When I don’t have information on the recipient to guide the style of a scroll, one option is to use the style of the sitting royals who, in this case, are early period Roman with red and purple as their colors. I love mosaics and found this image of a floor in Orange, France from around 1st century BCE or CE.

Clearing out the center area for the text, I used a micron pen to draw the border lines, then painted the black scroll work and followed up with the gold to help me decide what colors of gouache to use.

I used the Roman Rustic hand, which dates back to 1st-6th century. Around this time I received a second assignment for another recipient without a known persona, so I decided to use the same basic layout turned sideways and in red and purple instead of white and red.

Materials: Printer, light table, 8″x10″ pergamenata, ruler, Ames lettering guide, pencil, eraser, micron pen, Speedball Super Black ink, dip pen, gouache, gold paint