Back In Business

I Need to Learn to Pace Myself.

Ending the year with a trio of scrolls. One back log, one for Ice Dragon, and one for a possible award assignment, also for Ice Dragon. I feel no need to do 30 at a time, but I am of the opinion that as long as you have your paints out, you might as well work on a few at a tine. I put down a coat of gold on the first scroll, and by the time I finish with the 3rd, the 1st is ready for a 2nd coat. 

I'm on the some new meds for my arthritis and it appears to be helping: my hands weren't hurting after an hour of painting, or shaking. I took it slow, today, so that I didn't over do it. 

The scroll, above, is a backlog for a friend who was awarded her AoA 27 years ago, but never received it due to reasons. I asked her if she would like me to make her a replacement and she was delighted. I was pleased that she had recently had arms passed: I told her that if she hadn't had arms submitted in the last 27 years I would have put it on the scroll. "...and raise her to the rank of Lady and command that she visit Our College of Heralds to have Arms unique to her created. No hurry on that: it's not like there is a time limit on this. Anytime in the next 30 years would be fine."

I did have trouble finding the new brush I had purchased a few months ago: I forgot what it looked like.

Also in the picture is Deckster (international cat of mystery) not helping. Not only did he not stick his face or paws into the paint or on the paper, but he snuggled next to me and wasn't bitey... for a change. He's been pretty bitey, this last week, for some reason.  But, while I painting, he was perfect kitty. 

Giving It the Old College Try

Which Means I Will Drop Out At Some Point After Spending More Money Than I Have

Okay. I was really, really, really mad that my new light box wasn't charging. Then I read the documentation and discovered that the light box I bought doesn't have a battery. That's why it wasn't charging. And that's why it was only $21. I'm just so used to devices that use mUSB ports have batteries.

Now, I'm really, really, really embarrassed. I only hope that no one finds out about this. 

I'm not sending it back, though. It's brighter than my old light box and it can run off of the USB port on my laptop

This might be the rapier tourney scroll for Ice Dragon. I just grabbed a print out and started tracing. If it turns out well, I might use it for my assignment. 

I got my X-mas present, to myself, today.

I Was Bright Enough to Order it Early

I friend bought one of these, earlier this year and I was impressed by the brightness and portability. So, I saw this one on sale on Amazon, and picked it up, for myself. 

BTW, The Tracer is the worst Batman villain. 

It's charging, right now. I'll get a chance to try it out, tomorrow.

Weird Things Found In Period Manuscripts.

Hey, Babe!

“Are you a beaver? Cuz dam.”

This is from J. Paul Getty Museum, MS. Ludwig XV 3, Folio 78r and it's a centaur gazing at a siren. I found this while looking for diapering patterns. I don't know what the artist's intentions were, but I can only think that the centaur is trying to get his mack on with the douchiest pickup lines imaginable, but she's not interested. 

"Baby, I put the STD is ‘stud’. All I need is ‘U.’"

"I love you five ever, because forever just isn’t enough."

"Are you wearing space pants? Because your ass is out of this world."

"You have nice child-bearing hips."

"If I told you you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"

"Your daddy must have been a baker, ’cause you’ve got a nice set of buns."

"My shirt would look great on your bedroom floor. Oh, that's right I don't wear shirts, 'cause they cover up my guns."

"Wanna ride bareback?"

"If I would have known I was going to meet a beautiful lady like you, I would have gone home and taken a shower first!"

"I wish I was your derivative so I could lie tangent to your curves."

Okay, perhaps not that last one. FYI: I have used that one... And it worked. Nerdy girls rule.

Done

My Final Scroll of the Year.

Finally, it's done. And now that it's done, it doesn't look too bad. That's not me fishing for compliments: I am my own worse critic. 

This is, of course, based on the Charter to Create the colony of New Jersey, and while it's 64 years out of period, it looks really, really nice and I wanted to try my hand doing it.

Whoever made the original must have had robotic hands. And probably didn't have a annoying cat demanding attention while working on it. I took a break from scribal work and Deckster forgot that he needs to sit, quietly, next to me and not start biting my arm. Unfortunately for him, I was wearing a sweatshirt which protected me from his angry biting. As a good friend of mine posted, earlier this year, "Teeth are for food!"

I did this on a spare sheet of pergamenta using a Cross fountain pen loaded with archive-quality blank ink. It took me the better part of a week to do, even though I was just tracing on top of a light box. 

As the title states; this is my final scroll of the year. Number 421. I completed 61 scrolls over the course of the year. Well.... 60 and one in crayon. I have an assignment lined up for Ice Dragon, next April, and I promised to make a replacement scroll, for a friend, that went missing 20 years ago, but nothing else on my watch list. I've done enough scroll blanks, this past year, that I'm in no hurry to jump back into the saddle. 

Fixed

A Little Bit At A Time.

After letting the ink dry for a couple of days, I scrapped the smudges off with an Xacto knife and sanded the area clean. I used a white foam emery block. Then I used a soft, white eraser to remove any left over ink.

It's not perfect, but it's no longer an obvious mistake. I think that my best course of action is to do a little at a time, and let the ink dry before moving on to another section.

Let me just end this post with this question: How in the hell did people do this free-hand? With a dip pen, no less. I'm tracing this on a light box and I'm having trouble making it look nice. 

Also, I hate it as much as I hate knot work and will most likely never do this again. 

Smudge!

Damn shaky hands.

I'm trying something new; well, new for me. A scroll with only ink. I had a good start. Unfortunately, My left hand shook a little bit and a finger went right into the wet ink. I'm trying to reproduce the initial of the charter of New Jersey. 

I'm going to let it dry, overnight, and see if I can't scrape the errant ink away. I'm doing this with a cross fountain pen with archive quality ink on pergamenta. It was working well but, I hate the fact that the ink floats on top of the pergamenta. If I was using paper, I might not have smudged the ink,