Equus Troianus

Salvete omnes!

Ecce, Equus Troianus!

So that side project I mentioned in the last blog, was a gift that I was working on.  So what do you get a priest on their 30th year of ordination?  Well you asked me the answer is clearly some crazy Greek rabbits and the Trojan horse.  Or at the very least you draw a few.

Lately I seem to be stuck with the most unimaginative letters to try and make interesting.  I have started to loathe the E and I.  They can be interesting, but they are a lot more difficult to do anything with. 

When in doubt however, a little white gold detailing can go a long way. And lets face it, if commercial Christmas has taught us anything, red, gold and silver go perfectly together.

The text itself comes from the Aeneid, the moment when the Trojan horse (which is technically a Greek horse but whatever) opens up with Ulysses, Menelaus and their fellow Greeks jump up and destroy the city.  So I added some details, a Spartan shield in the border, a spear along the top to frame the text.  The red is also a colour associated with Sparta (as well as my Christmas excuse).

 The complete text

And keeping with the weird tradition.  I decided that my Greek warriors should be non-other than rabbits.  Complete with shield, spear, axe and horn.  Not sure how the Spartans would take to my interpretation of events.  Fortunately I won't ever have to find out!

All sealed with a wax seal coated in 24ct Gold.  A great tip from a friend (you know who you are!).

Valete!

 



Capitulum Duo: pars duo

Salvete Omnies!

Apologies to all, I had completely forgot to update the blog of my most recent work.  I've been distracted on a side project for the last few days (more on that later). So as I said in my previous post I was going to attempt a large illuminated image based upon the events described in chapter 2.  So I had two opens, the wedding at Cana or the more dramatic cleansing of the temple.  Needless to say I went with the dramatic.  For a few reasons but I am not going to bore you with them now. 

I decided to simplify the design from the original (as seen in previous post). As this was my first attempt I wanted to keep things as simple as I could.

Before even painting this I could see why manuscripts often went for as much gold as they could in the background. The effect is very eye catching especially in daylight.  There were a few things I wasn't happy about while doing this.  Some rogue gold crossing lines here and there, but for the most part I am really pleased with the effect.

Finally five days later I finish the illumination, and I now have a deeper appreciation for all those manuscripts and the effort that has gone into them.  I mean this is rather simple in comparison to what I have seen and it took me five days working two to three hours a night to complete this one image.

 

Not much else I can say now other than looking forward to progressing onto chapter three.  I am not sure how often I will make pages like this.  I am thinking perhaps 4 or 5 more maybe? We will see, I'll probably change my mind and do one every other chapter knowing me.  However, I will be posting about that side project soon. 

 

Until then!

 

Valete!