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Dragons
The text for this piece is a quote from author Neil Gaiman, published in the epigraph of his 2004 book "Coraline." It paraphrases a much earlier quote
from British author G.K. Chesterton, 1874-1936. As a lover of children's books, this quote resonated for me and it was fun using it for the three-piece
short quote assignment.
This artwork was created on a 9"x 16" piece of Arches 90# HP. The lettering is Tom Perkins Roman written with a Mitchell #4 and indigo gouache. These letters are so fun to play around with - they can be pushed and pulled all over the place and I chose to add a bounce to the baseline in order to create a bit of whimsy. The main challenge with the text was balancing legibility and freedom with consistent texture. (I did place a baseline and made sure to visually balance the line of text on it).
The illumination was a different challenge. Instead of the traditional large initial cap placed at the beginning of the text, I decided to place it lower in
the text and use a large letter D with the dragon illustration.
The dragon was created after researching old and new images to get an idea of the direction I wanted to go with it. Several sketches were made and
discarded before settling on the serpentine version in the final. The image was transferred with Saral, then outlined with a black micron pen. The initial letter D was built up with several thin layers of Instacoll and topped off with 24k gold leaf. Gouache was used to paint in the rest of the image. Because I was worried about the solubility of the paint; I added glair to prevent any bleeding if I needed to go back and make changes. This was a relief when I decided that the scrolling "breath" of the dragon needed to be brightened and I could go back over it with confidence.
As I look at the piece, there are other, less conservative design options which intrigue me - perhaps I'll revisit it in a few years. . .
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