The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

Penciled layout on tracing paper. Aldith [Angharad St. George] drew the two figures.

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

"This is the piece of tracing paper where the design was worked out. First the margins were ruled onto the paper, then the layout was worked up. There needed to be space for seven elements -- the text, the two seals, the signatures, the Pelican emblem, and the two figures. After looking through my large book on Kholui lacquer painting to study the intricate shell gold borders on the pieces, I found a suitable one which incorporated roundels into the corners. Using a compass, I made a circle large enough to hold the Kingdom seal at each upper corner, then a third one half-way in the middle of the one inch border. The badge of the Order of the Pelican (the heraldic "Pelican in her piety") was drawn inside the center roundel. A margin was drawn around the inside of the interior of the border and two rectangles marked off to either side -- the figures would have to fit inside those rectangles. Another margin was drawn to separate the center box from the two to either side -- the text and signatures would have to fit inside this space.

"I decided that the proper Russian motif for Lorenzo would be based on the folk tales about the Mistress of Copper Mountain, who is associated with malachite. Lorenzo loves malachite; he also likes amethysts, and he's an accomplished silver smith and jeweler. There are many tales about this lady as recounted in "The Malachite Casket" by Pavel Bazhov, the most familiar being the tale of The Stone Flower. By that tale, the second figure should be that of Danila (Daniel), a stone carver who wanted to fashion a flower of stone so perfectly as to be utterly lifelike, who strikes a deal with the supernatural being to obtain his heart's desire. I decided instead to have a Russian foot soldier for the second figure because, while he didn't achieve the accolade of Knight, Lorenzo had been a fighter in the SCA before having to give it up through poor health. He deserved a fighter on his scroll, and besides, there's no nicer way of depicting somebody's Arms than by having them on an actual shield.

"With the basic layout completed, I next sought out Mistress Aldith Angharad St. George. She can drawn people out of her head, which I cannot (I can capture any likeness but must have a model to work from). Armed with my Russian costume books and her knowledge of anatomy, Aldith fleshed out my rough stick figures and descriptions of period clothing into two dynamic figures, taking about two hours per figure. She was truly godlike and only needed a model once -- for the female figure's hands holding the casket, which I supplied by assuming the proper pose with a large box of Kleenex tissues cupped like a precious jewel box in my grubby paws. Once the hands were in the proper position, it was easy to use perspective to modify the simple rectangular box into the more period Slavic style casket. Lorenzo emailed a copy of his Arms to me and I drew it in a slightly modified fashion to fit the almond-shaped shield (the lion-headed merman's tail had to be tucked a bit more behind him to squeeze it into that triangular area).

"The two figures and the Pelican emblem are easy to see in this photo because they were drawn over later on, to transfer the images to the black illustration board. The margins and border lines were drawn directly onto the illustration board with a soft lead pencil, using a ruler. Not counting time spent poring over books, the layout took six hours to complete." -- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

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