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.