blonde trees

[klwilliams]

I finished painting all the trees on my scrolls tonight. I think they look all right, but just all right. I mixed the paint myself, and it came out a reasonable consistency, and I got the shades I wanted for, well, shading, though once they were on I think they were a little too yellowy and pinky than the lighter shade of brown and of cream that I was looking for. However, I know better than to shade by mixing in white, since it looks so chalky, and the reason I did the tree trunks first is because they will be hidden by the grass and the leaves, not to mention the bunnies and the people, so the fact that my brush control was terrible (blobby hash strokes with even a fine tip brush), they'll be in the background and no one will notice.

Also, I got my hair highlighted and cut today, but my hair looks blonde, not highlighted. Oh, well, I was a natural blonde at one point in my life.

Comments

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

Bunnies? What are you making?

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

Sounds to me like it's going to be someone's award scroll for an SCA thing. The illustrations probably have something to do with the interests, heraldic device, or household of the person getting the award.

To see some samples: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2963/scrolls.html

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

Wow. those are elaborate! Congratulations for even attempting this.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm working on a pair of SCA award scrolls based on The Hunting Book of Gaston Phebus, hence the bunnies. If you want to see some of my work (including my first and my most recent scrolls), look here

http://history.westkingdom.org/Scrolls/index.htm#B

in the scrolls done by Branwen ferch Emrys (me). Note that the first scroll on the list (if it hasn't been fixed by the time you see this) is a scroll given to me, not done by me. The webmaster got confused.

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

You do beautiful work!

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

These are what you're working from this time?

http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/manuscrits/aman10.htm

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Yes. I have the book in facsimile.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

I hope there's a way we can see them when you're done.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

It will probably be on that scroll page, plus I also put them on my personal web page (when I remember to update it).

Curious..

[aastg.livejournal.com]

What were you using for a binder? What pigments? Were the yellow/pinky tints just the result of how you mixed it or did the pigments do something unexpected?

Re: Curious..

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I mixed burnt sienna with gum arabic and a little water for the base, then mixed in powdered naples yellow (a brighter yellow than Windsor Newton) to make a lighter shade of brown for shading, but the dried version looked more yellow than the wet version did. Then I mixed in white to that to make the next level of shading, and that looked great wet and a little bit too pink when dried. I haven't used any pigments from this set before, so I didn't have anything to judge by.