The secret I'm looking for...

End of year, end of composition.
I'm done with the fragment of "L’Été" by Camus.
Partly in NEULAND, partly in Gothic, both scripts being inspired by Rudolf Koch.

Watercolou, iron gall ink and gouache on kraft paper.

And I take this opportunity to wish you a very good New Year's Eve & an excellent year 2020.

Eosin

I found, at the bottom of my medicine cabinet, an old (over 30 years old) bottle of aqueous eosin. It's a bit too transparent for my taste to be used as is, but here's an example of the (amazing) result when you drop a bit of eosin in iron gall ink still wet.

I'm fascinated by the fluorescent green, it's quite unexpected.

Kraft is life

At least, that's what my wife claims (her background as a framer probably had something to do with it). To please her, I wrote this sentence on a kraft strip stuck on the door of her workshop.

And since it made me want to write in NEULAND (tampering with it a bit, I admit), I started the calligraphy, on kraft, of a fragment from L'été by Camus.

Solitude and society

On the weekend of 18 & 19 April 2020, I will teach a workshop at the Welkenraedt Cultural Centre. It will be devoted to the writing and part of the decoration of the second Bible of Charles the Bald.
I worked on this manuscript more than 10 years ago and, in preparation for the workshop, I am getting back to it and trying some variations (especially of hues) based on a text by Seneca.

Decorated capital letters and original text with walnut stain, translation into a later writing in iron gall ink.

Colors

A for grey, J for blue, R for walnut and S for red: -)

and then a few more with only walnut and iron gall ink

More proverbs

we continue (despite the few positive returns), my wife and I to reinterpret the proverbs and maxims.
Here are two new ones, seasonal.

To show solidarity with the social movements of the moment.

And a revised proverb in a fruity version, which targets in particular the kiwis.

approximate proverbs

Tired of filigrees and having a dictionary at hand, I start (with my wife) rewriting proverbs, locutions and other maxims.

Better to be alone than badly accompanied
turns into
Better to be alone than unaccompanied

The clothes don't make the man
turns into
the magpie doesn't make the sparrow

I really like the color resulting from the use of a Payne's grey in watercolor on a pink dictionary page background.
There will be others, we are far from having finished reinterpreting the ancient maxims!

a bit of R

I'm moving slowly towards the end of the primer, I'm not going to show you all the letters here but still a few to keep you on your toes.

We will soon be able to start the publishing phase!