Illumination: DANCING FOXES

Earlier this month, I went to an SCA event called "At the Sign of the Dancing Fox." To raise money for the event, a silent auction was held. This event is one of my favorite SCA events to go to. There is live medieval music played on period instruments, dancing, and a dressing the fox competition. (Contestants purchase a small plush fox or other animal, and sew garb for their animal and write up a story about it.) With that in mind, my contribution to the silent auction just had to be an illumination of some garbed dancing foxes with another garbed fox playing music. At least these dancers actually look like they are dancing, but it's still nice to have a musician nearby.

First I made this sketch of foxes dancing. Because I wasn't striving for authenticity, I sketched it out at a size larger than I planned on the final being, and then scanned it. I cleaned up a few things, printed it out to size (5.5 in. x 3.5 in), and taped it to a light box.

I taped a piece of hot press bristol board down over the printed sketch and carefully traced the sketch, and then inked. The final art was painted with gouache and water color. 

To properly get the feeling of medieval dancing, I referred to these images:

from the Missel de Montierneuf - BNF Latin873 f21

Marginalia from the Romance of Alexander MS Bodleian 264, France c. 1338-44f

Here is the final illumination, ready to go to "At the Sign of the Dancing Fox." Apparently, there had been a bidding war for it, and I have no idea who ended up winning the bid, as I had stepped out of the room at the moment the winning bid was being announced.