Twelfth Night Scroll - 1/17/2015
And I think it worked. :-)
First the inspiration: Illumination based on the Prayer Roll for Queen Margaret of Anjou 1445. I could not find it online anywhere, so I took several pictures of it with my phone camera and then printed out several copies to post on the mirror of my drawing area.
It was time to start the drafting of my art.
I chose to focus on the center of the prayer roll from the original, and not the entire prayer roll with the figures and initials at the top. I made this decision after doing several mockups with the figures, pulled a picture of Guild Mirandola from Pennsic to see if I could fit it in, and doing some sketches. It seemed very natural to place the Maunche badge in the middle with all roads (words) leading to the Maunche.
You will see that I eventually changed the way that the calligraphy fit as all the words actually ended up fitting in the prayer roll once I laid it out.
After erasing all the lines that were left, I put in two lines for signature and it was ready to be packaged and sent off to the King and Queen for presentation.
I have heard that these pictures do not do it justice and that the recipient was quite surprised and delighted. That makes me a happy artist.