3rd Century Shield Painting 2.0 / WIP

[caiusbeerquitius]

In the following thread I´ll give you a sort of walk-through for a shield painting. The shield is larger than the first one here
as you can see if you compare it to the size of the squares on the carpet. It has the measurements provided bý Simon James / Dura Europos for shield # 617.


The first step will be to give it a coat of pure casein, followed by a layer of white colour.

[Neuraleanus]

By the way, how did you make the dished shield? It's difficult to tell from the photo, but is this shield made from individual planks as the Dura shields were, or is it plywood?

[caiusbeerquitius]

The shield is plywood covered with ~1.5 mm rawhide on the front and fine linen inside. If you look carefully, you can see the vertical straps of poplar wood under the rawhide. So far we have only made plywood shields, they are extremely stable. When everyone has his shield, we will also start making plank shields, however this is more diffuclt, i.e. requires a lot of skill when plaining the edges of the planks and the front and backside.

[caiusbeerquitius]

Well, it took a while, meanwhile the shield is almost finished. Here you see the next steps, all made with Kreidezeit Kasein paints:

After having applied the white ground, I painted the whole shield with Titanweiß ( 41 ), the with Englisch Rot ( 38 ) and waited until dry. Then I determined the shield´s centre. With the help of a pair of compasses I made subsidiary lines for the central decorative motif. Starting from the outside, using a flat brush to get well-defined borders, I drew the circles , starting with a 2:1 mixture Umbra grünlich hell ( 38 ) and Eisenoxidschwarz ( 42 ) followed by Nickeltitanorange ( 20 ), followed by Eisenoxidschwarz ( 42 ), followed by Nickeltitanorange( 20 ) followed by the 2:1 mixture Umbra grünlich hell ( 38 ) and Eisenoxidschwarz (42), followed by Nickeltitanorange( 20 ) followed by black, and, finally the 2:1 mixture Umbra grünlich hell ( 38 ) and Eisenoxidschwarz ( 42 ) in the centre again. Then I drew the decoration lines with Englisch Rot ( 38 ) in the middle of the Nickeltitanorange( 20 ) rings, and a thin black line between the first two rings.
Next I started with the "running dog". I used Nickeltitangelb ( 19 ), where you need two layers of colour on a dark ground like red. I drew the first line just a few mm outside the outward ring. Then, with ca. 3-4 mm in between another one. On this second line I drew the "running dog" motif freehanded. If ýou never did such a thing before, I recommend that you try it on a sheet of paper until you think you can do it. It is not so easy to get the right proportions all the time...


The decor line on the outer rim of the shield was made with Titanweiß ( 41 ). I used a ruler to mark the distance of 3cm all around the rim, every few cm. Then I drew two lines along the rim, with a few mm distance from each other. the I added every 5-6 cm one of the "circles" sitting on these lines. One shouldn´t work too exactly here, the originals are not that exact either. then i added the three semicircular lines on the inner side and the smi-circular line on the outside.


More to come.

[Praefectusclassis]

Ooooh! Spiffy!

[caiusbeerquitius]

I´m right at the moment writing the text for my post above...

[Titus Martius]

Wow! Very very nice! :lol:

I will watch eagerly, because I am making my shield now too.

[Theodosius the Great]

Beautiful paint job

So your shield is one piece of plywood ? If so, I was thinking of doing the same thing. Unfortunately, I'm not very skilled at painting



Theo

[caiusbeerquitius]

Next came the egg-staff motif. At the inner line I started with green dots, topped with yellow ones, on the outer line red dots, topped with orange ones. Then I painted the white line, and finished with the fine white lines from the middle of each "egg" to its upper side. After that I made the small leave-motifs at the top, the lower side and on the right and left side, dividing the outer decoration-ring into four sections. They were made with white color, the central leaves have a small red line from half way down each. These motifs are bordered by twó white lines on each side. Then came the next motive, which divede each qurter of the ring into half again, a wide white line with a red dot on each end, bordered by a thin white line.
The dotted segments were a lot of work. It consists of alternating rows of dots with a different color for each row. I started with red, then pink, orange, yellow white, very light blue, blue and yellow mix (greenish), light blue, and blue.
The leaf-motif consists of dark green leaves with a brow stripe in their upper middle, framed with white lines, and finished with white line decorations. The "heart"-motif consists of red and blue hearts which have a lighter colour-shade at the top, a yellow pistil and white loopy lines.

[FAVENTIANVS]

Christian, how could you find such a big rawhide in one piece?

[Dan Diffendale]

Looks superb!

[Magnus]

Amazing detail...how many hours is that so far Christian?

[Robert Vermaat]

Even though I see a purple & blue shield now instead of a red & green, the details are stunning!

[caiusbeerquitius]

@ FAVENTIANUS: There is a tanner here in Augsburg who makes these on command.

@ Magnus: For the painting I´d say to that point around 12 hours.

@ Vorti: Yeah, different light, no flash.

[Marcus Julius]

Blast all you people! Not only those with your artistic talents, but also patience to do a work like that!