A Little Bit of This....

 

A Little Bit of That....

I Left You, Dear Readers, with the Creation of Adam and Eve barely begun as I waited for the ink to dry before painting could begin. And the Very next day I did begin the painting process for that Roundel. I have included that inked-only photo above, because when I began to paint I didn't take any good enough pictures of the process to show the beginning part. These ceiling panels are curved so the camera sometimes focuses on a part of the curved surface leaving the rest out of focus. I will include the blurry shot anyway, but I wanted you to know why!

Here you can see I began with the flesh tones for Adam and Eve.

Then I forgot to take pictures for a while!

Because I was jumping around.

Here you can see the ceiling propped against the opening wall

as close to its correct position as I could put it.

 I wanted to see how the ceiling scenes looked

 in relation to the windows and the two wall sections.

I have penciled in the areas that will have a scene painted. 

Between the windows will be The Annunciation

 and on the right will probably be The Tower of Babel.

And as I was lining up the frames, 

I noticed a missing detail on the Ceiling panel!

 

Here you can see I am adding two 

"Golden Rays" from the head of God,

 directed to the place on the opening wall

 that will tie them to The Annunciation 

and Saint Anne (who will be in one of the windows.) 

And because there is a lot of waiting

 for small amounts of paint to dry,

 I am jumping from place to place...

The Rainbow in The Judgement scene was calling to me...

And then as I turned around... 

I noticed the sunlight shining into my house 

and striking the Peter and Paul Window in the Chapel!

It only shines in at this angle for a brief spell

 in the Fall as the Equinox draws near...

But Oh My Goodness it fills the Chapel 

with such a beautiful light!

But it only lasts for a moment or two and then is gone.

And I return my attention to the opening walls...

Here I am showing the "pillars" which will be

 attached after the windows are constructed.

I needed to have them available so I can

 position the ceiling arches in the right places.

And here I am trying to get a sense of

 the Judgement scene's relationship with the wall...

This is with the arch sections in place...

 trying to see how the demons from Hell

(on the bottom at the right)

look when viewed from "inside" the Chapel.

(As if you could stand in there!)

It seems to me I need to adjust the way

 the "ground" slants to the arch below.

But before I figure that out.....

I decide to add the "cloud" shadowing

 in the borders of the Roundels.

I think of these as like those "thought bubbles"

 in modern cartoons...

 revealing the idea in image not words....

Here they have all been added.... 

don't worry... 

there will be more details eventually!

As I mentioned before, Dear Readers, 

 I am trying to get an idea of the overall color balance

 among all the parts of the ceiling...

And The Judgement was way behind in execution.

Fleshing out the naked bodies...

Adding the purple robes of Christ..

The coffins that have floated to the surface

 like so many boats on water...

And I keep testing it in place....

 

I wanted to shift the Demons a bit lower onto the wall...

Holding the arch section in place to try to line up the edges..

Adding details to Christ and the angels....

Wings, halos, hair, trumpets....

And then circling back to the Creation scenes...

Here I have added details to the water....

and the trunks of the trees....

And Hair for Adam and Eve...

And lots more plants.....

And changed my mind about Eve's hair...

 it was too dark...

And going all out on a richer bluer sky!

Once the background is darkened these will stand apart as lighter.

I wanted the birds to stand out against the sky...

And I Love what it does to the Moon!

And I need to see it in place again....

It is night again... so this is with flash...

which distorts the contrast...

But I feel like I am making progress!

Here I have added details to Adam and Eve...

and bright red flowers to the landscape.

 

 Here... you can see a little closer...

Some days this is all I accomplish...

And others....

All I add is structural framework...

Here the frame for The Garden of Eden

 has been painted.

And on the opening wall I have added 

the blue portions to the walls.

Starting to paint the arches...

These are really just underpainting to get the positioning correct.

Eventually there will be some "three dimensional" arches 

to go above these windows... just like on the rest of the walls.

Except that these have to fit around the opening doors...

which will be a challenge when I get to it!

And with the pillars in place...

You can start to get a feel for how this wall

 will look in relation to the ceiling.

Then I changed my mind about

 the framework for The Annunciation....

I want it to mirror the Framework of 

The Madonna and Child over the altar....

on the opposite wall of the Chapel.

