John, con't (12)

Again, should be pretty obvious where we are here. Remember that red line I've been talking about? Well this is where it leads. Other than the coffee stains it's almost the only colour in this entire section of the book, to give it more impact. It's lined with gold leaf. The image is taken from a painting commission I did, based on the purchaser's dream.


This part is actually bits of canvas and scrap paper glued to the page, then painted and written over. Since this book's purpose is to be a piece of art rather than to transmit the text like a tradition manuscript, it didn't need to be legible.

John, con't (6)

Now we're at the part where Jesus predicts Judas' betrayal and Peter's denial, and on right is another I am statement, in this case "the way, the truth, and the life."
The large illustration there isn't actually. It's a transfer of an old etching of gargoyles. I wanted a a nice big piece, needed to start a new visual for evil/bad things coming up, and to darken the page/whole tone of the piece. I also wanted something very different than what had come up before.

It's an acrylic medium transfer. Pretty simply, you put matte medium on both pieces of paper, stick them together, let it dry, and then wash the top one off. It get's a little fuzzy and lighter, but overall I quite like how they look. I've seen some awesome photos transferred this way, but you need to do it onto something porous. I wish you could do it on glass, I can't remember what one of my classmates used to that that but it was gorgeous, she made a chandelier among other things, but that's not really relevant. I get a little passionate when I start talking about art and go on and on and on!

Originally I had planned to use more of these transfers, but in the end this was the only one that ended up in the book. I'm not totally sure why, it didn't end up totally as nice as I wanted, but now looking at it I really like the look. I put ink around it to blend it into the page, that sort of thing will be coming up in the next few pages, and I seem to have erased an entire sentence too. No more covering up mistakes with gold leaf, that's saved for special parts, the tone is darker instead. I do have one symbol in gold leaf at the bottom, a very thin halo in gold leaf next to the bits about God. I really really like this part. In the first part of the book I likely would have done that with watercolour, it was much more traditional that way, but here everything is black ink with specks of gold used more judiciously.


And here's the close up of the second page. The illustrations are for that I am statement. A roads, map type things, and flowers/vines for life. But no colour, not in this section! The two halves of the book are pretty easy to distinguish in style, colour, symbols. The black background is creeping in, though I was still writing around it. Also, the calligraphy is not quite as precise as it used to be. It's going to slowly get angular and rough, but here I was just writing a little faster and not paying much attention to the edges of the columns.

John, con't (5)

Well, today started out with me falling asleep with my coffee. This wouldn't be terrible except that my husband brought it to me in bed... and therefore I made a giant mess. I suppose it did wake me up. At least I'd put french toast casserole in the over yesterday, all in hopes of it saving enough time that I could post some more of John.

But, as promised, here are the larger photos of the above layout, just click on them to open up the full size.

So here is the transition to the Book of Glory. It's probably the largest illustration so far, and also a different style. This part is about bit about time and things falling into place, so the pictures are of gears and an hourglass. I didn't even known what steampunk was at the time, but here it is! There's also feet washing, hence the water.

John, con't (2)

Now, I am putting up double pages at a time, so that you see what the book looks like when you are staring at it in real life. Most of the page layouts were over the entire thing rather than one at a time, so it only makes sense that way. This was somewhat confusing to keep track of, as because of the nature of signatures the pages that are side by side are in fact on different sheets of paper and only together once sewn together.

This is the inside cover page. The eagle is John's symbol (this is a plain version of the one on the cover), and the red line is a motif that will be very important coming up.

And here we begin. I' not sure where to start with the explanation on how everything was done, so forgive me if this is a whole bunch of random facts jumbled together.

I made these pages over a light table. The basic layout (lines, margins, columns) was underneath the page and therefore I didn't have to spend time putting down lines and erasing them etc etc and everything came out identical.

The font is one I developed myself. It imitates the Greek alphabet because that is what it was originally written in.

The yellow line is the first few verses of John in Greek. It's actually in gold gouache. The red line is the first three verses of Genesis is Hebrew. The opening of John is modeled after these lines, so I included them. Then the English went in between. I ignored the margins and columns and wrote where I had room, and right between the pages so you can't really tell where the centre is in this case.

Getting to the text proper now. John is divided into two sections, the "Book of Signs," centreing on Jesus' life and miracles; and the "Book of Glory," focusing on the crucifixion and resurrection. I realize I am going to oversimplify the theology and whatnot here, I'm going to explain just enough to make the pictures make sense. For the first half I decided to keep things simple and straight forward, just a few pictures as illustration, and a few symbols I would pick up in the second half, which is considerably more elaborate. The first half also keeps the pictures very separate from the text, whereas the second mixes them together.

Therefore, not too much to explain here. It's talking about light, so I've got some in the corner there, one important verse larger than the rest, with some Hebrew next to it. I can't for the life of me remember what verse it's from and my brain is not working very well this morning so I can only read a couple of the words. Sorry! Rest assured, it's something that verse is referring to and it's all very scholarly and clever. However, it was also five years ago and I just don't remember anymore! The English is "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" and the Hebrew is something about wandering people following a great light. Must be from Exodus. You probably only care about that is you're a scholar though, in which case you already know what verse it must be. There are a bunch of instances John refers to the Hebrew Bible and I put several of them in to show just how well I did my research, but a few years out of school and I'm not nearly so clever.

The Gospel of John

My Senior Studio project when I finished by B.A. a few years ago was an illuminated gospel. It's a fairly traditional subject, so there was plenty to draw on, but I could do it my own way, especially because it's purpose is not to transmit the text but to decorate it. A huge amount of effort went into this project. It started with research into the symbols that would decorate the book, designing an English font that would mimic the original Greek letters, and creating an overriding theme and layout for the book.

The book is completely hand-written and illustrated. The lettering was all done on a light table with the layout underneath. The images are done in ink, watercolour, and gold leaf. Many of the pages, including the cover, are gilt. I also used mulberry paper, frosted vellum, gold gouch, pencil crayon, and even coffee stains for the backgrounds. The imagery all illustrates the story and follows the progression of the plot, becoming more and more involved as the story evolves.

Unlike an original illuminated gospel the purpose of this work is purely artistic.Therefore I was much freer to blend the art and text then I would have been had I been one of the original scribes, having to recopy the text for posterity. There are several points at which the text completely disappears into pictures.

Aside from research and preparation crafting the book took approximately five weeks, working anywhere from four to twelve hours a day. The final project was then bound in leather with Spanish cedar covers.




These photos are of the cover as is is right now, and the opening. I want to rebind this because I think I've learned quite a bit lately and can do something considerably nicer now. The second photo is the opening to the book. It's actually the first lines of the Nicene Creed, not John. It's done in gold gouache on mulberry paper. It's a sort of.... dunno... prologue? before the text starts.

I'm going to post a few pages with explanation every day, so check back!