Painting In The Chapel

Details, Details, Details!

At last, Dear Readers, The Noah paintings are finished! You may recall that I promised I would show you the original versions I used as a models for these two versions of the Noah story. When last you saw these paintings they were nearly complete.... or done enough to fool anyone who had not seen the originals. The version below is the mostly done... all but the DETAILS version.
If you poke the picture it will enlarge it so you can see some of the missing details.....

The upper portion of the painting is copied from one of my all time favorite manuscripts... the Visconti Hours, made in the late fourteenth century for Giangaleazzo Visconti who ruled Milan with a tyrant's fist, but was a patron of the Arts as well. The manuscript is one of the most ornate and original and visually complex of any I have seen. Here below you can see the version I have copied from.... adorning an initial letter "D"... itself only a fraction of the illumination of the page........

For my version I had to invent the portion that extended outside the oval on the bottom edge.... I did my best to just continue what he had started..... but as usual, my version doesn't come close to faithfully reproducing the original! But at least I CAN say that mine is recognizable as a copy!

It took me several days of painting to get all the details I felt were necessary.... the shadows, the spots, the eyes, the feathers, the flowers, the waves, the flooded buildings.... oh, and the trees and the antlers and Noah himself........ the more I look, the more I see to copy.... But I have decided that I have done enough and will call it finished!

And the little painting at the bottom that shows the After the Flood scene... needed as much if not more..... in part because it is smaller so each part stands out more..... Here is the version I used as the model. In its original form it is quite large at 9 x 13 inches..... so MY version at 1.5 x 4.5 is Tiny in comparison! The colors were more muted and the detail less obvious.... but just as difficult to imitate!

Here you can see a close-up of the bottom portion NEARLY completed........

And here's a view of the entire panel.....

In spite of how long it has taken to complete the Noah paintings, that is not the only work I have done on the Chapel. I finally took the ENORMOUS step of fastening the ornate candlesticks to the floor and running the wires out through the walls behind the Altar! I cannot believe it took me so long to get around to that.... but I wanted to countersink a "spike" into the floor that the candlesticks would slide onto for added stability. It seems to be working just the way I wanted!
And if you look closely you will see that I added a gilded fringe to the ends of that beautiful Altar Cloth I got from Sans!

And believe it or not, that is not all I have accomplished! I also started painting more of the Ceiling panels with Heavenly illuminations! I started with the Archangel Michael battling the demons and chasing them from Heaven...... It is not even nearly complete.... but I wanted to show you anyway.......

And the smaller panel over the entrance doorway is showing the Last Judgement....

also a long way from done......

A closer view of some of the details.......

And even Closer!

And MORE......

This is the original manuscript illumination I used as a model for the St. Michael. It is from a twelfth century Missal ... the Stammheim Missal. I had to take considerable liberties with the composition to make it work in a triangular space... so I have moved some of the Angels and Demons around... but I have tried to keep their original shapes and colors. I have a LONG way to go with the DETAILS on this one!

With the ceiling panel removed you can see the beginnings of the drawing below.

I did a freehand copy for this as I was moving so many of the parts around......

And the beginning of adding the colors.......

And more of the base layer of color.... not many DETAILS added yet........

Here you can see the beginning of the Last Judgment painting as well......

Yes I started the next before finishing the first....!

Here below is the Original manuscript version I used for the model....

again, rather loosely copied....

This is from the St. Omer Psalter, an early fourteenth century manuscript from England.

Sorry about the reflection... the page is glossy.... Below is a closer view of the Beginnings of my version. I have had to alter almost everything.... so it is really inspiration more than copy......

And a LONG way to go!

Here you can see how these ceiling panels relate to the wall paintings already in place.....

And closer....

So That's what I've been doing... my FAVORITE thing........

MORE Painting In The Chapel!

A Little More In The Chapel

Stained Glass Window - Take Two

Just a quick reminder, Dear Readers, there are two days left until the drawing for my giveaway! Just leave a comment on the previous post and I will include you in the drawings!

