Ornate Capital B

[gibsona9]

Hello Penmanship folks!

 

I'm not sure this should really go under Penmanship, as it is more of a "drawing" project than a calligraphy project....

 

In any case, Tipstricks's posts on Cadel flourished capitals got me interested in ornate capital letters, illuminated manuscripts, etc. So, I thought I'd try my hand at something "fancy".

 

I drew this ornate capital B based on one in Shaw's Book of Ornamental Lettering (1883). This style is completely over the top, and I'm not sure where it could be used and not look silly. Perhaps as a main capital letter on an illuminated manuscript page, or something. It reminds me a lot of the rococo furniture style that was popular in the Victorian era. Lots of vines, leafs, fleur de lis, etc.

 

Why a letter B? Well, as my name is Brian Baker, it seemed like a natural choice...

 

I am somewhat ashamed to say I did not use a fountain or dip pen to do this...I went with a Sakura Micron 01 micro-felt tip (0.25 mm line) on cold-pressed watercolor paper. (I was sitting on the couch with a lap desk, so it just made things more convenient.) I won't let it happen again, ha!

 

Anyhow, for those like me who enjoy "ridiculously fancy lettering", enjoy!

 

Edited May 4, 2009 by gibsona9

[ghuczek]

"I drew this ornate capital B based on one in Shaw's Book of Ornamental Lettering (1883). "

 

This book should be public domain material ... does anyone know where it can be downloaded?

Edited May 4, 2009 by ghuczek

[tipstricks]

Great work! :clap1: This is really what ornament mean. Now you have only to paint the letter in gold colour on a vivid blue background... and you can begin a manuscript...

 

@ ghuczek: Illuminated ornaments: selected from manuscripts and early printed books from the sixth to the seventeenth centuries by Henry Shaw & Frederic Madden.

You can see and download the book Here

There are also other Shaw's books on google books, try with "Henry Shaw" search.

[caliken]

 

 

There is a Dover publication entitled "Historic Alphabets & Initials (Woodcut & Ornamental)" edited by Carol Belanger Grafton which is full of similar ornate capitals - even a few cadels! It comprises 175 pages and many show full alphabets.

 

[Lord Henry]

Well Brian I say you should get an "A" for your "B"

[vidalia11]

Wow!! I love this stuff. My drawing talent isn't sufficient to do it, but I love looking at them. Thanks for the link to the book.

 

Karen

[pixelsnbytes]

OOOOhh! Pretty! I love this sort of stuff. I spend hours with old Dover books looking at fancy lettering.

[Margana]

Beautiful! How large is it?

[MarieD]

Nice work Brian, its not easy doing these illuminated letters, making sure your 'unders' and 'overs' in the pattern are correct etc

(especially when doing celtic knotwork ones). It would definately make a lovely illuminated first letter of a manuscript paragraph,

you just have to bear in mind the size you would draw it first (in comparison to the size of the written text).

 

I am glad that there is someone else interested in illuminated lettering, the last one I did was a mediaeval letter 'D' with gold loose

leaf gilding. It was a practise piece from Marie Lynskey's book of 'Illuminated Lettering'.

 

As 'tipstricks' says, the next job is colouring it......I see you have drawn it on water colour paper, watered down gouache paint would be

ideal to use as long as you have drawn it with waterproof ink. I learned this mistake when I did my first couple of letters.......I coloured

one with watercolour paint and one with gouache and on both letters the ink ran into the colour. If you decide to colour, would you please

update us. Love to see more..............

 

'tipstricks', thanks for the link to Google books. You learn something new everyday in this forum.....

[gibsona9]

I'm glad y'all liked it! This is probably the only place on the web where people will get excited about illuminated manuscript initials, ha!

 

Margana, the original is about 4" by 4".

 

Marie, you and Tipstricks have inspired me, I think I'll add some color to it and re-post. As far as I can tell, medeival manuscripts tended to have blue and red inks, but not a lot of green. I was thinking of going with brown for the "branches" and green for the "leaves", but I don't really think I've ever seen that on any original manuscripts.

 

So, I'm thinking about enclosing it in a square (filled with dark blue), and then using red and blue to color the letter.

 

Do you all have any ideas, before I get inking?

 

Brian

[tipstricks]

Just some samples of ancient manuscripts:

 

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/jpegs/lat/th/d/1000/04601099.jpg

 

http://www.libnet.ulg.ac.be/enlumin/enlug016.jpg

 

http://www.libnet.ulg.ac.be/enlumin/enlug003.jpg

[MarieD]

Here's another idea for colour.....

 

 

 

Brian, if you are going to use dark blue for the square background and also using blue for the lettering you could end up losing the

emphasise on the letter. I have posted a couple of my works so you can see how I have used a contrasting colour for the background

and the letter. Hope these are of any help to you.....

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2009 by MarieD

[gibsona9]

Thanks for the good ideas... I would certainly use a contrasting color scheme - either dark background with light letter, or vice versa.

 

Tonight I have orchestra practice, so I probably won't be able to do the "coloring" until tomorrow or Friday...

 

After this one, I think I'll try an entire page (large ornate initial, blackletter text, etc)...

 

Have any of you folks tried your own "illuminated manuscript"?

 

Brian

[jbb]

  gibsona9 said:

Thanks for the good ideas... I would certainly use a contrasting color scheme - either dark background with light letter, or vice versa.

 

Tonight I have orchestra practice, so I probably won't be able to do the "coloring" until tomorrow or Friday...

 

After this one, I think I'll try an entire page (large ornate initial, blackletter text, etc)...

 

Have any of you folks tried your own "illuminated manuscript"?

 

Brian

 

I've made some poor attempts but I'm inspired every time I see pictures like these.

 

For nice, cheap gold dip pen ink you can use fine metallic powder (from most craft stores), gum arabic (powdered is cheaper) and water.

 

[MarieD]

I have done illuminated lettering with watercolour, gouache paints and the dreaded 'loose leaf' gold, but havn't tried a manuscript.

Would love to try one sometime in the near future.....when I can get my calligraphy skills up to scratch.

Edited May 7, 2009 by MarieD

[caliken]

  gibsona9 said:

Have any of you folks tried your own "illuminated manuscript"?

I frequently use illuminated capitals in my scroll work, and have done so for many years. Even today, it adds to the sense of occasion at ceremonial events....and it's great fun to do! This one's from a few years ago.

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/Pee-1.jpg

 

[gibsona9]

Wow, Caliken, that is the STUFF! Nice work! (It looks like a mouse chewed into the base serif, ha!)

 

Very inspirational calligraphy work. You should put out some kind of instructional DVD or something...oh, wait...

 

- Brian

Edited May 8, 2009 by gibsona9

[gibsona9]

Sorry it has taken so long to get this "B" finished, but it has been a busy last half of the week (son's college graduation, car shopping with son, friend's funeral, etc)...

 

But, tonight I had a couple hours of "downtime", so I went ahead and colored the "B".

 

I wanted to try and use similar colors to those I've seen on medeival manuscripts (muted blues, reds, ambers, and greens...). I think it came out OK, although in retrospect I wish I had made the blue background darker (another wash or two) to "pop" the lighter colors better.

 

Here's an "in process" shot, and a scan of the final "B". Hope y'all enjoy it. It seems to have a lot more life this way (more 3-D) than with just the black and white...

 

Sincerely,

Brian

 

Edited May 10, 2009 by gibsona9

[jbb]

Wonderful! :clap1:

[tipstricks]

Great! It's really what I was thinking... no, it's better! :clap1: