Pennsic was fun, art-wise.  The weather, as everyone is aware, sucked and was very accurately described as "The War in Satan's jockstrap". 

I taught classes for the first time, which was fun, but a little stressful.  The stressful part was being aware of time.  Normally, during Pennsic, I am aware of daytime or nighttime, eating time or fighting time.  Not much else.  I needed to be more aware of hourly time, which brought me out of my medieval mindset.   I also brought my iPhone to use to keep time for the 2 minute, 10 minute and 15 minute poses.  I think I would like to get an hour glass in different sizes.

Class number 1:  Figure Drawing Salon

Draw from live models in medieval poses. Practice your sketching, get feedback, or just relax and work on your drawing. Bring drawing supplies.

I had wonderful models, Mistress Anastasiia Gutane, Master Ruslan, Master Lucien, and Mistress Aldreda for the two sessions.  The first session was Peace week on Thursday, and the second was during War week on Wednesday.  It was an excellent idea to space them out.  Aldreda mentioned that she had a website that gave advice on using models, and I am hoping that she can pass that along because that will help me in making good use, and treating my models well.

I also ran a second class which was Portraits on Friday of Peace Week which was:

How to draw portraits of people. What are the specific things that you need to look for that changes a base portrait in order to "read" as a specific person? This class will guide you in the development of those skills. Bring drawing materials, pencils, pastels, charcoal and paper of your choice. Some limited supplies will be available

Student working on portrait of Master Feral.

Student working on portrait of Sir Antonio.

Student working on portrait of Viscount Alexandre.

Master Ruslan and Mistress Anastasiia.

As well as doing classes, I was teaching a friend from a neighboring camp about painting.  Mary and I have been trying to get together to do this for a while, but she lives way south and I live way north, but we were finally living within 15 feet of each other.  So I dragged out my supplies and I taught her some painting.  It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon during peace week and it made more sense to her (I hope) in person. 

The other artsy thing is that I am working on during Pennsic is my Artifacts of Life entry for 2017.  This year I decided I wanted to make an artist palate like the ones that I have seen in the self portraits of many Italian renaissance painters. 

I worked with Gaius in camp, our resident wood worker, and took a piece of wood he had lying around and I started shaving it down with a hand plane.  Gaius is a really good instructor in that he shows the stroke needed, and then hands the person the tool, while watching.  He then adjusts his student's grip, the tool's bite, and the angle as needed to help the student succeed.  I worked for about an hour, shaving down the wood until it was as smooth as I wanted it to be.  We clamped it down and then made a hole with another hand tool of destruction.  I'll have to check with Gaius as to the name of the tool, but it was a tool that makes a oval rather than circle hole.  I, then, shaved the edges for a rounded edge rather than a square edge.

The piece needs some hand sanding, and I even might use a hand plane to make it a little thinner.    After that, I will need to oil or varnish it.  I've already started digging up research on that here on what the vikings did and here on a blog about woodworking using medieval methods  and here on the Smithsonian Museum Conservation site as well as looking through my notes on Cennini.

First my re-enactment piece, then the Research pictures.

Caterina von Hemessen, 1548

`The East Kingdom Calendar project is a fundraiser for the royalty fund.   I did it last year, and was asked again to do it this year.   The website is here.

The assignment for the 2017 calendar - signs of the horoscopes and I decided that I would love to do Scorpio, my own sign. Many calendars of the period of time that I study (500 AD to 1600 AD) have illuminations of the astrological symbols as well as labors that occurred during that calendar month.  I was assigned October, and Scorpio.   I was provided with some research that Gundormr provided to assist all the artists on this prjecct, and also did my own digging.

RESEARCH:

The medieval visuals for Scorpio showed me that sometimes the artists really didn't know what a real scorpion looked like, and so the representation was on a spectrum of somewhat like a scorpion, or more like an ugly, black bug or a dragon-like creature with pincers for good measure.  Dragons came up frequently.  Sometimes a fierce dragon, sometimes a dragon biting its own tail, and sometimes a two headed dragon.   I collected a variety of medieval visual representations of Scorpio and started to decide what elements I would like to incorporate in the calendar.  The calendar has very particular requirements as to size and includes wording on each month.    So step one, the examples.

Horoscope of Prince Iskandar, grandson of Tamerlane, the Turkman Mongol conqueror. This horoscope shows the position of the heavens at the moment of Iskandar's birth on 25th April 1384.  The scorpion looks like a modern day horseshoe crab than a scorpion.

Close up of the scorpio portion of the Horoscope of Prince Iskandar, grandson of Tamerlane, the Turkman Mongol conqueror. This horoscope shows the position of the heavens at the moment of Iskandar's birth on 25th April 1384.

Scorpio, Book of hours, Italy, probably Milan, ca. 1473, This has a nice color scheme, but this is the epitome of black bug.  What is interesting is that another artist for the calendar project chose this exemplar but for Libra.

Manuscript from 1447, Italian,  Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo II.  This is an interesting one, but the color scheme seemed too faded for a calendar assignment.  Here we start seeing the Dragons being included in the text.

 Illustrating the entry in a herbal for the plant called plantain, a man defends himself from a scorpion and a dragon-like viper (adder). Plantain was said to cure the bite of both creatures.   This composition was interesting and had some potential.   As with the previous manuscript, we see a scorpion and a dragon.

