Purple Scrolls: Part II - Gold P with Knotwork

In my last post I went over the process of dying purple paper. Out of my last batch I gleaned four pieces of hot press watercolor paper and six of Bristol board. I hadn't worked with watercolor paper before and decided to start with that one.

Since that last post I've learned that even with careful drying and pressing the paper likes to warp a bit. Not enough to interfere with the art surface, mind you. Just enough that it needs to be taped down while drawing or painting otherwise it likes to flop around like a teeter-totter.

I decided on my initial which was a capital P taken from the Lectionary on Purple Vellum (folio 100v) housed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. On the last scroll I just put the letter and no other elements but on this one I decided to try a couple other elements just to see how they looked.

Initial P with Knotwork Design

The line work was completed with silver quilting pencil and, like with the black Bristol, it shows up nicely and erases well.

Once the design was completed I wasn't very happy with the braid on the left but decided to leave it because I was pretty sure even if I erased it, parts of it would still show. I just won't use it again. The knot in the lower right hand corner was drawn using a diagram from one of my macrame' books as reference which made it a whole lot simpler to complete.

P is for Purple

I completed the paint on the initial in the middle of the night (damn insomnia) and even with doing it while not completely coherent I was pleased with how it came out. See my wretched phone camera picture for detail.

 I find myself drawn to this particular style of letters because I love the way they flow and the bird in the middle is fun. The braid work gives me fits though. Still working on that. The original artist puts in some funky knot work that I still have yet to master.

Finished Blank

After completing the large braid I didn't like the way it was just floating there in the original design so I decided to frame it in gold. To my eye that only improved it marginally. I think part of the issue is the bloody thing is so big. So next time, either much smaller or not at all (likely not at all).

I was very happy with how the knot in the corner turned out though. Much smoother and cleaner than the fat braid.

And here you see the completed scroll, ready to go to a calligrapher!