And with the pillars and the ceiling propped in place...

I think I am starting to get a feel for this wall.

As you can see, Dear Readers.....

I am hopping all over the place...

But a little bit of this and a little bit of that 

Adds up to a Whole Lot of progress!

 

Creation....

 

A Slow Process....

When Last I showed you the Creation scenes, Dear Readers, I was lamenting the slooooow progress necessitated by the very high humidity in my RL environments. I was a bit untruthful when I blamed it all on the humidity. Truth to tell, I am slow at Creation! It is one thing to faithfully copy an image.... that is so straight forward! But to have an image in your mind you want to bring onto the surface... and to have it be a medley of conflicting original images you are "inspired by" so that you have to sift out the pieces you want to use and somehow make them coherent.... that is another thing altogether. I have mentioned that I have many books full of reproductions of Medieval Manuscript paintings.... (I Love the original ancient images!.....) and that I have pored over them trying to distill them into my own versions on my ceiling.

Just to give you an inkling of what I am talking about...

This picture is part of a very elaborate illuminated initial.

This is from the Bible of King Wenceslas probably,

 illuminated around 1390, which is quite late for my uses.

But it shows the incorporation of the designs

 into "roundels" which was quite common.

This is another, much earlier version of the Creation scenes,

 probably painted around 1240.

(Sorry for the glare.. it is hard to photo from the book!)

The right hand page is an enlargement of the

 left hand page which shows more scenes.

And another version...

painted around 1400....

And another.... from the Bible of Robertus de Bello,

 painted around 1250.

I could go on, but I imagine you get the picture! 

Endless variation on a theme...

so many similarities, so many variables.... 

Where to start???

Well, as you know, I started with the Roundel

 as the defining structure.

And arranged the six circles as best they fit

 into the triangle of the ceiling.

And borrowed a few specific images 

from still other versions...

The Hand of God reaching from the cloud...

With the Dove of The Spirit on the Wand tip....

Drawing forth the Creation from Nothingness....!

And Day by Day....

Or in my case, it seems more like week by week...

Inking a new image into a Roundel.... 

letting it dry at least 24 hours....

then adding the paint.

Here I have started the painting of

 the separation of the Land from the Waters

 and the creation of the Plants.

And you can see the sketching of the Birds and Fishes.

Here it is closer....

with more paint on the land and water.

And inking the Birds and Fishes.

The painting is just the initial base coats... 

there will be much more detail later.

And here I have begun the painting of the Birds and Fishes.

Part of the reason for my slow pace is that

 I need to be able to see how the roundels look

color-wise in relation to each other and the ceiling as a whole.

Manuscripts were painted on vellum... a light tan color.

This ceiling's background is the deep blue.

Land and water by themselves tend to be

 green brown and blue in varying shades...

It's a balancing act... 

and I don't feel in control of the balance!

But Day by Day...

Week by Week...

Another one inked...

The Creation of the Beasts...

Adding paint to the Beasts....

And finally...

Inking the Creation of Eve from Adam's Rib.

And maybe as soon as Tomorrow 

I will begin to paint Eve...

Day by Day I am making progress.

But I can assure you, Dear Readers,

 Creation is Not done in just a Day!

And Again....

 

 One Thing Leads To Another....

I Imagine, Dear Readers, that you will understand what happened as soon as the Chapel Ceiling was removed to the work easel for painting. All those days while the humidity was very very high and the ink on the Creation scenes would not dry quickly, I was staring into the opened up Chapel and Noticing all sorts of places where things needed fixing, or at least, upgrading. Because it was so dark back there, I had ignored all kinds of tasks that might be needed to really make it look like I had imagined all those years ago. For starters, the ceiling edges where they meet the walls had big gaps where they did not Quite meet. Does this sound familiar to you? Did I find this problem on all my other "vaulted" ceilings when I was considering whether or not to add the three dimensional trims around the doors all those years ago? It sparked an entire paradigm shift in the construction of the Castle! Yes, trim was needed, and "strengthened" corner posts were needed.... you can read about it in the old posts! In the case of the Chapel ceiling, I was reluctant to try to add individual "blocks" of stone to accomplish the task of masking these cracks, or gaps. In fact, I had already made the first "panel" way at the back of the Chapel years and years ago.

