Thyri Bersi's Poem Scroll Progress

A photo of beads Thyri has made that I stole off her Facebook page. 

A photo of beads that Thyri provided to me. 

Another photo of beads that Thyri provided.

Next, I decided to sketch some ideas in my sketch book. Thyri loves wild hares and flowers and botanicals.  

My own nods: Lily of the Valley and Lavender are some of my favorite flowers, too.

Definitely wanted to include a lotus, so playing with styles. Also had an idea about demon bunnies, but decided to scrap it.

More sketches of flower ideas.

Some paint tests. Thyri is also great at sewing, so I wanted to include a nod to that as well. I wanted to make the hares look as though they were embroidered on the page.

Another possible embroidery style for a side-by-side comparison. 

First pencil drawing. The design is three sides; the left side is open to the companion piece made by Mӕva Hávardzdóttir. 

To connect the whole piece (as one person with different facets), I had the string holding the beads transition into the vine that connects all the flowers, that finally becomes a thread used to embroider the hares. The string of the beads goes off the page to the left, connecting to the design of Mӕva's scroll.

My first painted piece. You'll notice that there are no lines or pencil marks on the page; that is on purpose. I inked my pencil drawing and then put it under another piece of bristol. Both were put on a lightboard which I used to see the lines underneath to paint over.

Also, white-on-white is difficult. Shades of grey. That's my only advice.

First beads painted.

More beads. Of course I had to include the rat bead. It was so unique! And some lavender as well.

Adding more foliage and the hares. As you can see, I added some thorn testing to the card as well.

Hares are closer to complete. Added the vine work for the thorns. 

I doubt anyone noticed, but the circular pattern for the vine work was purposeful as well. I am rather fond of painting white vine illumination style, and the circles are taken directly from that style.

Here you can see the layers I was using. The inked version underneath the painted version. Once I had all the major elements painted, I pulled it out so I could refine the details.

Added leaves on the thorny vines and some outlines to the hares.

Details added. At the last minute, I decided to add a "verdant green" to the hares to connect better with the poem, also adding in some clover from my original sketches. I tried to keep short strokes to make it blend well with the "embroidered" look of the hares.