Thus Spake the Prophets, Day 2

If I this page were produced at a 7th or 8th century  monastery the final would be done on carefully stretched and prepared vellum, usually from young calves, which would give two pages per calf. Sketches would be done on wax tablets which could be scraped and the surface melted and reused and the vellum would have grids inscribed on the back to guide the artist.  The pigments used in the Lindisfarne Gospels came from as far away as Asia (lapis lazuli is found in the blue ink).  I used the simpler method of locally purchasing sketchbooks and papers then plotting out the knotwork using a light box.  My colored pencils come from the far less distinguished sounding Jerry's Artarama but they are of great quality serve their purpose well. 

The detail you see here represents about 35 hours of  in the color work alone.  First an outline is done in orange, which will be drawn over in two darker colors to form the outlines, and four different colors are used in each shaded section, which vary from 1/20 to 1/8 inch wide.  The background is four to five layers of turquoise over buff titanium and then overlaid with a lighter color to add smoothness and depth in much the same way as a painter uses thin washes to add depth and intensity to a colors in a painting.  It is painstaking, but I must pay attention to all the details to provide vibrant colors in so delicate a design.