The beginnings of a scroll

I said this blog would be about my SCA journey, so here's the first post:

There was a kingdom wide call out for Christmas/Yule themed scrolls for an event that the Barony of Axemore is hosting called Christmas Revel.  They asked for a ready made scroll and just an inked copy to make into pre-prints.  They have so many scrolls that you could choose from that I seriously had to pair down what I was going to make.

First up was research.  I've always wanted to make scrolls because I would see these illuminated manuscripts and just fall in love with the idea of recreating them.  So I took to the Internet and good ol' Google and searched for border patterns and pictures from already existing manuscripts.  These are the three inspiring images that I found.  One is for youth combat, one is for heavy fighting, and one can be versatile in either A&S champion or rapier.

"Snowball Fight" (Flemish c. 1560)  Walters Art Museum W.425.12

Bruges manuscript, Royal 17 F. II, folio 116v

Fresco depicting January at Castello Buonconsiglio, Trento, Italy, c. 1405-1410.

Next came laying out the scroll.  It is best to leave a one inch border all around the scroll to make framing easier.  So I draw out (in pencil...always in lightest pencil) a frame to work in.  I then had to make the decision of what border I wanted.  I chose to do a mix between two (because really who can decide between two favorites.) 

You can faintly see the outline of pencil for the framing.

My next step was taking inspiration from the chosen manuscript and making it my own.  I included elements of it and left out others as to not clutter the design.

Final step in beginning design is to ink the scroll.  This provides a way to clean up your pencil marks and provides a clean base for painting the scroll.

Just as a general rule (and because I'm just beginning calligraphy) it's always a good idea to practice your wording to make sure it will fit.  As you can see below I need to tighten up my spacing in the beginning and add in some little tweaks before I put pen to my scroll.  Some artists put their wording on long before they even start the design, but I like to see how a scroll is going to shape up before I start thinking about the words.  I had originally decided this scroll was going to be an A&S champion scroll until the childlike snowflakes above called to me for loving children to play below them.