Hands up project

Deciphering secrets, Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Europe

Emiliano Ortega Rousset/ UNAM/ 08/07/2021

Hands up project/ Parchment

Emiliano Ortega Rousset

UNAM

I bought some scholar cardboards at the

nearest stationery. 8 sheets of a not-so-
pale yellow color, with the addition of a
Fabriano paper sheet.

As a pigment, I use coffee (expresso) but

at some point, I decided to combine it with
soluble coffee because my reference
images were darker (I did not forget the
vinegar) & my cardboards had a more
intense hue.

I also did some experiments, using some

raw umber powder pigment, a dash of
acrylic medium mixed with natural &
soluble coffees & purple acrylic paint.

As painting tools, I utilize a paint roller,

two paintbrushes (2” & 4”), two round
brushes, some napkins, a watercolor
pencil & a color pencil.

At first, I harassed the paint roller to cover

the sheets, but this procedure was too
wet & covered almost entirely the sheets.
Then I proceed to try to dry the paint roll a
little bit to have a more rich texture. This
proves to be a dead-end so I change
completely to use a paintbrush instead.
 Hands up project
Deciphering secrets, Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Europe
Emiliano Ortega Rousset/ UNAM/ 08/07/2021

Using the brush proves to be an effective

way to cover the sheets with more spot
control. I use the 2” paintbrush to apply
the coffee & the 4” to smooth it when
necessary. In some sheets, I try to
emulate the Lunae knife curved marks. In
other cases, I use an image as a
reference for each page to try to
represent it.

As a second step, I use the round

brushes to make a thin dripping on the
pages to replicate the follicular marks.
When the drops were too big I used a dry
brush to smooth them.

After a while, I start with another coffee

hand. This one is made exclusively of
soluble coffee, trying to make an accurate
representation of spots & darker hues. In
the end, I do some experimentation
mixing raw umber powder onto the coffee,
vinegar & water. This mixture does some
scraps onto the wet surface & was too
dark. I only applied it on two sheets with
bad results. In one of them, I try to use it
as an all-surface dot cover. The second
one became too dark, so facing
destruction forces me to do a radical
solution for the most damaged of the
sheets; using purple acrylic to mix with
the previous to do a codex purpureous. I
like the result, even the scraps look like
real parchment.
 Hands up project
Deciphering secrets, Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Europe
Emiliano Ortega Rousset/ UNAM/ 08/07/2021

As my cardboard is very yellowish I

decide to do some light texture on the
other side to have a lesser contrast
between the recto & verso sides.

The next step was to use the watercolor

pencil & the color pencil to make some
vein marks & some follicular points.
The final step was to do some rips,
hollows in the sheets, rounded corners,
uneven edges, etc.

As a final step, I use some beetroot to

imprint the codex purpureous.
 Hands up project
Deciphering secrets, Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Europe
Emiliano Ortega Rousset/ UNAM/ 08/07/2021

Here are showing some examples of

the work to my consideration; the
codex purpureous, a yellow cardboard
& the Fabriano paper.
 Hands up project
Deciphering secrets, Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Europe
Emiliano Ortega Rousset/ UNAM/ 08/07/2021

Visual references: