Making Manuscripts: Making Miniatures 

Undoubtedly

"look easy" yes but actualy extremly hard for regular artists. They are national traditional master artists so its easy for them.

It was probably a home-made gesso, which is a tedious and painstaking process. The results, however, are incomparable. Store-bought gesso is not the same, although in the hands of a skilled practitioner will still yield positive results. The difference is the brilliance of the burnished gold. A beginner should try commercial gesso first, and add a bit of polymer medium and a touch of red pigment.The pigment will allow you to see it better when it dries. Home-made gesso often dries with tiny holes in it and that requires fine sanding and then polishing before applying the leaf. You may also need to add some distilled water to the mixture to assure a smooth flow. Good luck!

Hi, you find good gesso? I seeking too...😏 And it's not clear to me if golden leaves adhere well to pure gesso? Because before I heard about the recipe for gesso + fish glue ..

Animal-skin parchment, aka vellum. You don't *have* to use vellum, but at the beginning of the video they mentioned "skin" so I'm pretty sure that's what it is here.

vellum is incomparable, and is terribly expensive. Most pieces of vellum have to be sanded with fine sandpaper and then a bit of pumice powder is applied; that acts as a de-greaser, Very fine vellum, from an aborted calf, generally does not need any treatment.

I wonder what she used for the black outline. Ink or dark gouache paint.

Why?

Why?

Not all medieval manuscripts were about religion. They had illustrated law books, medical books, Arthurian tales, other stories, history books etc ..oh ya, astrological books

Imagine being as materialist as the person who made this comment...