recipes called for plants, herbs and spices to treat various medical issues. Most of these recipes assumed that the reader would know what a plant was and what part of it to use. One recipe from the Harleian Manuscript 2378 called for "red rose, germander (which some call capillus veneris), fennel, ivy, vervain, eyebright, endive and betony". I assume that one would use leaves and petals, but I could be wrong. Is the ivy mentioned the same as the ivy that grows near my house? According to a Google search, germander and capillus veneris are two completely different things: one is a plant and the other a fern. Which one do I use? I honestly do not know, so, I would use neither. One last point on this note: don't use things that are dangerous. Do not use poppy leaf juice. Do not add lead. Do not add anything that you might be allergic to. And please, if this is for a gift or an A&S competition, list the common names for everything you have used.

9) Only add sugar if your recipe calls for sugar. Sugar, in the SCA time period, was expensive. In 1464 1 pound of sugar cost 2s in London. The equivalent of 516 Pounds or $860 in today's money. By 1700 a pound of Sugar cost 7s a pound, in London, but the modern price dropped to around 28 pounds or about $46 in today's money. Use white sugar if the recipe calls for "candy sugar", otherwise use piloncillo, or Mexican unrefined, brown sugar.

10) Document everything you do and explain why you made any changes. It is not enough to say that you used fennel instead of sage: why did you make the substitution? It could be that you hate the smell of fennel. Or that you grabbed the wrong container. Or that you made it to use up excess sage. Document your reason. I have seen far too many pieces of documentation where a period recipe is listed, but the redaction lists items that don't appear in the original recipe. From a judge's perspective, it appears that either the brewer documented the wrong period recipe or that the brewer didn't care enough to do proper documentation. To return to our fennel/sage example. If you have a period cordial recipe that calls for fennel and another that calls for sage from the same source or time period, then you are all set; list both recipes. But, if you have a period cordial recipe that calls for fennel and you substitute a vanilla bean with no explanation as to why you made the switch and list not a single source about period vanilla, then you can expect poor marks in an A&S competition. Think of it this way: If you were documenting a period pie crust that called for lard and you used Crisco in its place, it is up to you to explain why. Now, you could document that while Crisco is not period, you keep a kosher house and cannot eat pork products. This is perfectly acceptable. But, if you use Crisco and don't explain why you didn't use lard, judges are going to call you on it.

Alphabet Challenge Update

I have completed D, E, F, G and H scrolls. I is almost inked and will soon be painted. https://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/sets/72157644141662762/

So, so far we are up to:
A is for Axes we throw very hard
B is for Singers who we call a Bard.
C is for Celtic, the style we adore
D is for Duty, for service and more.
E is for Exchequer who looks for fine deals
F is for Feastocrat who make tasty meals.
G is for Garb, the things we wear
H is for Heralds, who always speak with flair.

Alphabet Challenge

I have completed the B and C scrolls.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/sets/72157644141662762/

A comment on my calligraphy

From the hand of the late Charles Schultz, taken from yahoo comics.

Charlie Brown knows how I feel about my calligraphy. I blobbed my ink right at the last line of a scroll. Smudged half of the line and left a big ole blot on the bottom of the page. It took longer to clean up than it did to write the text. I wished that I had taken pictures of the mistake and the clean up, but I didn't. Here is the link to the cleaned up scroll.

A is for Axes, which we throw very hard.

I have completed the first scroll in my Alphabet Challenge. The first one is based on the The Hunterian Psalter (f101r) and will be used for the thrown weapons champion for my Barony (Rhydderich Hael).

Here the layout is complete and I have started to ink over the pencil lines. I was working on this scroll on my couch next to the bin which holds my vitamins and meds. Not everything in that bin is medication.

Inking is complete.

Here I have started to fill in the image. I normally start with gold because it is persnikerty. I used Reeves gouache for colors and Holbein for the gold.

Here is the image almost complete. The paint is down and dry and I am about to start the final inking and whitework.The finished image can be found at my Flikr page. I will start the calligraphy as soon as I think up some words.

It has been a while since I last posted anything. I have completed my third A&S 50 Challenge for illuminated scrolls (just completed my 156th scroll since March 2011) and I am 36 scrolls into my A&S 50 calligraphy challenge. But, I need something to motivate myself and to stay focused on improving my scroll work. I am starting a personal challenge. For my next 26 scrolls, I will start each scroll with an illuminated capital letter in alphabetical order.

I was looking at a Pinterest site of medieval illuminations and grabbing some nice examples of pieces within my skill level and thought that I have done almost every letter. I went through my Flikr account and counted everything that I had posted. I have done:
17 Scrolls with an illuminated A
4 B's
10 C's
6 D's
4 F's
4 I's
2 K's
13 L's
4 M's
1 N
10 O's
11 P's
3 Q's
2 R's
9 S's
13 T's
and 3 W's.

Rather than fill in the gaps, I want to do a full 26 new scrolls in alphabetical order. I have just finished up a scroll with a giant C (https://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/13905314494/) but that won't count. I will try to do the calligraphy for each, as well, but I think that some of these will be given away as scroll blanks for Baronies and Kingdoms.

The first scroll in this challenge will be for thrown weapons baronial champion, due in June. A is for Axes. And while I could start each scroll like that, I think that I can do better.

Progression

At Ice Dragon, 2011, I was talked into starting an A&S 50 Challenge. I was starting to get interested in doing illumination and the scribes in my Barony were really overworked. At Ice Dragon, the Barony normally hands out a large number of scrolls: Rattan winner; rapier winner; Baron's Choice for A&S, Baroness's Choice, King's Choice, Queen's Choice, Prince's Choice, Princess's Choice, Pentathlon 3rd place winner, 2nd place winner and overall winner. Plus we keep some scrolls handy for best youth entry, Youth Combat winner and, most years, we hand out scrolls for the A&S Pentathlon category winners. And that's not including Baronial awards. There have been a few years where the Barony handed out 40 to 50 scrolls in Baronial court. Kingdom court had its share of scrolls, as well.

