Awards for Eadain

HL Eadain is a really awesome apprentice and a really great friend. She's also wickedly funny and one of the best illuminators I have had the pleasure to know.

I have had a few opportunities to create award scrolls for her and on several occasions I have chosen to go tiny. Something about painting for a great illuminator always makes you question yourself, even if that illuminator is your apprentice. Perhaps especially so in that case because the last thing I wanted to do was mess up something that would hang on her wall.

Both of these pages inspired by my beloved Mira Calligrapiae Monumenta are a total size of 6x4 with about 5x3 inches of artwork. Working on this scale can be a challenge but I love to work on delicate flowers and minute shading. I chose each of the subjects of these pieces carefully to create a nice balance of art, calligraphy, color, and light.

The end result of the daffodil in the first piece really pleased me and it had a good quality of light. The purple and yellow columbine flower took longer than expected but the complexity of the flower required a lighter hand with the needed shading. I am not sure I was ever totally happy with the end result of the acorns, but overall the piece turned out well balanced. This piece was a Grant of Arms so I tried for something a little more complex than a non-armigerous scroll.

In the second piece I think that the snail was my favorite part to create. I was truly surprised by how many hours of my time disappeared into that little gastropod. This award is a Trade Winds given for excellence in teaching of the arts and sciences. The flowers on the piece were actually pretty quick to paint but I never was entirely happy with the bee critter.

Octavio, Baron of the Court

Court Barony for Master Octavio de Flores.

I was working on this fun little tromp l'oiel piece when I got a call about a court baronet scroll being needed for my dear friend Octavio. At that point I dropped about ever ounce of my available effort and artsy-ness into the page as Octavio is quite dear to me.

The end result was remarkably shiny but turned out well enough to make me happy. Yah, that's a lot of gold.

I remember the little purple an yellow flowers, the caterpillar on the bottom left and the berries were all especially fun to paint. However, my idea of fun is not always the same as everyone else.

Page executed in AS 4o by the reckoning of the SCA but these photos were only recently collected by a friend.

I urge all you scribes to take photos of your work before it goes out because once a piece flies free from your hands you may not have another chance to photograph it for many years.

Mairi's Laurel

Laurel scroll for Mistress Mairi inspired by a page from the Visconti Hours. This piece was done in AS 39 but I have not had a picture of it until recently.

This one gave me a bit of grief as figures have never been my strong point. I love painting drapery an clothing but it has always been faces and hands that would keep me up at night.

The red pen squiggles were a lot of fun and provied nice text filler.

I think I selected this piece because of the vast number of acorns depicted in the original page as Mistress Mairi is quite fond of them.


Watercolor gouache on bristol board. Windsor Newton calligraphy ink, speedball nib, gold leaf.