Scriptorium – scroll for the “Rose Tournament” at Gulf Wars finished! :D

Wooohooo! The scroll for the “Rose Tournament” is finished! 😀

After all the recent postings about my progress concerning this project, I proudly present to you a picture of my finished scroll for the winner of the “Rose Tournament”. A tourney which will take place at the upcoming Gulf Wars event! 😀

Looking back it seems like I just started working on this scroll. However, I know just too well that I worked for about 2 weeks on it. It is really amazing how fast time can go by when you are concentrating on a project. Like the hours just flew by as i was adding paint and ink to the pergamenata. But all that really counts at the end is that the project is finished and that I am proud of the outcome! 😀

…and apropos outcome – let’s take a look at the finished scroll for the “Rose Tournament”:

This scroll is soooo very 14th century with all its bright colors, isn’t it. Well, that’s definitely something you don’t see very often when it comes to the scrolls I make. However, from time to time I feel the urge to pull out my good paints and this scroll was definitely created during one of my colorful moods… 😉

…and now let’s take a closer look at some of the details – enjoy! 😀

At the picture above you can see my work at the rose border in detail. Before I started painting, I pre-drew the outlines of the border sections with a pencil. Then I completely filled the white border sections with white paint as well as the black background for the corner sections.

I didn’t pre-draw the red roses – I just figured out a good spacing and made small pencil markings next to the border sections so I knew where to paint the red roses once the white paint was applied. You can still see my markings on the picture above next to the white section if you take a close look. This way I could concentrate on filling the white border section evenly and at once. Then I let the white paint dry for some time.

My next step was quite easy – 5 circles of red paint (easily achieved with a slightly thicker brush) build the basic structure of the rose – placed according to my pencil markings at the side. Then, after some drying time, a circle of gold paint established the middle of the roses.

…and after some more (drying) time, I started to add all the green details with a very fine brush – one little detail after another:

Btw., a short note for all of you who are interested into the materials I used for this scroll:

• “Pergamenata” – available at the website of John Neal, Bookseller
• “Calli”, Jet Black India ink – also available at the website of John Neal, Bookseller
• “Finest Artists’ Calligraphy Gouache” from the company “Schmincke”
  (Bought at a Thalia store in Vienna years ago, I don’t know if they still carry it. Though this paint is rather on the pricey side, the quality is well worth the price in my opinion. And if you concentrate on a certain time period, like the 14th century, you actually don’t need that many different colors like for modern art…)
• new brushes bought at the local Michael’s crafting store: “Artist’s L” – a 20/0 Spotter brush & a 2/0 Round brush
  The 20/0 spotter brush did a great job concerning the details and I used the 2/0 round brush for the red roses and some other work… After having some trouble with my old fine brushes, getting the new ones was definitely worth it as it made painting so much more enjoyable…
• “Aristo Geo-Eraser” – a simple but great eraser to get rid of all the pencil strokes afterwards. And a good eraser can definitely make a difference – this was my favorite eraser at school and I used this brand ever since without being disappointed! 

Well, I know, there are calligraphy nibs missing on the list above but as I just ordered some new nibs from John Neal, Bookseller with which I haven’t worked yet and don’t remember the name of the brand of my old ones, I decided to neglect them for now. 🙂 

…and last but not least I hope that the winner of the Rose Tournament likes my scroll at least as much as I do… 😀