Award: Court Barony for Keviliock McKinley (Master Cy)
Date: Awarded September 9, 207 (AS LII) – scroll presented January 2018 at 12th Night
Paper: 8″x10″ Pergamenata 85 lb. in “Natural” color
Illumination: Gouache, Finetec gold
Calligraphy: Noodler’s Borealis Black, 1mm Brause nib
Inspiration: Hours of Joanna I of Castile f224r
Let all Northshield know that we, Kaydian and Cassandra, do find Keviliock McKinley to be of such quality, having served the crown with his leadership in the scribal and rapier communities both with such excellence and dedication, that we are now minded to make him a Baron of our court. Done this ninth day of September at our coronation in the Shire of Shattered Oak.
I was honored to be asked to do this scroll. Master Cy is our kingdom signet, and so I wanted to do something special. His only request was that it incorporate his baronial coronet by Countess Gwen. He has a late period persona, so after poking around a bit, I settled on this exemplar.
The calligraphy is more inspired-by than a direct copy. At some point I’ll figure out the magic of matching nib size to line height, but so far I have been more interested in the illumination side of things. And never mind the slight typo in the wording!
This was lots of fun to paint. So much shading, and so many pearls. It was a challenge to match that goldy-yellow base color. It was brighter than straight yellow ochre, so I think it ended up being yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, and a touch of cadmium red. The Finetec gold did not want to behave like the exemplar gold, but I think I got closeish. I also need to figure out how to paint straight lines.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with it. This was a new style to me, and I look forward to doing more realistic painting in the future.
Cecily of York Medieval Illumination 