The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

Clothing painted next. Start of shading on gold leaf areas, malachite patterns on robe.

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

"Good Clothes Open All Doors"

"The lady's clothing and ornaments are in progress here. The cap covering her hair ("povoynik") and her under dress ("rubakha") have been painted with powdered malachite mixed with Lead White. I had acquired some powdered minerals earlier and had both powdered malachite and powdered viridian to play with. The first pass on the pectoral collar ("ozherelya") was done and the work on rendering the malachite pattern over the ceremonial over robe was in progress on the upper part of the robe.

"The malachite look was achieved by laying down a background color of medium bluish green, made by mixing Permanent Green Middle with Viridian Lake and a touch of Lead White. Some actual powdered viridian also went into the mixture just for the fun of it. Once the background dried, a bit more white was added into the mix and a pattern of rings and wavy lines was laid down, with the lines varying in thickness. Next the base color was darkened by adding Spectrum Red, and lines of varying thickness were painted next to one edge of the lighter green paint. Finally, the lighter green paint was lightened with the addition of more white paint, and a last set of pale green lines of varying thickness was painted along the border between the pale green and the darkest green lines. In the picture, the pattern is finished on the left side. On the right side I'd just finished putting down the background color. Thin unpainted lines were left to indicate the folds of the clothing -- later those were painted with a very dark green (more red added) and lighter, highlighted areas were picked out in the pattern.

"The beginnings of shading are made to the gold leaf, using mostly using raw sienna for its reddish tones with a bit of burnt sienna and violet, mixed with glair to make it stick to the gold. This is genuine 24 karat gold leaf, not the fake stuff. Dots of pale gray along the edges of the hem at the left are the start of making a pearl border and the malachite roundels have been painted." -- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

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