Humilite

 Humilite

gouache and gold leaf on goat skin vellum

Several years ago I did a piece entitled The Monster at the End of this Manuscript, a 1:1 piece on vellum where I did my first attempt at gold leaf on vellum rather than perg. Building on what I learned from that piece, I embarked on my second piece - Orientalis. This is the third piece in the project, Humilite

The original piece is from the Somme le Roi - c1279, Add MS 28162 f5v, British Library

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_28162

Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 255 x 185 mm (text space 165 x 125 mm).

As before, this section is part of a 4 square page layout depicting Virtues. The first few pages of this manuscript are carpet pages depicting the Virtues. 

In between these pieces I've continued to be an active scribe for the Kingdom, as well as created pieces for personal pleasure and as parts of fundraisers for various things. 

My piece:

For clarity, I created this piece in early 2020, and stopped in Sept 2020. 

Changes I made:

• Continuing the theme, I chose to create this as a stand alone piece, rather than a part of a larger piece.
• This I kept the same as in the manuscript, because humility is important for an artist to remember as their skill grows. 
• I did remove the fur detail from the inside of her cloak. 
• Also as before, this was painted with Holbein, Windsor-Newton, and M. Graham gouache, and was inked with Pelican ink.
• The gold was underpainted with carmine, and is 24k leaf. 
• The rough outline of the piece was traced, the fine detail was done freehand

Issues I am aware of:

• My blackwork here is messy, and I have determined that the black I have does not rehydrate multiple times. It has become grainy and requires mulling each time. I didn't mull it enough this time. 
• The gold in the original is tooled, and I didn't achieve the look I wanted last time so I wondered if painting would give a similar effect. It does not, but I think the underpainting of carmine did a lot to make the piece richer. On the next piece I will underpaint with carmine and then shell gold, and then apply the gold leaf. I think the underpainting is enough to give a "raised" effect to show the tooling more. 
  
• I got the piece wet. I was in a rush and jostled the fresh paint water I was carrying... and splashed all over the piece. Then I cried. Then I got a towel. In the end, it's crinkled but not ruined. There's a smudge, but thankfully I largely missed the paint. 

For a second piece, I made a lot of the same mistakes again, but I made a lot of different ones too so yay? I know I rushed a little more on this one, my focus wasn't nearly what it should be but I chalk that up to the pandemic, but for all that I rushed in spots I think it's not terrible. I look forward to the third panel in this series which I am now calling A Page in 5 Parts.