Illuminated Manuscript color studies

I’m starting on my first illuminated manuscript. I settled on the two verses for the 16 x 20″ piece, and the arrangement of the words. Next, I needed to work on the color and decorations. Here is one of my color samples, after determining the sizes of the letters:

illuminated ms color test

illuminated ms color test

On the left are several ideas for border treatments, but I don’t think I’m going to be using any of them. I’m starting the guilding of the piece today, then on to the lettering. I’ll use Instacoll and gold leaf (patent gold) I’ll post updates when I get further along.

Update: After starting the lettering and adding the gold leaf, I let it all dry. The next day I started the rest of the lettering — and smeared the last word of the third line, brushing my finger to the right. Start over!

About Steve Husting

Steve Husting is a mild webmaster by day and fearless writer by night. He is deaf, loves making calligraphy, hiking, terrific movies, and making the Bible's message clear to his readers. His devotionals are regularly published in Daily Devotionals for the Deaf, and his latest apps are sold in the iTunes App Store. His self-published Christian and calligraphy books are on lulu.com/spotlight/stevehusting
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