Art Supplies: Watercolors

Watercolors paints are made by mixing pigment with water. Because they aren’t made with oil, watercolors are easier to clean up but the colors aren’t as bright. Also, they aren’t shiny the way oil paints are.

Watercolors sometimes come in tubes and sometimes in tubs. You’ve probably used watercolors before. To paint with watercolors, just dip your brush in water and then rub it in the paint to pick up some of the color. But using more or less water you can create lighter or darker colors.

Watercolors are transparent paints. This means that when you paint with them you can still see some of the paper through the color. If you paint on top of another, dry color the colors will blend because you will be able to see through the top color to the bottom color.

Tomorrow I’ll post a watercolor project. For now, check out this illuminated manuscript project which also allows you to use watercolors. Or read about Winslow Homer who painted some amazing seascapes using watercolors.

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My Current NaNoWriMo Word Count.

16339 / 50000 words. 33% done!
(No, I didn’t double my word count...
I didn’t even catch up.
But I would like to point out that I am
one third finished with my novel!!)

Create Your Own Illumination Part 2

This illumination project is easier and produces a better result, in my opinion, than the project from yesterday; however, yesterday’s illumination project was closer to the process used when illuminators, like Fra Angelico, created illuminated manuscripts.

Supplies Needed:

Glitter-glue pens
Pencil
Heavy sketch paper
Paintbrush
Watercolors

Gather your materials. Use your pencil to draw the first letter of your name in the upper right corner of your paper. Make it decorative and ornate. You may also want to draw a small picture or design next to or around your letter. The simpler your design, the easier this project will be.

Go over your drawing with glitter-glue. Use any colors you want. Be creative. When you’re happy with your drawing, let the glitter-glue dry. This will take about an hour.
Fill in your drawing with watercolor paint. The glitter-glue will have created walls so it will be almost impossible to paint outside the lines. This will make your illumination look crisp.
Write the rest of your name in marker next to your illumination. I recommend writing it in pencil first or it my come out crooked like mine!

I recommend using this project to create a journal cover, scrapbook page, or book covers for your school books. If you decide to make book covers, make sure you take the book out of the cover before you paint. This will work well on brown paper bags, which is what I always used to make book covers.

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My Current NaNoWriMo Word Count:

8627 / 50000 words. 17% done!

It was a disappointingly slow writing day...
I'll do better tomorrow.

Create Your Own Illumination

When an illuminator, like Fra Angelico, applied gold or silver to a manuscript illustration, he would have used paper-thin gold or silver flakes. You can buy this gold and silver leaf at any craft store, along with special glue called “metal leaf adhesive size,” but this project will show you how to make an illumination with supplies you probably already have in your home.

Supplies Needed:

White glue in a squeeze bottle
Aluminum foil
Heavy sketch paper
Pencil
Marker
Paintbrush
Watercolors (optional)
In the upper corner of your paper, draw the first letter of your name. Make it big and decorative. The larger your design, the easier this project will be.
Next, squeeze some glue onto your letter and use your paintbrush to spread the glue into a thin layer. Make sure to stay inside the lines.

Tear the aluminum foil into small piece. Attach the foil to the glue. Try not to let too much foil hang outside the lines but if it does you can fix that later.
Let the glue dry. After about 30 minutes, gently fold the excess foil on top of the foil that’s glued down. You can tear off any large piece that aren’t stuck down but if you try to tear off the small bits you’ll end up detaching foil that’s stuck to the glue and there will be holes in your design.

Next, write the rest of your name next to the gilded first letter. When manuscripts were illuminated, the writing came first because the pictures were drawn on a separate piece of paper and then traced into the book. For this reason, it would have been more difficult to make a mistake on the writing than on the illumination. This is not the case for your project.
Now you can add watercolor designs to your illumination or just leave it as it is.

You can use this method to decorate all kinds of things, from goodie-bags and place settings to journal covers and scrapbook pages.

Check back tomorrow for another illumination project.

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Current NaNoWriMo Word Count:

7702 / 50000 words. 15% done!

Illumination

An illuminated manuscript is a book that has been decorated with designs, small illustrations, ornate initials, or all of the above. Technically, illuminations must include gold or silver, but today we use the term more loosely to describe any hand-decorated manuscript.

The earliest known illuminated manuscripts are from the year 400, though it’s possible that manuscripts were illustrated this way before that. At first, they were made mainly by monks but illuminated manuscripts were very popular among the wealthy and it was soon discovered that money could be made illuminating manuscripts. With the invention of the printing press came the decline of illuminated manuscripts and by the end of the 1500s they were no longer being made.

An illuminated manuscript began as a page layout. Once the creator decided what illustrations, initials, and designs would go where, the text would be copied into the book. It took a lot of practice and patience to be able to write the text by hand into a manuscript because it had to look like it had been done on a computer with even and precise letters all the way through.

Next, the illuminator would add the illustrations throughout the book. The illustrations were drawn first onto a wax tablet and, when they were perfect, traced into the book and filled in with color.

For Information about one illuminator, click here.

Check out this gallery of illuminations from the 8th century, Book of Kells. (The illumination shown at the top of this entry is all from the Book of Kells.)

And this one of Lindisfarne Gospels, also from the 8th century.

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My Current NaNoWriMo Word Count:

3753 / 50000 words. 8% done!