That is a lot of work. I figured, at the time, that if I could learn to do some basic illumination, I could do some of the low level work and give the better scribes some breathing room. Ease their load, as it were. I had already done a few scrolls for tournaments that I ran and I was not only getting into it, but was encouraged to do more. So, I was talked into doing 50 scroll blanks by 2015. I could do that. I could trace and I could color between the lines.

If anyone tells you that making scroll blanks is too hard, refer them to me. It is a challenge, but you don't have to be an master artist to it. I have little artistic talent and I do designs that are at my level of skill. I can't draw freehand, but that's okay: I have a lightbox and I can trace. If I can do it, anyone can.

I needed to E-mail a few things to our Kingdom Chronicler and while I was looking for an image, I saw an opportunity to document how I have progressed since I started. My flikr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/) and my brag book are in chronological order, so I can flip through both and see what I have learned. But, let me show you how my technique has improved over the last few years. By the way, doing so many pieces of illumination does build up one's skill.

This is the sample image: I have no clue where I found it and I did not give it a file name that indicated its source. I pulled it off of the web to use in a newsletter I was editor of.

This first image is a local A&S award I did sometime in 2009 or 2010. I was so proud of this scroll, when I made it. But, as John Cleese has said, one must reach a certain level of skill to known when one is terrible at something. This piece was done on Bristol 140# hot press cotton paper using water based acrylic paints. The gold of the 'T' was made using oil based gold paint. As you can see, I had no technique. My method was to trace the image using a lightbox and then fill in each section with a solid color. There was no attempt of shading, just to get a thick enough layer of paint to cover the paper. The blotching of the blue and green were caused by putting too much paint on the paper, and not evenly. I had no clue on how to blend the paint together and just slapped more paint atop the previous layer, then used black paint to outline everything and add detail.

Here is the second attempt with the same image. This scroll was completed 2/24/12 and was done on Arches 100% cotton, 140# hot-press watercolor paper using Savoir Faire gouache from Hyatts. The gouache was superior to the other paint, but I didn't get the concept of thin coats. I was still putting too much paint on the paper. I was still putting one layer atop another to get a solid finish and it worked better than the first attempt, but still not great. Instead of black paint, I used a black Micron pen to ink in the lines. The fine pens worked much better than a brush to get an even line exactly where I wanted it. It was at this point that I stated experimenting with whitework, although I had no clue what I was supposed to do with it. I was just using black and white lines willy-nilly.

A year later (4/14/13) I used the same initial again, this time I had taken some classes and had an inkling [1] of a clue of what to do. I had upgraded my paints to Reeves gouache for colors and Holbein for the gold. The Reeves mixed much better in water than the Savoir Faire and re-hydrated much better, when dried in the tray. The Holbein gold was far superior to the oil based paint I was using, not only was it easier to clean, but it was a lot shinier; closer to gold leaf than the oil based paint ever looked. I had changed my technique once I learned how to properly use the gouache. I put the gold on thick, using 3 or 4 layers and making it lumpy. The uneven surface reflected more light and in more directions and looked more like gold leaf (which I am attempted to learn how to apply) from a distance.

The Reeves colors I applied thin. Very, very thin. The hardest part of learning how to do this was understanding that the paint does not have to be applied as if I were painting my living room. I didn't need to seal the paper with pigment, I just needed to apply a little bit of paint and the paper would absorb what it needed. So, watering the paint down and applying 2 or 3 thin coats gave me a much better look than one thick layer. I was also taught to apply one thin layer and let it dry on the paper and thicken in the tray. Then apply the slightly thicker, and darker, pigment from the right-hand side, stopping short of the left-hand side of the object. Then doing it again to give a gradated color that can simulate natural shading. (I had a nice conversation at Pennsic about this method a couple of years ago. Mistress I-Can't-Remember-Her-Name told me to assume that there is a light source come from the upper left hand corner of the page and to paint such that lighter shades are closest to that corner and the darkest the farther away you get. Then use a little white on the left-hand edges and black on the right-hand edges to bring out the highlights and shadows a natural light source would bring out.

In this 3rd attempt, I was still learning how to do that type of shading, but I had learned enough in between the two images to start to figure out what I was doing wrong. In this attempt, I put just enough detail into the chair and the table so that a viewer could figure out what they were and concentrated on the scribe and the background. I did not use any pigment on the scribes skin because I had discovered that that was quite common in medieval manuscript: letting the natural color of the parchment come through as skin. Besides, I really liked how the bright white contrasted with the background and garb.

Instead of leaving the background a solid color, as in the first two attempts, I chose to try diapering. Now, I had printed up a page of black and white checker patterns. After I had traced the main image, I slipped the checker pattern under the page and traced the lines for the background. I then marked out the black checks (which ended up as the green boxes), inked the lines, erased the pencil lines and filled with paint. Much, much easier than using rulers, T-squares and triangles.

Although, as I write this, I noticed that the 'T' in the original image, and in two of my copies, is at the right-hand side of the page. What kind of scribe is this? Where would the text go? The 'T' should have been on the left hand side of the page. And I know that because I have also learned about margins and positioning.

In any case; three attempts at the same image over a few years and I have learned enough in that time to know that I am improving and what mistakes I was (and still am) making. I hope that this might encourage other to try illumination on their own. It is not that difficult to do and if you stick with images within your skill level, you can make some really nice pieces of art.

[1] Inkling! That was a joke, son!