My First Meridian Scroll

I broke my rule.

I took on a new assignment without finishing the backlog I said I’d finish first.

But in my defense…. I have no defense. It’s pretty? Read more about this piece after the break.

This was done on pergamenata, which is my go-to substrate. If I recall correctly, it’s 8×10. It is based on the British Library’s Cotton MS Vespasian A I, f. 64v. The manuscript is also known as the Vespasian Psalter, and was written in the second quarter of the 8th century. The original folio is the opening to Psalm 52.

I used a combination of Winsor Newtown (Cadmium and Ultramarine for under the gold and silver, respectively) and M. Graham (everything else) gouache. The gold is Sumi in Light Gold, and the silver is also Sumi.

I’m thinking I’ll need to do a post on my materials and that part of my process.

The scroll text opens with Salutatio de which translates to greetings from and leads into the names of the Royals.

Three Things I Like

1. The general composition and layout. This works well as an SCA award.
2. The animals, particularly the duck faces. The ones inside the word could use some improvement.
3. The dots, particularly along the left side.  They aren’t perfect, but I like them.

Two Things I Don’t Like

1. I’m not super angry about the calligraphy – spacing looks decent, but I am still having letter consistency issues.
2. Knotwork, my old nemesis. It just feels smooshed in spots.

One Thing I Would Do Differently

1. This could be any of the things I pointed at earlier, but I think the knotwork. The knotwork is one of the defining characteristics of art from this region/era, and being able to do it well would mean I would feel a lot more comfortable taking assignments for people with appropriate personas.

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