Ok, ok, last upload for the Dragon Illumination! :XD:

I just wanted to show you the step-by-stemp procedure of how I've been doing illuminations lately:

1. I mark in a border around the bristol board (to make sure there's room for a matte), and then I pencil in the illumination, as well as the calligraphy (I'm not good enough to just *do* calligraphy yet). After I like what I see, I ink it with either a dip pen or a very fine brush in Higgins Black magic ink. It's waterproof ink.

2. Once the ink is dried, I erase the pencils from the page. Then, I apply the gold leaf adhesive to it. I *LOVE* the appearance of "raised gold", so I lay the adhesive on thick, giving it a "puffy" appearace. It'll dry like that, and to be on the safe side, I'll leave it dry over-night. Once it's dry, I'll apply the gold to it. Whatever gold shavings are left over, I collect them and keep them (to be made into shell gold later), and then I buff the gold with a cotton ball.

3. Then I lay down the flat colours of the illumination with gouache. Once those colours are dry, I'll go over them with a lighter shade of those colours, highlighting some patterns along the flat colours.

4. After those "highlights" are done, I'll go over the entire thing with black gouache, to darken and strengthen the lines. After that's done, I do the "white work", which really makes the piece pop out :)

That's pretty much how I do it!