experiments with earth and water

THe first part of the peasant fantasy included a few challenging bit, one being the water flowing through the mill.

I did the background laidwork from top to bottom, rather than from side to side, which would have been quicker, and them did lots of swirly white trailed couching to represent the eddying water. the background laidwork is also a mixture of pale and mid blues, grey and green. I was worried that mixing the background colours as well as adding the trailed couching might be a bit much, but i think it worked out ok. there were some fish traps in the water in the ms, but I decided to leave them out because I felt there was already enough going on there

In the original psalter the green bank just looks like a big lump of green upon initial inspection, but if you look closely there a faintly sketched plants. So I decided to work outline plants in a paler green. Again, I initially thought this was going to be way too subtle,

But I really like that too. there’s a lovely textural contrast that doesn’t come over so well in the pictures. I think anything more obvious would have argued with the water too much.

~ by opusanglicanum on September 27, 2019.