illumination

You may be thinking at this point that I am blogging about lighting.

No.

I'm studying the Byzantine Era in art right now.

Medieval manuscripts...

Ok.

What I meant by illumination:

or

(No. Sadly I didn't make those. :P)

Anyways.

My assignment was to research illuminations and make one.

I decided to illuminate a letter 'A'.

I wonder why...

:P

Gouche, a type of paint, was often used in illuminations, most often in green, royal blue, and red.

I thought about using watercolors, but they are way thinner than gouche.

Gold leaf is used a lot too.

It was rubbed onto the illumination with a tool tipped with a hound's tooth.

:D

Tinfoil just doesn't compare with gold leaf.

I don't have any hound's teeth either.

I finally remembered a sheet of gold origami paper I had stored away in my closet.

Just right!

Well, maybe not just right, but it does look much more like gold leaf than tinfoil does.

;P

Then I found a few brightly colored markers/pens,

and set to work.

It isn't nearly as intricate or detailed as true illuminations, and the colors aren't right

(though they are much better in real life. Our scanner once again mangled the colors... :/).

The gold paper actually looks fairly realistic

(in real life..),

but the markers just can't do an illumination justice.

I need to find gouche paint...

:)