Scribal Journey

[ianuk]

So being a scribe in the SCA makes people think you have certain skills. Painting, calligraphy, sketching etc should be in our repertoire but that is not always the case. I’ve never been any good at art classes growing up…except when it was copying comics…like when you put a grid down on a comic panel and then draw it at larger scale. I could manage that in 4th grade and later in school I figured out I was really good at forging signatures given an example. Now, I won’t say how I used that to my advantage or other’s advantages but let’s just say it has monetary rewards in high school. I stopped taking art classes when they were no longer required or if the choice was art versus music. Music always won. Perin was talking about notebooks filled with doodles…I didn’t doodle…I wrote poetry or read books during class…if I really needed something to keep me settled I play piano on my desk during class. Yeah, I was that kid.

So, when I first moved to Atenveldt at my very first event which was a war practice on the U of A quad where I met Alessandro and we had a good time being shield-monkeys I met a really pretty gal with flowing long hair who said…”Hey, my friend Megan and I are setting up a scriptorium on Monday, you should come if you wanna learn how to do calligraphy”. That was Elsis, who is now Her Grace Elzbieta, talking about the first meeting of Southern Scriptorium at now Countess Cecilia’s house. So, I went and I learned to do calligraphy and after about 4 months I got pressured (in a good way) to try painting.

Now how the Southern Scriptorium teaches painting isn’t a formal class or anything. Usually you get given a really simple designed scroll, some paints and you get to start to learn to paint. When you finish base painting we show you how to shade with color versus blending and then after that a bit of white work and you are done with your first scroll. The mantra for “what colors should I paint this” are usually “red, blue and white”…cause a good chunk of the medieval manuscripts use those colors. I attempted to do a scroll for A&S that year and its now shown to lots of folks about “if you can paint better than this you will do just fine” cause I was not a very good painter…at all…for quite some time. That first scroll was the first thing I had drawn since that Beetle Bailey cartoon in 4th grade and it looked like a 2nd grader drew it and a first grader finger painted it.

I tell lots of folks this and until they see that scroll they are like “sure Ianuk, you’re making that up to make me feel better” and then they see it and they go “oh, well, yeah, I can stay in the lines!” and pick up their paint brush. I knew I sucked at it…but our group was encouraging and honestly if you break things into small enough steps most people can accomplish great things. Now, as I state to people…I’m not naturally talented with anything except for music. Well, the last year has also shown that I picked up knitting and crochet way quicker than most… but that is for another post about how to build your skills. So, I knew from experience that you don’t get any better at anything unless you practice…so I practiced, a lot. I have no idea the number of scrolls I have done or worked on but after almost 10 years of being a scribe I’m pretty sure it’s a lot.

Since becoming a laurel I’ve been pushing myself to get better at scribal arts. So, any scroll that I painted I did the calligraphy too…any other callig we needed to have done I volunteered. More practice you see? Well, it’s also just a good thing to do…but I felt I wasn’t really contributing to things and I hadn’t really entered scribal stuff in A&S in a few years.

I did a panel in 2004 for competition where I basically traced the original at full scale and painted it…I did have to wing some of the detail work but that piece was more about me working on my gold leaf and not my drawing capability. After that I had a chat with Randy Asplund in 2007 or 2008 at KWHSS about sketching and he recommended I look at the lines of the piece. Basically, sketch out the grid (as I had done in 4th grade) over the original that I was trying to copy and use that for reference. I listened and things worked better for the Kingdom A&S Populace choice scroll but it wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t seeing things correctly yet. Something I’ve always had an issue with…visual things. I’m not a pure visual physical learner…I have to have sound involved and well, with art most of the time when taught to the young it’s very visual in teaching style. So, what does an engineer do? I started reading about drawing. I have a couple of books on sketching and started looking at those. I started intently watching people sketch and I realized I just needed to sit down and practice.

Silk banner painting got me more sketching but it was laborious and hours of working on one simple object. Things were very large and simplistic which I think helped me get things working better. I was able to get design elements out onto paper at very large scale and that was more practice until now. As I stated earlier that I wanted to contribute more and I felt that I needed to be more of a designer. What is a good way to do that? Take commissions.

So I did. Sioux asked me to work on the Baronial A&S scroll. I picked a style I liked and had never done anything with and got to work. Drolleries are fun and if they aren’t perfect…no one will care. They are combinations of leaves and creatures and none of them is pristine…all of them are fun and curvy and the historated initials are also simple but still fun with leaves and nice curves. It took me two tries to get the scaling correct and I realized that in this modern day and age I can make things larger and then just use the copier to scale them down. I can work on drawing small at a later date. The first miniature was tough but after about 8 hours of work I got something I was happy with. Yes, 8 hours, but that helped me get the style down so I basically did the next initial in about 2 hours. Progress! So, before I set them down onto the page for the scroll I needed more inspiration since it was a new painting style.

