Documenting for Documentation
First half of the double heraldry commission is mostly done. (Still needs calligraphy, but I'm going to do that at the same time for both given I need to cut a quill and my cats have remained blissfully unaware that there are feathers to be eaten/destroyed. This will not be the case after I use it.)
Notes:
Colors Used - Charcoal black, indigo, azurite, lead white, red lead, alazarin (madder) crimson
Drawing implement - Silver point (or pewter point. I really need to find out what this little soft-metal spike is, because I'm sure it's not silver.)
Surface - Parchment (Goat - S. American)
Binders - Gum Arabic. I like being able to use ALL my pigment. The argument made sense the first time Lucia suggested watercolors > acrylic for that reason, and it still does.
Solvents - This was fun experiment time. A half and half solution of rubbing alcohol and tap water made the charcoal paint go into the smoothest damn solution I've ever seen. It was creamy, thick, and flowed off the brush in the thinnest lines. It was wonderful. Far different from my previous experiences playing with it, with water alone. It also made it dry a little faster, but in a matte black smoothness that doesn't show a single brushstroke.
Tested whether or not alcohol solution would dissolve azurite a little and make it more pliable/less grainy. No dice. On the plus side, it didn't mind it.
Lead white seemed ambivalent regarding alcoholic solvent given close proximity via black layers.
Note: Regrinding the lead white (previously bound with gum arabic) with cold water took a good five -ten minutes. Next time suggest warm water to make the gum break faster.
Parchment was a more "true white" than the lead white, which is a warm white. Can understand Bourdichon's adding blue to his white for clouds.
Colors mixed:
- White with indigo for grey highlights on mantling and Spike's horn.
- Azurite with indigo for shading on azurite. 2 shades.
- Alazarin with Minium for true crusader red. (Being pregnant, mercury sulfide (Vermillion) was not my first choice. Lead is less fetotoxic, especially when already mixed up like all the lead colors I was using were.)
- Charcoal with lead white for grey, in about four shades.
- Used brush washings of charcoal black to shade kittyhawk in light wash of grey, rather than an opaque color for the more delicate effect.
- Indigo pure for darkest outline on spike.
- On layer of matte black, lead white did require 2 coats for opacity, 3 in some places.
- Left Kittyhawk white as parchment in order to allow it to contrast with the heraldry.
I used no ink for outlining, since the charcoal black was behaving so beautifully.
All colors documentable to the persona being displayed.
Note: Find Anglo-Saxon manuscript Raman analysis for reference.
Brushes: Sable, wood handle, brass thingus. None licked.
Pictures forthcoming to the flickr site when I get them off the camera. :)
Note: Get own damn indigo and figure out how to get that beautiful blue on Anglo Saxon manuscripts. The batch I got from Master John a bajillion years ago is so dark as to be almost black, and lightening with lead white only brings us to shades of greyish blue. It's a denimy blue, and I want the blue they mistook for raw lapis.
Also, cornflower blue was total fail. Next time, mash more flowers in smaller bit of water, and dry faster.