Illumination and Its Development in the Present Day

by Sidney Farnsworth

It is rather difficult to suggest in writing the exact colouring, as so much depends on the various shades used to form the general colour scheme. Possibly the following notes may be useful to the student as indicating roughly the colours that may be used.

Fig. 32.

The writing is in black with the capital letters in red. The background of the initial and border, viz., the parts indicated by horizontal shading, should be blue. This colour should be neither too dark nor too light, also it should not tend towards either purple or green. The student should take special note of the blues used by the mediæval artists. The large initial T should be painted in a warm shade of red, not quite so vivid as vermilion, nor yet a cool crimson. The centre of this initial and also the centres of the blossoms, with the background of the small circles formed by the stems, are of raised burnished gold, as also are the small buds in the line work. The stems should be painted in a neutral tint and may be heightened up in places with touches of clean bright colour. The leaves may be green shaded with a lighter tint of the same colour. The flowers might be a pale creamy tint with the centres shaded with orange. The scroll-work on the colour may be painted either in white or in a lighter tint of the background colour upon which it is painted. The initial T may be treated in this way, and also shaded with a darker red.

In (e) an arrangement is shown for a page with the border completely surrounding it. Some endeavour should be made to get good pattern with the masses of gold and colour. In the page suggested in (f) the decoration is formed down one side, springing from the initial P. The initial B that is shown here is in raised gold, the flowers in the centre also being in gold, as well as the berries in the pen-work springing from the letter. The background of the letter is blue and red—blue where the shading is indicated by horizontal strokes and red where vertical strokes are used.

A study of plant form is very useful to the illuminator. The decoration used by the mediæval artist was practically all based on natural forms, and some of the best advice that can be given to the modern illuminator is that he should study nature. In doing this the student should remember that the object is primarily decoration and not representation. He should not degrade this art into a mere realistic rendering of sprays of flowers, insects, etc., but rather aim at producing decoration as the direct result of his study of nature. As an example, some of the ivy-leaf decoration that was so much used during the fourteenth century is shown here. The importance of study from nature cannot be emphasized too strongly. Drawing from plant-form is one of the best exercises the illuminator can have. Possibly a few hints on this important study will be of service to the student.

In the first place, when drawing a plant, or indeed any natural object, one should be careful to avoid drawing it like drawing a map, i.e., without realising that it is form. If this is persisted in, the result will be that the drawing will be lacking in vitality, besides being not nearly so intelligible. If the endeavour be made to keep constantly before the mind the fact that it is form that one is drawing, and everything is carefully reasoned out before attempting to draw it, the finished drawing will not only have far more life in it, but it will also be much easier to understand.

One should also strive to draw with feeling; there is a great difference between a living plant and an artificial reproduction of it. The drawings of plants and flowers made by some students remind one of paper flowers and foliage, as they are drawn in such a hard and severe manner. A natural leaf is a thing of beauty, there is nothing rigid or stiff about it, but one that is cut out of paper is dead and unyielding in every respect and is absolutely devoid of all feeling. One should get all the life and feeling possible into one’s drawing, and this comes from plenty of practice in careful and thoughtful drawing from nature.

When making plant studies for one’s own use in design there is no need to limit oneself by making outline drawings in pen and ink, as when they are intended to be reproduced by means of line-blocks. The aim of the artist should be to make the drawing as much as possible like the original. It is not advisable to go in for sketchy effects; everything should be made perfectly intelligible so that it is possible to understand every detail of the drawing.

Of course, some parts of the plant should be painted in colours, so as to form a record of the actual colours, but for general drawing a soft black-lead pencil, such as a 3 or 4B, is very useful. One should be careful to observe all the details, such as the way the branches attach themselves to the main stem, also the manner in which the leaves and flowers arrange themselves. The feeling of unity which runs throughout the whole of the plant should be carefully noted, how there is a distinct relationship between every leaf and bud with the main stem.