gesso!

I just finished putting the gesso on the scroll. Holy cow, there's a lot of gold leaf gonna be on here. It's a real trick to learn to see the negative spaces between the leaves and what not, which is where the gold leaf will be-- and it turns out I'm not nearly as good as the medieval scribes were at keeping the leaves tight to each other and the shapes they are wrapped around. Ergo, lots of gold leaf. (Patience, grasshopper... I've scanned it and this time next week you should be able to see it posted. Heh.)

Yesterday Livia and I went to a surprise B'day party for Papa Bolt (aka Steve) He's turning 50. Yikes. The actual date is in August, but the poor man had the incredible lack of foresight to conflict with Pennsic, so he got an early party. It was fun... a cookout with plenty of beer and chicken wings. Yeah!

The only bad news is that I've had a migraine for going on three days now. (Ie, while there was plenty of beer at the party, I didn't have any. Sigh.) The Imitrex has helped a lot, but even taking a full dosage yesterday it hasn't gone completely away. Sucker keeps coming back. And it's a real mark of restraint that I started that word with "S," too.

The gesso should be dry enough now that I can start applying leaf. Or maybe I'll have a light supper and let it dry a little more. The test bits I've done have worked well-- I only hope the rest does as well. This baby's going to glow like a thousand suns. Heh.

voila!

Second entry today... I got the gold leaf on the gesso. Woot! Amazing, though, how something that shines like... well, gold... makes every little flaw show right up. I burnished the gesso before applying the leaf, so it was nice and shiny. Oh, baby. It'ts looking SO good. I have to lean up the lines... the gold stuck to them, too. (I could never figure out how come it stuck to the ink so easily but not always the gesso.) I should be able to start painting tomorrow.