Solo Vani Letters A through Z

[Una Tanta]

7th Day of Winter

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Goals:
-analyzing illumination/planning (5 Posts) + Writing 2 Posts
-practicing letters (3 Posts) Writing Skill
-learning how to tint parchment when it has finished (5 Posts) Botany Skill
-comparing writing to Calligraphy (1 post)
-Beginning Calligraphy letters (2 posts)
-Making her first Calligraphy page with illuminated first letter (3 posts)

[Una Tanta]

"Here. To know the proper style and form, one cannot be taught outright without personal analysis of form and structure. Look at these, make notes and tell me what you see." With his instructions Jacks hands extended toward her with the delightful offerings of knowledge. As she reached for them Una wondered if this was how the gods felt when offerings were made to them...then again, she could hardly have something so valuable to offer a god. Perhaps piousness was enough for them?

In one hand her lover held a large book. With a thick leaver binding edged in metal intricate carvings dazzled the cover. Placing it tenderly on the tilted table Una reached for the other book. This one was far simpler and smaller. A small leather book about twice the size of her hand and perfectly square, it held tiny sheathes of almost perfectly white pages. It's cover was simple with no engravings or designs, the edges curling with age and lack of reinforcement. However, a tiny metal clasp clamped the back to the front holding it firmly closed and preserving the flatness of the parchment inside.

As was typical of Jacks teaching style he did not simple hand one the knowledge they wanted. Knowledge he believed must be striven for and instead offered the tools and guidance which one needed to learn. Unclasping the book and opening the other she was dazzled by the marvelous illuminations in one and confused by the utter blankness of the other.

"What is this? It's blank." She queried utterly at a loss. What could she study from a blank book?

"It is yours. Yours to take notes in, to draft your own illuminations and practice calligraphy. The hide is that of a baby lamb, which is why it is so soft and the leather is Sizzle's, so you may always have him near." Though the words were quite possibly the most romantic and endearing she had ever heard he spoke them clearly and without meeting her gaze, his matter of fact turn forcing her back to her work quite forcefully.

"Thank you..." She whispered to the sweet air that trickled past his ear as she clasped the precious item to her chest.

Turning to focus upon the other book before her she riffled through the pages gently but quickly. The quick movement blurred the details and allowed her to see the larger picture of design. At first glance it became obvious that there were three forms of illumination; Borders, Letters, and Images. Images seemed most commonly to stand alone, or consume the majority of the page while the borders and characters were integrated into the lettering. However, with her little knowledge there was little more she could garner from such a swift perusal.


Moving back to the front of the book she hunched over each page studying carefully. The first page was consumed by a god surrounded by a border that was seemingly simple but incredibly complex upon examination. The image was primarily geometrically symmetrical while upon closer inspection differences varied slightly in the positioning of hands, contents of the circle and his asymmetrical feet. He faced forward however and was remarkably symmetrical in his face and body.

As she moved to her own drawing book she halted for a moment, loathe to ruin the delicate parchment with her scrawl. She had never drawn before, but she desperately wished to immortalize the image before her in all its beauty. Knowing she could not accomplish that she settled for a quick sketch. Small, only taking up half a page she created a small imperfect circle with the sharp tip of her wide nib. Uneven, especially compared to the professional work before her Una scowled but continued.

Drawing a ruler from the desk she created a relatively symmetrical rectangle with wide circles in either corner. Thinking for a moment she paused to study the internal shape. The top two rounded forms tapered to a tip while the ones on the side where far more rounded. She knew from her circles she could not create such forms so symmetrical and wondered at how the artist had done it. There had to be more to it than practice. Finally the internal shape erupted off the page, much to Unas delight. A small internal circle marked the corners and each part of the circle was drawn toward the center of the border.

Carefully she pressed her nib into the center of the top, bottom and side lines and created a soft square in the center with the rubaway pencil and marked the four corners. Beginning at the bottom left corner of the square she drew a slow and careful arch that met the spot marked on the border and continued along to meet the upper left hand corner of the square. Though it missed its mark the line was one of the thinnest and cleanest lines she had made thus far.

From the upper left hand square she dragged her quill more sharply toward the middle of the upper border which had been marked off and down towards the upper right hand corner of the internal square. She continued these same two patterns on the left hand side and the bottom. Blocking out the position of the heads, arms and legs without detail or emotion Una drew the four angels in each corner and the man in the center. Though just stick figures they represented the shape of the drawing.

Below she wrote her analysis in the large curving font that was natural from her Char writing. Planting the quill at a 36 degree angle she carefully tied each letter together moving her wrist across the page instead of the quill. Though she did not maintain the width of each letter her findings were neatly displayed upon the bottom of the page.

Below this she smiled to herself and wrote the words:

Idea: Drafting each of the gods within this internal framework with their human servants along the inner square as denoted above by the winged beings. In the four corners should be representations of their domain. Would provide a well balanced intriguing form for any religious or historical text.

Turning to the next page she was grinning broadly to herself. She loved poetry and stories, but what lay before her was artwork upon artwork. The parchment was a craft unto itself, as was the writing and the calligraphy and illumination and binding. It was truly a Ivakian feat.

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[Una Tanta]

The next page was divided into two columns of writing divided a red outlined design. Along the bottom and left edge were intricate drawings and illumination. As she flipped through numerous pages she noticed the trend, heavy drawing and illumination was always along the outside edges while the insides lay relatively bare in comparison. Why is that?

Making a note of the trend Una wrote it in her leather bound journal. Slowly and carefully she held the quill in her hand at the proper angle and began to write. The sharp nib cut into the parchment slicing and damaging the paper. Grimacing, she withdrew the nib before more carefully placing it against the parchment to finish the notation.

"Why are the pages more heavily detailed on the edges and not in the center?" She interrupted Jack's work with the question, only a small glimmer of guilt brushing her rose tinted eyes.

"Because it makes the pages look more expansive, if you crowd the crease in the center it makes the book look like it is falling into itself." He responded without looking up as he continued his detailed work.

Peering back at the work Una noticed the same respective geometric symmetry that was present in the first image while the contents themselves were asymmetrical. Furthermore, the images where held in circles primarily in comparison to the square book it was framed within. Perhaps squares are more difficult to draw correctly... she wondered though she doubted that was the reason considering the intense detail and circular perfection.

Furthermore, the images were flat and without much depth though in some respects that added to their beauty. Depth would have been overly complex in an already geometrically complex creation. The same wobbling detail from the first image was apparent in the bordering of the second image, as was the classic square based arches and flaring wings from certain corners.

This piece had lines sculpted into the background defining the lines to be written on and keeping them level and away from the margins, perfecting evenness. Did this have to be done on every page? Una wondered, though the drawing itself was time consuming so perhaps adding the lines to each page was a mere trinket of work in comparison.

Drawing her own text toward her Una dipped her drying nib into the black ink vial at her side. Slowly she wrote out her findings and began the achingly slow process of sketching out the image before her. Planning was evidently incredibly important for illumination. Using the ruler she ran it vertically along the paper marking off even intervals with the pencil.

Moving the ruler horizontally she made straight even lines to the other side of the page. Scowling she tilted her head as she looked at the work before her. Though she had spaced them out appropriately they were beginning to slant dangerously, ruining their very purpose. Moving to erase the lines Una began again, marking off the intervals this time on both the left and right hand sides before using the ruler to draw straight even lines along the paper.

Drawing the illumination toward her she measured out each margin and drew the standard planning design of the book into her own journal. She measured the margins of several random pages, and was surprised to find them all remarkably the same. Though I suppose that makes sense...if they differed than the book wouldn't be a uniform entity.

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[Una Tanta]

"How have you done?" Jack inquired, drawing near. His stomach almost brushed Unas shoulder as he craned over her work. It had taken her over an hour to pen the brief drawings and writing and there were many splotches where the ink had poured out too quickly or chicken scratches where the ink had caught, refusing to come out but overall it was legible and he was quite pleased.

"It's messy and you've damaged the parchment in several places. Perhaps we should begin dressing the parchment we made last time?" He offered noticing her hands shake slightly from the strain. She still held the quill too tightly in her hand, attempting to control it with might would not get her anywhere. It required a soft and firm touch, like any artistic endeavor.

Nodding appreciatively Una closed both of the books and set them aside. She had been so focused on her work she didn't notice the pain in her hand until she had stopped. Having had her hand so tightly fisted about the pen had left raw edges where she had not yet grown callouses.

The sheep skin Jack pulled out from the back of the storage was still flat from being stretched taunt upon the rack. It's hair had been scraped off and as it lay before her, a giant soft rectangle she was thankful for her quiet stomach. The hide resembled an animal so little her body had no immediate reaction to touching the stretched flesh.

