The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

Calligraphy Complete, Layout and Design of Artwork

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

"Here we are in the beginning stages of a new scroll. It so happened that Master Hirsch von Henford and Mistress Aldith Angharad St. George had two apprentices Juan Santiago and Rose de Le Mans. These two estimable people were elevated to the Order of the Laurel at Twelfth Night one year ago (January AS XXXV, 2001). At that time, they requested that we (Aldith and I) do their scrolls. They were duly added to our considerable backlogs.

"Around the fall of last year, inspiration struck. Master Juan was elevated for his considerable skill in magic; there is a Tarot card in the major arcana called "The Magician" which I was reminded of when sorting through old books and stumbling across one on reading Tarot cards (the Ryder deck, in case you're wondering). This was the starting point for composition. Originally I had thought to make Rose's scroll (Juan and Rose are husband and wife) based on the card called "Strength" but decided that the lion would be too much of a chore -- "Justice" seemed to work quite well instead. This also works as an in-joke because Rose once worked as a bailiff, so she certainly is associated with justice. A rough sketch was made on tracing paper for each scroll, pretty much nothing more than stick-figures at that point. But this permitted the laying out of margins and places for a text. Desultory conversation followed about how we'd like to take the final step for period scribing by doing actual "illumination" -- i.e., laying gold leaf. I agreed that I would secure the materials and tools, if Aldith would show me how, and we would both do it together. The tracing paper layouts and vellum were turned over to Aldith, then I promptly forgot all about it.

"At New Year's two completely lettered scrolls were shoved right back into my hands, and now it's "put up or shut up" time. I ordered all of the materials, tools, and started reading up on gold leaf techniques. I also worked on turning the rough layouts into finished drawings to transfer onto the vellum. Seeing as how the subjects were available, Rose and Juan were forced to sit for their portraits; many photos were taken and then I started drawing. Aldith is able to draw people out of her head -- I have to have something to look at. We started playing with the poses and trying to re-drape the garments, and Aldith helped me with that by sitting down and drawing it up in 20 minutes flat. It would have taken me days of fiddling! Eventually we had the people and their clothes the way we wanted. Then the backgrounds needed to be done. Both backgrounds will feature the winter hills of the Mists (northern California) and stormy skies. Juan's scroll, as befits a magician, will feature the four elements both symbolically via the symbols of the Tarot (cups, wands, swords, pentacles) and in the background as earth (hills), water (rain), fire (lightning) and air (sky). Aldith also came up with the idea of putting stylized lightning bolts behind the large illuminated letter. Rose's scroll has less detail in it than Juan's but its very simplicity makes it much more demanding in its layout and color scheme.

"The photo shows the completed calligraphy for Juan's scroll, one of the many photos taken of Juan, and the half-way completed layout on several pieces of tracing paper. The figure and background are finished; I was working on the natural panther's head on the tablecloth, which features Juan's heraldic Arms, and also the background pattern to the large letter.

"More photos and reports will be forthcoming ..." -- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

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