Heavens Above.....

 

 Going A Little Wild....

I Suppose, Dear Readers, that some of you would not be surprised to learn that the ceiling of The Lord's Council Chamber in The Castle would end up being painted a Midnight Blue, and that the Blue would need to have glittering stars strewn across the surface. Above, you can see the ceiling, (I know it is dark and difficult to see very well...) with the sturdy, ornately carved timber beams that support it. These beams were constructed a long time ago, but cannot be fastened in place until I complete the painting on the Map on the wall. This is because I need to be able to squeeze myself in close enough to see what I am painting, and this requires leaving the ceiling off for now. But I hope you will be glad to know I have made great progress on both the Wall Map Painting and on the Starry ceiling!

This is what the ceiling beams look like with the Flash turned on...

It is waayy too bright for my liking, 

but it shows in clear detail the varied carvings on each of the beams.

This came about because I simply could not make up my mind

 which carved pattern was most suitable... 

so I decided to use them all!

And in the end, it is so hard to see the beams

 that it really doesn't matter if they are all different.

Here I am adding the stars.

 I wanted to be careful to make them random.

It is a slow process, adding a tiny drop of glue

 and sticking one tiny star on each drop of the glue.

 

Of course, I had to keep testing it in place

 to be sure we could see the glittering stars at all, 

and to be sure there were enough stars, but not too many.... 

Gradually filling the Heavens with those beautiful glittering stars!

This is so hard to photograph! 

I promise you, the stars glitter beautifully!

Even in the daylight this is a dark room.

And once the stars above had been completed, Dear Readers, 

it was time to turn my attention to the Map!

And I forgot to take pictures until I had already made some additions.

I have wrestled with how much detail I wanted to add, 

and how much "realism" to include, 

and how much "Imaginary Medieval Monsters" should be there...

And in the end, I decided to stop thinking about it,

 and just add whatever jumped off my pen!

Which turned out to be quite a bit!

Starting with some Angels guarding the walls of Paradise...

Some Dragons and other Wild Beasts... 

and Sea Monsters and a Mermaid...

A Unicorn.... 

and a whole lot more Castles and mountains...

 

And color!

 

 Which isn't exactly easy to do!

Even with the ceiling out of the way

 and a clamp lamp shining brightly

I can't get my head and hand in very close.

(Which explains some of the strange details

 you can see if you expand the pictures!)

It is also rather hard to get the camera in the space

 and at a good angle to capture the details.

(This is what happens when you decide to paint

 on the walls of an already constructed building!)

I am assuming that the Medieval Artist.... 

whoever they were... had a fairly primitive style...

And as with many Medieval Artworks... 

where there were empty spaces ...

 there was ground for the Imagination to go a Little Wild!

That is as far as I got, Dear Readers....

And while it is not quite finished yet, 

I think I made good progress on the starry Heavens above...

and only went a Little Wild on the Map!