The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

The Completed Achievement

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

The Completed Achievement
The "black" part of the mantling was actually painted with a very dark shade of Payne's Gray to make the intermediate tone. This was lightened with Permanent White for the highlighted areas. The shadowed areas of the mantling where then added with strokes of straight Mars Black. Once all of the mantling had been painted, the white lining was still a bit too prominent. But that was okay, ermine spots would tone it down. Two styles of ermine spots were tried; the first was discarded because it was too broad, making the spots look too "black." That spot was painted over and the second style was tried. This looked much better and I started laying several down. Now it looked too busy! So that was painted over again, left to dry, and then just a few large, thin ermine spots were dropped onto the white lining, painted to follow the curves and twists of the cloth. It was just enough to break up the great white expanses and lend more visual interest.

Last of all came the knight's chain. First it was painted in free hand using white; after the paint dried, gold leaf was applied with glair used as the binder. The next day some life was given to the chain by using yellow ochre in various tones, with some white highlights. Stepping back and checking it out, then entire composition looked just fine with the sky background stopping at the lower edge of the achievement, so I did not paint the spaces between and around the mantling. -- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

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