If you look carefully, (I know it is a bit too dark... 

I just didn't have a good picture of this with lighting)

you will notice that the arches on the back wall 

are all cut from one panel that goes all the way to the ceiling.

 It produces the effect of raised trim around

 the windows and the altar painting of the Madonna and Child.

And it covers that pesky ceiling gap!

Here you can see it with the flash... 

sorry it washes out the details that I want you to see 

in the painting of the Madonna and Child.

This method of creating the three dimensional trim

 around the windows and paintings

 is the method I will use for all the walls

 of the Chapel where they meet the ceiling!

It would require very complicated and 

careful patterns for each section of wall.

But that was not the only detail I noticed.

 The painting of the Madonna and Child was still really unfinished.

I suppose that in my hurry to get things done 

all those years ago (thirteen to be precise...!) 

I had accepted that the painting needed more details, 

but just not right away...

Well, now it was time!

And here you can see I have added a lot of details... 

I forgot to take any progress pictures.

In the first pictures (so hard to see)

 there was no shadowing or highlights at all.

 Just the under-painting and the ink lines

 showing through to give the expression.

(You might have to poke the pictures to see.)

Well, I added all those shadows and highlights!

I have been trying to keep the style of these paintings

 restricted to the art styles of the thirteenth century at the latest. 

(This is supposed to be an Old Norman Castle!)

To give you an idea of what I mean... 

here is the Manuscript Illumination that I used

 as the inspiration for this Altar painting.

It is from the Missal of Henry of Chichester

 and was probably painted between 1250 and 1270 AD, 

a time of great production in Manuscripts in England.

Obviously, I have made alterations to the design, 

but I wanted to try to capture the grace of her posture.

Here you can see it all up close... 

including the arched panel that surrounds

 the windows and rests atop the carved pillars.

And you can see that none of her clothes have any shadowing yet....

Which I have started to add here.

And details on the gown shadows too.

The artists of this period lived with flowing gowns

 and had clearly mastered the art of the fold and drape of cloth. 

I do not have that mastered at all... 

and my attempts to copy are very rough at best.

I will not complain of how awkward it is

 to lean in there to try to paint...

the back of the Chapel is 18 inches deep....

 

And finally, some shadows on her under-gown.

 

 I also wanted to repaint the "supplicant" kneeling at her feet.

 These are usually portraits of the donor of the manuscript...

 and I have not copied him faithfully at all.

 For my purposes he is a generic supplicant.

And I also added the second layer of the blue background.....

Oh, how I Love that blue!

(By the way, the reason one of the windows is lit and not the other

 is because the Castle sits in front of my RL windows... 

and one window gets the light...)

Alas, Dear Readers, my hand bumped the candlestick on the right....

The one on the left has been broken for a while....

I will repair them at the last moment before

 installing the ceiling permanently!

And you can see the tracing paper I am using

 to try and make a pattern for the arches on the side wall.

Here you can see the panel cut for the arch over the Crucifixion painting.

Because that painting goes around the corner... 

the arch has an interesting shape and contact angle.

And on the opposite chapel wall the arch over the Moses painting.

Painting the arches.....

Testing the arch panel in place...

These will not be glued in until after the ceiling is attached

 because they would prevent the ceiling 

from being able to slide in and out.

And testing the fit of the arch panel over the Crucifixion.

And testing the fit with the ceiling in place....

And the one over the Crucifixion.

The "missing" top of the arch curve will be added

 in paint to the ceiling portion where they join.

Like this!

You just have to pretend the corner isn't there!

And yes, the candles still "work".... 

it is just the candelabra that is so fragile...

 the glue gave way at one of the narrower junctions.

 I will have to "strengthen" it.

And the tiny bit of the missing arch painted on the ceiling portion.

These arch panels will not be attached until the ceiling is done.

 

And the supplicant's robes being painted....

 

And standing back even farther....

you can see the whole Chapel.

I have draped a lamp overhead 

to be able to see to paint.

And I have to make the arch panels 

to go over all the rest of the arches...

And I still have to paint the panel on the left wall....

This will show The Garden of Eden...

and the front opening wall needs Everything!

 

So you get the picture, Dear Readers,

I have a Long way to go... 

but I am Delving Deep into Details...

 'Cause one thing Always leads to another!