However Una was dismayed to see several pock marks that marred the otherwise flat flesh. Jack had explained earlier to her that they had come from scar tissue on the animal. Far weaker than its initial hide the scar tissue would fall away from the animal when it was scraped clean. The hides of animals such as these were far less expensive and perfect paper for her own novice attempts as well as the many other uses for parchment in the library that did not require pristine pages such as lists.

"What did you notice about the parchment in the pages you just looked at?" Una returned his question with a look of dismay. She hadn't been analyzing the pages but rather the illumination, lettering and artwork.

"Uhm...well I wasn't exactly...looking at the parchment, I was looking at the lettering and illumination..." His face revealed his discontent blatantly.

"You will not be doing illumination or calligraphy any time soon m'dear. You must first focus on learning to write properly...beyond your finger writing, and how to create your own tools so you mustn't always purchase them." He added trying to lighten the mood as he wiggled his fingers in the air, resembling her own wiggling fingers when she wrote in Char. Una nodded mutely while silently and internally scowling, I want to learn everything though...It'll take me forever to make manuscripts if I must first perfect everything else. I don't want to make paper or dress my nibs or anything else. I want to learn to make art. She knew she sounded like a petulant child but she simply couldn't help herself, Jack moved far too slowly for her own tastes.

"The parchment in that book had two sides, the hairy side and the flesh side. When you plan a manuscript you want to plan your larger bodies of work on the flesh side as the surface holds the colours for longer and is far more perfect. Once we have folded the skin you will notice a pattern. A hairy side will face another hairy side and the flesh sides will face the flesh side...do you know why this is?"

Thinking about it Una chewed her lip. It didn't make sense, wouldn't they want a hairy side facing a flesh side so at least one of the pages could be heavily illuminated. But then again if one side was wouldn't it throw the balance of the two pages off? Perhaps that was it.

"Because if it were not you could only illuminate one page making it appear heavier than the other. It would throw the balance of the open book off." She stated hopefully.

"Not exactly, though that is an added benefit surely. It is simply because of the folding process." With those words he began to show her the art of folding the skin into what would become the parchment in a manuscript.

"We must first trim the outside of the skin so that it is perfectly straight." He instructed handing her a small knife. Biting her lip as she worked, as was typical of her when focusing she placed the knife just above the edge of the fur and attempted to drag it down and through. It didn't work. The skin curled and warped beneath her fingers, threatening to cut them or the skin at an angle.

Withdrawing she stared at the skin for a moment. Perhaps if I pierce the skin first, I will be able to cut out from the damaged part? Pressing the sharp tip of the knife into the skin until it emerged at the other side. She grinned as it moved relatively easily through the thin skin. Struggling to cut a straight line her hand wavered, still tense and shuddering from the long time spend writing. When she finally exited at the other end she moved back to the place she had pierced the skin and cut away the beginning shred that held the two pieces together. The piece she had cut away was the wavering edge from being stretched and left a beautiful shear line.

Grinning proudly she looked up at Jacks line and then looked back at hers in dismay. His was almost perfect, with wavering only being present at the corners. His steady hand, trained from years of writing and calligraphy, had benefited him tremendously in the endeavor. Her own in comparison was wavering and messy.

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[Una Tanta]

The next two edges had the same results with his looking remarkably steady while her own was uneven and slanted awkwardly. Blushing apologetically he shrugged in her direction.

"It doesn't matter, you need to learn and that comes with mistakes." He excused and squeezed her arm tenderly. Their relationship had been confusing and rocky since its inception, built around their loss of Cy. Since she had found out she could have him back Jack hadn't seemed sure of herself. She herself wasn't sure of herself. What were they? Was Cy watching? Had she betrayed him? The thoughts made her gulp anxiously, would Cy even want her back?

"Now we will tint the parchment. Typically we don't for throwaway parchment but given your interest in...everything, we can colour a couple of pages." He offered. He is so sweet...far sweeter than Cy ever was but he's so...dull...is it cruel to use him like this? Will he stop teaching me if we stop having sex? Does he worry about my past with Cy and my pursuing his Spirit? She thought, bereaved by the decision. He knew about her search for Cy's spirit and yet had continued to touch her whenever he could snatch a moment, continued to compliment and show extensive patience toward her. Something she had never seen him show toward another.

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