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Duquessa Juana Isabella de Montoya y Ramirez, OL, OP
So you think that you are ready to start working on a scroll. Before you start, check all of the following things.
Do you have a copy of the correct text? [See the Handbook for Scroll Texts.]
Was the award given by the King/Queen or the Prince/Princess? Does your scroll text match?
Do you know the date that the award was given?
Do you know the name of the royalty that gave the award and can you spell their names?
Do you have the official spelling of the name of the recipient of the award?
Do you have the correct blazon and emblazon?
If the scroll requires achievements, do you know what they are and where they go? [See our heraldry article]
Now that you have the information, do you have the materials? Materials for doing the scroll itself are covered elsewhere, but for Layout I recommend a hard pencil applied with a light hand (easier to erase), a kneaded eraser, and a ruler. A "T" square, triangle, compass or french curve might be useful, but they aren't necessary.
You are now ready to violate that clean white sheet in front of you. Lets start with the margins ... leave large ones (not less than 1" all around). Larger margins are particularly recommended for scribes who live far away from the central part of the kingdom. A scroll sent from Oertha, Lochac or the Far West may be damaged in transit. This damage is most likely to occur around the edges. If you leave large margins, the damage can be removed without destroying the whole piece.
How do you fill in this box you've just drawn? It depends a great deal on what you want to do with the piece, what you can do, what the scroll is for and what the recipient wants.
If you are really good at calligraphy, but not so hot on illumination, try a nice simple illuminated initial and a simple border around your calligraphy.
On the other hand, if illumination is your long suit, you may want to try elaborate painting around a fairly simple hand.
If you are equally good at both, you have more choices. Don't worry, as you practice your skills in both areas should improve so that eventually you can try a wide variety of ideas.
Vertical Layout is the most common practice, but there is nothing wrong with horizontal Layout. Most books and newspapers are on vertical Layout so that is what most people are used to reading. There is one thing to avoid when using the horizontal Layout. If you are going to put the emblazon in the middle of the scroll, avoid the temptation to calligraph through it. Two columns, one on either side of the emblazon is much easier to read. At first glance a scroll written through the emblazon is often read as:
"Know all men by these ...
King of the West ...
And do hereby elevate ..."
You get the idea.
The signatures and seals almost always go at the bottom of the scroll. If your Layout requires that they go elsewhere, attach a note to the scroll, or write on the scroll showing where they go. Scrolls usually get sealed several at a time, and the heralds have a great many other things to do, so they may forget. It is just easier to put the space for seals and signatures at the bottom. Just for the sake of balance, I usually want to put something eye catching at the opposite end of the scroll from the seals. If you have never seen a completed scroll, you might not understand the reason for this. The Kingdom seal is a big 3" glob of red wax on the bottom of your scroll (the Heralds seal is about the size of a quarter).
In laying out a scroll, there are different levels of thoroughness. Use whatever is comfortable for you. I usually figure out some of the basics (vertical or horizontal, margins, etc.) And then work on the text. I take some scrap paper and draw out the size of the part of the scroll I want for the text. I then draw in the guidelines and do a practice run on the calligraphy. This way I know I'll have enough space and I can see how things look together. For instance, I try to avoid having a word with letters that hang down (p, y, g, q, j) above a word with letters that are taller than most (t, k, l, etc.). Unless your lines of calligraphy are widely spread, this can look messy. Just space things a little differently to avoid this. One of my apprentices is very thorough when he does his Layout. He draws in top and bottom guidelines for his calligraphy and then draws in boxes for the length of each word. Sometimes he even pencils in the letters.
After you've done the calligraphy on the scroll, and the ink has completely dried, but before you begin to paint, it is time to erase. Unless you will need them in your painting, erase the calligraphy guidelines completely. The sketch for your illumination should be lightly erased. There should be enough for you to see and follow, but not enough to show through thin or light colored paint.
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