illumination – Anachropsy

Visconti told to the lovers of letters

You may have heard of the Book of Hours of the Duke of Visconti, a beautiful Italian manuscript from the late 14th century.

You may even have studied fragments of it, whether it be the magnificent rotunda gothic of the text or the countless elements of decoration and illumination.

But do you really know it?

What is this snake that seems to be holding a child in its mouth?

What does the word dompne mean in the last line? And does a scribe make a lot of mistakes in copying?

Who is this “woman” with three faces?

Where are the beautiful capital letters (including the Y) in this manuscript?

Who are these fiery characters?

What do all these abbreviations mean?

to answer all these questions and many more, you can register for my zoom conference on February 13 at 6pm (replay available for a week) by clicking here

B as in Bird

This is probably a little letter from the book of Kells (I think), made more than 15 years ago (that’s why the source is not very trustworthy), and it has been forgotten in a drawing board for more than ten years.
I didn’t add the colors (in case you haven’t noticed, color is not my thing) but it’s probably pretty much in line with the original from a design point of view (& not color)).

Last commission before Xmas

If you want me to draw an initial or to write a text for this Xmas, it’s too late. I just finished the last commission & will not be able to do anything else before Xmas (you can still buy some of my older works 😉 ).

Here are some pics of the different steps of the work.
The instructions were a blue R and something about the sea. I looked at some old medieval maps and let my nib ramble on the paper.

gilding & painting of the letter.

Drawing of the structure of the filigrees and first pattern

End of the cobalt blue filigree

End of the end of the final thing

I used prussian blue & colbalt blue (watercolor), gilding is done with gold leaf over acrylic gesso as usual, the whole thing has been made on Arches watercolor paper.

rust & vine

After quite a long time under the rain, followed by a scraping, more rain and a final sanding, I still can’t get the expected result from the plate I already told you about here.

It’s not bad, it’s just that I was waiting for something else.

I think it will go back to rust in the garden 🙂

white ? vine

A pic of an ongoing work.

Still have to remove the varnish from more than a half of the pattern, with no guarantee at all on the result. It’s part of the calligrapher’s joys 🙂

Black vine

Work in progress, a “white vine” on metal. I just drew the lines on the varnish, now have to remove the varnish (long & difficult task) before putting the plate in the acid.

And I ask to myself : isn’t it better to leave it as it is ? I like it this way …

Filigree power

I introduce a new design of decorated initials. Around the skeleton of the letter, I organize the decoration and then review the drawing of the letter for it to match the shape of the filigrees. It has something of stained glass pattern and above all a taste of decadent gothic, I like it 🙂

Valentine’s day

2 little works related to this feast

the love dice, to know whether (s)he still loves you (I’ve cheated a bit, there’s a heart engraved on each side).

And an initial V

Happy Valentine’s day to all lovers and all the others !!

Corpses of cities

At last, I’m done with the calligraphy of Giovanni Papini‘s short story, Corpses of cities.
I used most of my favourites techniques to do this job and I must say that I’m quite happy with the result.

Embossing on carbon paper

Zinc engraving and filigrees

To have a look to the whole work, click here.

Other close ups are available here and there.

Copper vine

After the zinc, I’m trying to engrave another kind of metal, copper.
For this first try, I chose a white vine pattern.
Here is a picture of the plate once varnished, waiting for the vinegar to react.