Once I actually sat down to read it carefully I was overjoyed to find out I was painting for someone I actually knew, and had the opportunity to create for him as he'd created for me. Izzo is the one who made my Silver Brooch medallion. (it's actual a brooch, pin and all, and is perfect for my time period. I love that medallion so much!)
Nataliia kindly sent me a link to the manuscript he was studying at the time and it was clear this was the perfect source for the scroll. Some poking around the internet found me fragments of the original manuscript, as well as all the bits a scribe needs to work from it - like size ;)
Then came words. I have SO MUCH I could have said about Izzo, he's an excellent artist and the words of the recommendation sang with praise for his martial skill. However, the manuscript was not particularly verbose... in fact, some pages had only a short sentence or two.
I took a page that I liked and the word layout from a separate page, and set out to create a scroll in that style. It was a no brainer that two of the four figures on the page would be him, and thanks to the book of Face I even had an image of his buckler to use.
And thus, this scroll came to be:
The scroll reads:
Depicted here is a fighter in excellent stance, showing a strong guard and a balanced blade. It is said that swordsmanship is the ordering of diverse blows, but the kernel of the art resides in the langort in which all actions of the sword find their conclusion.
Regard Lord John Ysseaux as he presents to Their Majesties, Ozzur and Fortune, and is commended to the Order of the Silver Rapier and joins their ranks in the halls of Great Northeastern War on the XIII day of July, AS LVII in the Province of Malagentia.
R.
R.
This scroll was done on pergamenata with modern gouaches and ink made in a period style by a scribe of Drachenwald. The manuscript can be found here: http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/i33/i33.htm
I admit that my technique with the color was heavier than in the original, but I don't think the piece suffers for it, I simply note that I need more practice in that style. I enjoyed adding the ruling lines as in the original, and I feel the piece would not have looked the same without them.
