The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

In The Garden

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

In The Garden
Aricia was given her Laurel for her expertise in medicinal herbs, so it was appropriate to place her standing in a garden. When I discussed the idea for the scroll with her, she had asked that her favorite cat (the now-deceased Chloe) be included in the illumination, so the Ferocious Terror is shown innocently asleep at her mistress' feet. (Chloe was a one-person cat, and that person was Aricia. Anyone making a move towards Chloe's Favorite Person would get growled at at best, chewed on at worst. There are those who still bear the claw-marks to prove it.)

As she's a countess, Aricia was depicted wearing her County coronet and holding a rose. To round out the composition a tree is in the background with branches spreading overhead, a diagonal leading the eye up into the top of the frame. A strategically placed cloud on the left draws the eye back down the left side of the composition to where the main action is happening. The dividing line of the hills was carefully placed not to bisect the figure at an awkward level, and the dip in the hills coincides with the bend in the figure's left elbow but it deliberately off-center inside that space. The many strong horizontals in the fence and horizon line and offset by equally strong verticals. The action is centered on the figure, with her gaze fixed on the just-cut rose.

Gold leaf was applied to the laurel wreaths encircling the Arms placed to either side of the scroll within the side borders and to the county coronet. Everything that will later have colored paint on it has first been under painted with Permanent White.. The field of the Arms has been painted twice as it will remain white. There's a lot of black in the picture because this is a Black Hours, so the predominate color should be -- black.

I had thought about making it an herb garden but as the border was going to be composed of medicinal herbs (rather than flowers), decided to go with a rose bush (which became two as the composition needed something on the left side) and maybe some simple grass instead. The basic composition was all drafted out on the tracing paper layout, then transferred onto the black illustration board by scribbling on the back of the drawing with a white colored pencil, laying the tracing paper down and going over all the lines again from the front with a regular pencil. -- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).