Four peerage scrolls

The following four scrolls were all done in rapid succession, and were all for high-status awards... two peerages and two royal peerages.  Though all done in very different styles, they had in common (like the preceding scroll for Mary) that they were physically quite large, about A3 size.

I was delighted that Caitriona was awarded a well-earned Pelican, and only sorry that it happened with so little notice I got no chance to offer to do the scroll.  Then discovered nobody else had either, so I could do it as a backlog.  As Caitriona is Irish, I thought I would go for a Celtic style... though in fact, the biggest influence in this scroll is really the Lindisfarne Gospels, which are not Irish or even, for, that matter, truly Celtic, having been produced by a Saxon monk on an English Island!  However, they are in an Irish style, and there are elements of the Book of Kells in here also (the Pelican is adapted from a Book of Kells eagle of St John, for example).  There are some personal references in here, such as the cat's head from the Lindisfarne Gospels becoming that of a red panda and the frieze of seabirds from the original source becoming black ravens transmuting into white pelicans.

As neither Yannick nor his consort Alana had been a Prince or Princess before, they became Viscount and Viscountess together at the end of their reign.  Yannick's scroll is adapted from a picture of Solomon teaching his son which appears at the beginning of the Book of Proverbs in a "Bible Historiale" of 1411 which formed part of the Royal Library and is now in the British Library.  Solomon's features and his crown have been changed for those of Yannick, and the heraldry for that of Insulae Draconis or Yannicks personal heraldry, but the scroll is essentially a close copy.  The unfortunate juxtaposition of the ID crescent moon and Yannick's head suggests horns or asses' ears, but no such imputation is intended!

I was intrigued to come upon the technique of "canivet", in which manuscripts are not only painted but then further decorated by cutting out the pages to give an effect like a modern paper doily.  The finest and most famous example is the lacework prayer-book of Marie de Medici (www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/html/W494) which I used as my primary inspiration, even though it is slightly after period (early 17th century).

Alana is best known as an archer, and so I based the central illustration on a tapestry of Diana hunting which dates to that same early 17th century period, and ties in well with it.

Although the Marie de Medici Prayerbook is remarkable for its canivet work, I actually don't think it is very well painted, and this is one of the rare examples where I concluded that I could do the job rather better than the original artists... and did so!

The canivet effect is actually rather hard to see in a photo, so I have included two, one against a white background and one against a black, to help make clear where the cut-outs are.

Tristan Alexander is a Laurel in illumination in the SCA kingdom of Atlantia (in USA) whom I have never met, but had some interaction with through Facebook.  He had never received a scroll when he was made Laurel, and asked me if I could produce one for him, based on the Mantegna paintings in the Camera Degli Sposi in Mantua.  This I did, and here is the result.  Tristan is a great illuminator in his own right, so it was a great compliment to be asked, and a rare opportunity to do work outside of Drachenwald.