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!

Forks and the Byzantine Princess

The first post-Roman table fork to appear in Western Europe was recorded in Venice in the Eleventh-Century. Giovanni Orseolo, the son of Pietro II, Doge of Venice, married Maria Argyropoulaina, niece of the Emperors Basil and Constantine, the daughter of Argyrus (or Argyropylus), and sister of Romanus, who was afterwards Emperor,[1] a Byzantine princess.[2] She brought with her the comforts of home: rose water, silks and at least one fork.

The Byzantine princess was not popular in Venice, if we may assume that some stories told of her by Peter Damian are derived from Venetian rumour. He quotes her as an example of shameful Oriental luxury: "She scorned to wash with common water, so that her servants had to gather the dew of heaven for her bath. Nor would she take her food with her hand like other mortals, but her eunuchs cut it into small pieces which she then carried to her mouth with a golden instrument that had two prongs:[3] her rooms, too, were always scented with the costliest perfumes."[4]

We are led to believe that the way the princess used her golden forks had outraged the populace and the clergy, who called her forks "luxurious beyond belief."[5] "Instead of eating with her fingers like other people, the princess cuts up her food into small pieces and eats them by means of little golden forks with two prongs.... God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks - his fingers. Therefore it is an insult to Him to substitute artificial metallic forks for them when eating."[6] "Whether through disease, climate or nefarious means, the princess died within the year. The Bishop of Ostia, Peter Damian, wrote, ‘Of the Venetian Doge’s wife, whose body, after her excessive delicacy, entirely rotted away.’" [7]

Was this fact? Or slander and mis-information repeated so often that it has become "truth." There was some grumbling by the populace towards Giovanni and Maria, but it was not her habits of cleanliness or eating utensils that were the cause. The populace of Venice were afraid of the ambitions of Doge Pietro. "The association of his son with himself as Doge was an act by no means without precedent, as we have seen, but it had never been regarded with approval at Venice, and combined with the Byzantine marriage, would naturally lead to the suspicion that the Doge wished to make his power hereditary and to develop into, a king."[8] It may, also, have been backlash due to the schism between the Roman Catholic and the Greek Orthodox churches: the Princess becoming a physical symbol of the more complicated divide between the two churchs. In any case, Giovanni and Maria died in a plague[9] that hit Venice in 1007. They died within sixteen days of each other, and were buried in a single "mausoleum" in San Zaccaria. [10]

Long after Maria’s death a cautionary tale was told about the Greek wife of a Venetian Doge which seems to refer to her. It was related by St. Peter Damian, a fervent reformer of the evils of his time, who died in 1072. The moral of it was that the good Christians of the west should beware of the decadent and sybaritic ways of the east, lest the Oronates flow into the Tiber. Peter records with vindictive satisfaction how the Greek princess who came to Venice died a hideous death as a result of her self-indulgence. Distrusting the water supply of Venice, she had her servants collect rain water for her ablutions. Too fastidious to eat with her fingers, she carries her food to her mouth with a two-pronged golden fork. Disliking the stink of the lagoons, she filled her rooms with incense and perfumes. For such depravity and vanity she was a victim of the wrath of God, who smote her with a vile disease. Her body putrefied, her limbs withered, her bedchamber was permeated by such a stench that only one of her maids could bear it; and after a lingering illness of excruciating agony she passed away to the great relief of her friends. It is a nasty tale, but it is eloquent of the difference in living standards between Byzantium and the west in the eleventh century. .. The princess Theophano who had married Otto II was believed to be burning in Hell because of all of the baths she had taken during her lifetime. If eating a fork or taking baths were though enough to being down the wrath of God, western society had still some way to go to match the cultured habits of Byzantium. [11]

Add to this, all of the documentation attributing the introduction of the fork to Venice to Theodora, wife of the Doge Domenico Selvo (reigned from 1070 - 1084)[12] , also a Byzantine princess.[13] I was confused why sources were confused as to the name of the princess; some using Theodora and some using Maria. Some did not list any names at all, instead introducing her as the "wife of the Doge", "married to the Doge’s son" or simply as "a Byzantine Princess". Upon more detailed investigation, it would appear that Domenico Selvo married Teodora in 1075. Peter Damian was born sometime between 995 and 1007[14] and died in 1072:[15] Peter could not have had known of the wedding of Domenico and Theodora, let alone of her death. And it is unlikely that he would have had first hand knowledge of Giovanni and Maria, as he would have been, at most, ten or eleven when they returned to Venice [16], baptized their only child and then died along with so many others when the plague, that killed them, arrived in 1007. I do not know why his slander is so oft quoted as being a eye-witness account when other, more trustworthy, accounts are available:

A traveler, Jacques Lesaige, speaks thus of it, not without astonishment, in describing a feast given by the Doge [Pietro]: ‘These lords, when they desire to eat, take the food with a silver fork.’ A little later Sabba da Castiglione mentions the use of forks a la Vénitienne to avoid seizing the food with the fingers.[17]

