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!