Hey, Internetites. I'm sorry to say, I don't have any art to post today. I'm in the midst of finals, and haven't picked up a pen in days.
I did want to point out a couple of cool things, though:
1) In order for a piece of art to be properly called an "illumination," it must be painted at least partially with actual gold. I've gotta learn how to use gold leaf...
2) The monks who painted the old Celtic manuscripts actually put together the pages based on a process that is surprisingly similar to my own, using almost the same tools. (Except for photoshop, obviously.) They started with empty vellum, which they punctured to create the borders and general shape of the designs. This was followed by pencil (sort of) sketches of a grid on the vellum, so that the designs could be created symmetrically and carefully in terms of space distribution. Then they did the designs in pencil, painted over them with small pens made from feathers or reeds and dyes from tree bark, minerals, berries, etc., and then applied the gold overlay to the important bits. Most importantly for me: none of this is prohibitively difficult, or lost to antiquity. I could do this, today.
3) All the animals in the Celtic manuscripts are drawing with big, circular eyes, so they all look constantly surprised.
I'll try to get back on the ball soon. Final paper and exam happening on Tuesday, and then my schedule is (slightly) more my own again.
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