This Ancient Vellum Art Technique May Make Modern Art Patrons Absolutely Speechless
- thedobieace
- Jun 22
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 23
Hi All,
So in this age of AI artwork controversy, I find myself surveying traditional media a lot more in terms of artwork.
I submitted a traditional piece at the charity auction at the last Scotiacon in Glasgow, and it outperformed any of my previous digital-printed artworks that I submitted to charity auctions!
I suppose traditional art will be something that will be valued more highly over digital images going forward - before AI, humans still had to put their shoulder to the wheel and have good skills to produce good digital art, but with new generations seeing this facilitated by AI, the existential crisis for the artist in this space can be soothed by having a traditional offering too.
I was curious about older, more prized forms of art surfaces for traditional work. Historic illuminated manuscripts made use of vellum and parchment to create beautiful pieces. So I wondered if these super smooth surfaces could be adopted in my own traditional process to make my pieces more special for my patrons.
Parchment is a paper made from sheepskin, and vellum is a paper made from calf or goat skins - (Note: These are ethically sourced and from official manufacturers for art materials in this space)
The calf vellum comes in different grades, such as regular, Kelmscott, and slunk.
They vary in thickness, transparency, and tone, with some being more of a cream color than others, and some being more transparent.
The smooth surface seemed to work well with shading with a Conte Pierre Noire 3B pencil, for shading, blending, and erasing.
Surface texture aside, I am not so partial to yellow colored surfaces as I prefer to get a lot of contrast to my black shading with a high value white background.
Because of this I found the slunk-vellum my favorite. It is the whitest of the paper offerings, and its light transparency means it can be laid on top of white card to have an even higher value of white.
I am going to see if one of the suppliers can provide slunk vellum in A3 sheets for my traditional offering.
Downside is that these special papers are quite expensive, at around 11 euros for a small sample sheet, so A3 shall be more pricey! I will see how things go with this medium for upcoming charity auctions.
If interested, you can refer to manufacturers such as Cowleys, and also Cornelisson at the links below:
Until next time!