1 Cedrenus, Hist. Comp., ii. p452 (ed. Bonn) ...
2 Herrin, p.203-5
3 "Quibusdam furcinulis aureis atque bidentibus."
4 Hodgson, p192, similar translation from Bober, p251: "Her eunuch had to gather dew for her to wash in, because water was too harsh; he cut her food into tiny pieces for her to eat with a little gold, two tined fork"
5 Wollfman and Gold p22
6 Ibid
7 Henisch, p145
8 Hodgson, p192
9 Pertz SS., vii. p.36; i.p.170, ed. Monticolo: as refernced by Hodgson, p193.
10 Perhaps influenza or tuberculosis: I was unable to find any credible sources that described the symptoms of the plague.
11 Nicol, p46-7
12 http://www.friesian.com/romania.htm
13 As told by many sources.
14 Depending on the source.
15 Hodgson, p192
16 They were wedded in the "imperial chapel" in Constantinople. Nicol, p46
17 Buck, p85

Sources:

Buck, John Henry. Old Plate, Its Makers & Marks: Its Makers and Marks. Gorham Manufacturing Company, 1903.Google Books: Original from Harvard University. Digitized Jun , 007.

Cedrenus, Hist. Comp., ii. p.452 (ed. Bonn)

Henisch, Bridget Ann. Fast and Feast: Food In Medieval Society. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976.

Herrin, Judith. "Venice and the Fork," Byzantium, The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire. Princeton & Oxford, 2007.

Hodgson, Francis Cotterell. The Early History of Venice: From the Foundation to the Conquest of Constantinople, A.D. 1204. G. Allen, 1901. Google Books: Original from the New York Public Library. Digitized Sep 11, 2007

Nicol, Donald MacGillivray. Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations. Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Wollfman, P. and C, Gold. Forks Knives and Spoons. London, Thames and Hudson Limited 1994.

Oh, nose!

I made a mistake. The above scroll was listed as my 106th scroll for my second A&S 50 challenge. This is incorrect. The scroll was mostly done by Mistress Ekaterina Volkova. Mostly, meaning 95% of the work was by her. She had made a mistake on the dragon and asked if I could fix it and finish up the scroll. She had filled in the space between the wings of the drollery. I scraped the paint away and finished up the figure. Then I finished up the vines and added the white work as well as inking around all objects.

So, since I can only claim an assist for this scroll blank, I can't count it towards my challenge. I re-sized the image and printed it out so that it would fit on a 9x12" sheet.

It's not an exact copy: I made a few changes: such as removing the inner leaves from the bottom of the border. I figure that that will give me (or another calligrapher) will have another 1/4" of space to write. I am planning on using similar colors, only the vines have to be green. Well, they do. You can paint them anyway you wish, but I'll stick to green. Also, I don't know about Ekat's partially colored leaves: they look unfinished.

I really love the way these scrolls turn out: I just hate doing them. All of them leaves and vines. First you have to pencil them in, then ink over them. Then paint them, then re-ink them. So many fiddly bits! Well, here is the scroll with first layer of gold paint on it.

The completed scroll can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/11300872203/

Mistress Aleea Baga made me do it.

Mistress Aleea Baga has a superpower. She has the power to talk other people into doing things. She has talked me into running ranges, becoming a regional marshal, entering things into A&S competitions. I just hope that she never uses her powers for evil. Anywho. At Hollowtide she handed me a couple of scraps of pergamenta and asked me to paint some Kingdom badges on them (contrary to popular belief, we DO need some stinkin' badges). She was planning on mounting them in small frames under rounded glass. Kind of similar to Alfred the Great's jewel: http://britisharchaeology.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/highlights/alfred-jewel.html

I was kinda of busy and did not have time to work on them.... So I said, "Sure, I'll do it" and wondered, as she walked off, how she managed to talk me into it. Due to their size, it only took a couple of hours to complete.

The badges, the painted portion, needed to be 1.5" in diameter. It was a simple matter of pulling the badges from the signet's website and from my archives (I have only done AoA level scrolls, never grant level, so I have images of all of those) and dropping them into Microsoft Publisher. Using the guide lines and rulers, it was easy to size the images to exactly 1.5", then print them out and trace them using a lightbox. I picked the three most common AoA level awards (Golden Alce, for martial prowess; Sycamore, for A&S; and the Keystone, for service) and three of the GoA awards (the Fleur d'Æthelmearc, for A&S; the Gage, for heavy fighting prowess; and the White Horn, for thrown weapons).

I used thin coats of gouache to keep the pergamenta from curling up. I do not know how other scribes work with the stuff. When I was Baron of the Rhydderich Hael, I always hated signing any scrolls made with it; the ink, like my paint, seemed to float on the surface until it dried. I prefer working on paper: ink and paint soak into the material and there is less of a chance that it would be smudged or that it would run.

While I am posting, I should record this scroll blank. I plan on holding it for my next AoA scroll assignment. If the recipient has passed arms, I'll finish the scroll with his/her arms and color in the remaining leaves with matching colors.