I keep forgetting that I hate knotwork

I must remember to never do it.

It's like egg foo young: I hate it. It's the texture of the over-cooked eggs. I avoid it, but every 7 or 8 years I order it at a take-away place, eat one bite and suddenly remember how much I hate it.

I do the same thing with knotwork: I forget that I hate doing it; I find an image that looks nice; trace it on nice paper; ink it; and start painting. Then half way through painting, the internal screaming starts. "Arrrrgh! Why the hell did I start this stupid thing?" All of them lines. It's enough to drive a scribe mad. Sometimes the screaming starts when I'm penciling or inking in the lines.

Now, I like how knotwork looks, when it's complete; but I hate doing it.

I been working on this scroll, off and on, for the last 3 months. At this point, I just want to finish it and get rid of it.

And I just noticed how big I made the 'D'. I didn't leave much space for words. Perhaps I'll use it as a tourney scroll. Something that doesn't require much in the way of words.

Things that you probably shouldn't put on a scroll

Things that you probably shouldn't put on a scroll, part n+1.

This is from a French book of hours. (MS M.453 fol. 139r). I would highly recommend that you avoid using this image on any scroll to be used in the SCA. Just don't do it. There is no occasion where this image would be appropriate. No service award. No martial award. No A&S award. Nothing. There is a line in the sand: on one side is what is appropriate to be put on a scroll and on the other is a dude birching the backside of another man.

Now, to be fair, the entire page is beautiful. Check it out:

If you, my fellow scribes, enjoy doing this style of artwork, please do so, just exclude the, ah, hanky-panky. I recommend replacing it with the badge of an order or the device of a recipient being awarded Arms. I put the link to the site where one can flip though the entire book, in the first paragraph.

Here's the weird thing. Weirder than a little S&M in a book of hours. Every other page includes an image of a religious nature (angel, priest, saint) or a seasonal nature (farmer harvesting grain, killing a pig, plowing) or a grotesque. Why did this page depart from the normal contents of such a book? Unfortunately, I do not read latin so I cannot tell if the, ah, monkey-business shown is related to the accompanying text. I somehow think that the text isn't about Cain and Abel. 

Cats in heraldry

How like a cat: sitting where ever they wish.

This is a coat of arms from the 15th century Scheibler Armorial. I love the way the cat was drawn at the top of the image. "Oh, look," it appears to be saying, "Someplace nice to sit. I'm not inconveniencing you, am I?"

Sometimes you have to leave things alone.

I like how it looks, unfinished.

I just finished this scroll, and when I mean finished, I mean I was going to paint I but I really like how it looks with just ink, so I didn't paint it. Now, the original image (Royal 1 B XI f. 2v ) was unpainted: I was going to paint it in but once I had finished inking over the pencil lines, I thought that it looked nice and that I could not improve it with paint. Also, I had made a couple of mistakes when I inked it; nothing that stands out as just ink lines, but if I had painted it, my mistakes would really stand out.

All I need is to give this to a scribe who can do extremely fine calligraphy (I'm thinking {THAT CALLIGRAPHER YOU LOVE} but anyone who has better penmanship skills than myself can make this look awesome) and it will make a fine scroll for someone in the Kingdom.

Sometimes, a mistake can be left alone and still leave you with something very nice.