What Do You See?
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| From the Daily Star in the UK |
You can enhance your work by nurturing your visual awareness. Whether you research pixels in medieval manuscripts or notice details in modern pictures you increase your observation powers through constant practice.
What do you see in the picture to the right? Is it a duck or a rabbit?
Whether you see a rabbit or a duck may depend on how you believe either should appear. This also happens when you recreate medieval manuscript images, especially faces and hands. We expect them to appear a certain way so we draw them onto medieval people in the scrolls we create.
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| Book of Kells, Folio 32v, Christ Enthroned. |
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| Book of Kells, Folio 32v, Christ Enthroned. |
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| Escorial, Biblioteca Monasterio Cod. & II. 5 |
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| Escorial, Biblioteca Monasterio Cod. & II. 5 |
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| Melisende Psalter Web Gallery of Art 16037 |
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| Melisende Psalter Web Gallery of Art 16037 |
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| The Visconti Hours: National Library, FlorenceCelestial Court and Fall of the Rebel Angels |
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| The Visconti Hours: National Library, FlorenceCelestial Court and Fall of the Rebel Angels |
Looking at medieval illuminated manuscripts strengthens your detail awareness, your “medieval eye”. However you do it, these in-depth comparisons are vital to scribal progress. I like how they challenge my expectations and creativity.
Categories: Illumination
An Itinerant Scribe 