Above:    Astronomical treatises [Sufi latinus],  Scorpio, 1250-1275, Italy, possibly Bologna.

I found several examples where a dragon was used in place of a scorpion.    There are additional ones here : www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=lansdowne_ms_383_f002r 
and here www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_50000_fs001r

Drawing by Theodoros Pelecanos, in a 1478 copy of a lost alchemical tract by Synesius

The Hunterian Psalter, England, C. 1170, Zodiac, Sign of Scorpio, Folio 5v. Two headed dragon.

Close up of The Hunterian Psalter, England, C. 1170, Zodiac, Sign of Scorpio, Folio 5v

For extra points, I am subscribed to a blog called Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts and is published by the British Library.  They post about calendars on a regular basis and recently on August 22 did a "Which Star Sign Are You?" on their blog.    I was able to use this website to do more research on calendars and styles.

I decided that I loved the two headed dragon in The Hunterian Psalter.  I set up my pictures, reviewed the text and decided I needed to amend the text to include that scorpio appears as a large scorpion or dragon.  I would need to edit the text down to fit into the space I was allocating for the words.

The text ended up :

"Scorpio appeareth as a large Scorpion or dragon.  She is Fleumatik, ruleth ye Priue Parts of Men and Women, and indicateth Subtelte and Deceite.  When the Mone is on the hunt for the Scorpion, She will seke Nouelte when She needeth to be more dependable, and She might ende vp dronk or in a destitute state.   If Iupiter wandreth bi ye Scorpion, then one mai loke to Ipocrisie, possiblie Bitraiel."    Text by Master Christian von Jauergk.

The other adjustment is that I could not use gold leaf for the project (because gold leaf does not photograph well and so we are asked not to use it)and would have to substitute.

LAYOUT

I printed the words and used a sheet that THL Geffrei Maudeleyne provides.  This is the first time that I used this sheet, and it can be used as long as credit is given.

Layout, line drawing on pergemenata.

After many practice runs, calligraphy laid down.   On one of the test sheets I made the entire layout complete with illumination so that I could lay down tests of the colors, inking, etc.

Mixing Rublev Roman black, and some Hematite.   I ended up using the black, but not the Hematite.  I mixed the pigments by taking the ground pigments, grinding them a little finer and then adding a little bit of water to moisten the pigment, followed by a couple of drops of gum arabic as the binder.  I then mixed in more water to the desired consistency and placed the pigment in the shells that I had been collecting for some time.

Color matching.  See the test sheet with color matching in the middle, and then the test sheet on the left is available for laying the color down and checking how well it is mixed, if adjustments need to be made.   This is the messy part of art that many don't see.

Cleaned up artwork, inking in the illumination.   I used a crow quill pen and Higgins Eternal Ink.

Laying down base layer of dark green and starting the greys.

I ground up some yellow ochre (same process as above, extra grinding, adding water, then gum arabic) and laid down a lovely shade of yellow.  Not quite gold leaf, but it made for a nice contrast against the green and gold.

Now for the lovely details.   This is where the roman black came in.  The roman black is post period to the time period that I am studying, however, it is also closer to period pigments than just a nice processed black out of a tube of Windsor Newton.   I felt that the substitution was acceptable, and am working on acquiring lamp black or bone black for experiments later.

Close up of detail of two headed dragon. Note that there is some blending, but use of the period technique of small hatches (not cross-hatching, that is not found in the exemplars that I have reviewed) to apply the shading.

First layer of detailing on illumination. 

Closeup of hatching technique, and layering.

Addition of the red pigments on the initial "S" and on the dragon.  Three different shades of red employed for the details of the wing. Dark greenish black filigree in the green interior around the dragon.  Paint the dragon's toenails black.   More subtle shading of the entire dragon, building up color, shades, nuances of bone and muscle.

Finished piece.  Light circle details in the gold circle, highlights and deepening of the dark areas.   Application of eraser in all areas.

Reflection :

I have noticed that I need to take a step back while working, as there are flaws that I see from afar that I do not see when nose is two inches from the work.  My calligraphy is improving, however, I still need to work on my spacing.  Even six months later from when I was working on this in July, I can see improvement in my calligraphy in my current pieces that I do not see here.  I also need to work on my technique of not so bumpy circles, which is the first thing that jumps out at me when I look at this illumination now.  I will be researching some techniques, and also practicing inking in and painting in cleaner edges.  I love  the dragon.  I think that the body of the dragon is some of my best shading work.

All in all, I am proud of the research, which I think is much more in depth than previous work, and that the level of painting is getting better and better, but I see still see places where I can improve.

With a very short window to complete the task, I was given an assignment for Doroga Voronin's Silver Rapier.  I told the signet that this would be easy peasy because I know Doroga, and he unwittingly supplied me with all the documentation that I needed.  :-)

A quick jump over to Doroga's webpage at blackbirdsandblades.blogspot.com/
and I was off and running.   Doroga has research materials for La Verdadera Destreza, and I downloaded some original artwork and the translation of the rapier manual.  

I decided that I would have the art look like a page from a rapier manual, and enlisted help from my housemate, Rhiannon, to translate the work into Spanish.