Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Masters of the Dark Eyes Missal page

I think I do some of my most fun work at Ren Faire demos. I pick something pretty that I want to paint, take lots of breaks and always have someone to talk to. I knocked this bit out at Hoggetowne Medieval Faire 2014 over two days.

Inspiration comes from
Walters Ms. W.175, known also as the Masters of the Dark Eyes Missal which originates in Utrecht, Netherlands at the end of the 15th century.

Neat book with a fabulous name. If you'd like to take a longer look at the many, many sumptuous illumination pages from the manuscript, you are in luck as the Walters has digitized the whole manuscript. Click for sexy, blingy images.

I look forward to trying out a few more pages from this gem. I'll be turning them in for general Kingdom use, so if you end up on the receiving end, drop me a line!

5 comments:

Gaby said...

This is beautiful!! But question for you: when working with such deep colours, how do you handle the white? Did you paint the red around it and then add detail? Or did you go back and add white to the berries after laying down a crimson base?

And is the gold a paint, or gold leaf? The piece is absolutely stunning!!

Kristen said...

Hi Gaby, here's my order of operations for this one:
Sketch, background gold paint, background crimson paint (leaving coids for gems and pearls), green for leaves and flowers, green and blue gems, gold details on jewelry, pale grey for pearls, flowers, highlighting & shading, shadows on gold, finis.

The gold is a powdered paint: Schmincke Tro-Col Metallic Powder in Pale Gold. I add a little extra gum arabic liquid to the mix and water to thin. You can get a jar from Jerry's Artarama for about $11.00. It's an affordable alternative to shell gold.

Find it here: bit.ly/1fz7pfE

Kristen said...

(leaving voids for gems and pearls, rather) The pale grey and white don't provide good coverage and I had neglected to pack my bleed proof white, so I left the spaces for the pearls and gems unpainted when I laid down the crimson.

Unknown said...

This is an amazing piece! Thank you for sharing it with us at the Bay Area Ren Faire. Makes me excited for a quieter season when I can actually pick up a paint brush again. Would you mind sharing a link to your original inspiration?

Kristen said...

Angela, here you go: http://www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/html/W175/