Meanwhile, I have not been idle! But the project I have been working on is not an easy one! The windows for my Castle dollhouse must each be fitted individually to the openings I cut in the walls of the Castle. They are all arched openings.... as was the norm in early Castles because they represented the strongest way of spanning an opening in the stone walls. There are no kits for arched windows that I know of.... and if there were, they would not fit the individual window openings I made.... my skills with the saw being a little on the amateur side... the saw cuts are NOT precisely even! So I have compensated by developing a custom window frame method that requires a lot of patient sanding to fit the openings exactly. I use basswood boards about 1/8th inch thick and cut out the window frame from a carefully made tracing of the opening. I cut two of these, and keep track of which side faces in and which faces out.... because they will only fit exactly one way! Then I sand and carve and adjust until they do fit snugly in the opening. They are spaced about one eighth inch apart.... which is the dimension of the glass pane that will be sandwiched between them! It is getting easier with each window I make.... but it is a little daunting to think of all the windows I have to go.....

Here you can see the frame cut to fit the chapel window,

and with the carved "stone" pillar details added but not yet painted........

Here is a closer view, with the painted "stone" pillars that will be attached at each side when it is done. I apologize for the poor lighting of some of these pictures...... The weather has been VERY dark and gloomy and it makes it hard to light things properly!

This is a view from the outside, clearly showing the irregular nature of the arched opening I had to fit the frame to......
And another gloomy one of the interior showing the "faux stone" painting on the window frame.

Here I have started the process of painting the "stained" glass window itself. I place the glass over a detailed drawing of the images, spaced exactly as the window openings are spaced, being sure the glass pane is centered so it will fit correctly in the opening. Then I draw the outlines with the stained glass paint "leading" outliner. It is difficult to make the stuff flow in a smooth and precise way.... but I think it would be harder to try to make the outlines with the real lead strips some people have used on their windows. Anyway, having started with one method, I will continue to use it for the duration of this project... afraid that too many different methods would look very odd! I have chosen to portray Saint Peter in the left window, and Saint Paul in the right window..... I'm calling it the Peter Paul window........

Then I begin the coloring process...... it is always hard to know when to STOP adding color!!

I wanted the sense that some of the glass was not colored.... perhaps there was not enough money to buy colored glass to make the whole window with colors... and having some clear panes lets in a little more light..... so I have left their robes mostly clear glass......

Ahhhh! Here we see the window in place and lit from outside......

This is the view from inside the Great Hall looking into the Chapel................

Come a little closer! (Yes, the moody dark shots are deliberate...!)

And closer still....... can you imagine you are walking into the Chapel....?

And you can walk right up to look closely at the Peter Paul window..............!

And because the completion of the Peter Paul window made it so OBVIOUS that the next wall panel to paint MUST be the one over the door to the Monk's Cell... I have made progress on that too! The story I am portraying is the Noah and the Flood.... a decision I had made at the beginning when I laid out which story would be on which wall. And so it has seemed a little EERIE that I am painting it at a time that we are experiencing RAIN ..... Day after Day after DAY, with no end in sight! And large areas of our country have been experiencing Historic Flooding! Fortunately, my part of the world has just been WET and GLOOMY but NOT flooded! And as I write this we have actually had two days in a row with NO RAIN and only scattered showers in the area! So I am not building an ARK.... but I am painting one....... !
I find it interesting to note that while this story is commonly portrayed in recent times.... it is very hard to find versions painted in the Medieval Manuscripts I own! I found only three versions in all of my books..... So I have taken two of them to paint on my Castle Chapel walls. One shows the animals being loaded into the Ark, and the other shows them returning to dry land. The styles of the two originals are vastly different... but I am copying them both together anyway.

Here you can see the beginning of the painting process.......

And here you can see the mostly completed paintings.......

There is still a HUGE amount of detail work to go before they are done... particularly on the bottom painting where they return to land........ When I am done, then I will show them with the originals I have copied from so you can see how different they end up.....
Here is another view of the nearly done painting in place... I apologize for the poor photo......

This is a slightly better view showing BOTH the new window and the newly painted wall.....

And a view of the whole chapel as it is now........ I wish the lighting were better.....

But, that's what I've been doing lately.......

Just A Little More In The Chapel