Ms. Jennifer Trethewy, our Kingdom Signet, is encouraging all of us to do Artist Trading Cards. It was the kick in the ass I needed after completing two miniatures for the Baronial A&S scroll. I needed more practice so I started drawing drolleries in the margins of my notebooks..I’ve been doodling…which isn’t something I’ve ever done much up of and yanno what? It’s addictive. So, at A&S collegium on Sunday I sat down and worked on ATCs. Additionally, I used the ATC’s to practice just using ink to paint with and its two fold in the learning process. They are small enough and cheap enough you don’t think you are wasting materials. I’ve almost made all of the one’s I bought and I’ve even done one on perg. I want to make more! But I can finally figure out what I needed to sketch.

So my process for sketching is, be aware your mileage may vary: I first start with quick lines of the page for height and width of what I want to sketch…if it’s a curvy thingy, I put a rough curve on the page. Then I start with really basic shapes of ovals, circles, squares and triangles to get the basic structure of the shape. I kinda think of this as putting what I’m seeing in real life to the best fit model of shapes, similar to what you saw in the first computer generated graphics programs. There are lots of tutorials online that do that. But that was the hardest part to me. I couldn’t see the shapes that made things up….I kept get stuck on the contours. Now, contour drawing is another way to do things but for me my scale gets all jacked up with I try that. Somehow I’d finally gotten over my inability to see the shapes that made up things and now I can see them. But for me that was a huge breakthrough. I jumped a huge leap in skill but just having that work all of a sudden. Now, I’m sure it wasn’t as sudden as it appears to me but it seems in a few weeks time that things just started clicking.

Once I have the basic shapes down and scaled I then pick a place to start to refine that shape and slowly but surely things will work out to be right…if they aren’t keep trying or have someone who knows how to draw poke you in the right direction…usually it’s a subtlety that you are missing in the piece with respect to the proportions or even one angle could be off that makes it look wonky. Also, don’t be afraid to just erase the whole thing and start over either. Remember, sketching is not permanent and honestly, not everyone is fast at it so don’t worry about speed. That is something I need to remember. Perin and Ari and Meg have been drawing for decades. It’s just practice and it gets easier and better.

That is my journey; I’ll follow it up with more but that is my tale for now.

Comments

[aliskye.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! So many good ideas here to follow-up on. :)

[spunkybluegrl.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing! Many experiences you've had that are quite helpful for those of us who have not experienced that.
@~>~~

[weavedancer.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I love hearing about people's journey's. You've also given me a lot of insight on how to look at my own drawing and helping other people.

[raventhourne.livejournal.com]

small simple shapes really made the difference to me. I had to sit and watch some videos of old time cartoonists and watching people at the comic convention doing sketches. though some people have a better eye for contour so, as I stated, this is just my brain on art and we know my brain like perfect little boxes of tasks.

[weavedancer.livejournal.com]

I can't contour draw either. Every time I draw, it starts with a skeleton and then simple shapes laid on top. On the rare occasions when I leave out that step, I still visualize it in the space before starting.

I have a problem explaining it since the process is so fundamental to how I see things in real life, it didn't occur to me that not everyone might. I think it is part of the reason why I find skeletons so fascinating. Reading Temple Grandin's "Thinking in Pictures" was a real eye-opener for starting to recognize differences in how people think/see and using that to communicate effectively. (The process is obviously ongoing).

[raventhourne.livejournal.com]

One of the things I have issues with is manga. Certain styles of it I can't even tell foreground from back ground. I generally have issues with things in black and white if its too muddy...not sure why but I got headaches trying to read manga because of the issues where I really couldn't tell what is going on.

I know a lot of my issues was not being able to see as a kid and that has completely warped my reality but I know its not all of that...everyone see things differently...which is why not everyone likes the same art.

The structure of things is also getting more know..I have to break it down to the force models in my head to see it...you see skeletons, I see cantilevers, springs and force vectors.

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

*laugh* I read this and think of the number of times I've said those exact words to you - the "but I can't do what you do!" parts. ^_~

[callas-and-ivy.livejournal.com]

Love this. Thanks for sharing your process. I wasn't at all a visual artist til joining the SCA and you have always inspired me. Glad you are enjoying those ATC's. See you at Mace and Greatsword for some trading?

[genkadin.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing...I miss you guys...again ;-)

[raventhourne.livejournal.com]

Miss you too honey. You know where we are at when you want to come and scribble. The door is always open.