Even though I sketched three border patterns during our trip Monday, April 23, to the wonderful Etruscan hill town of Volterra, the border pattern I chose to work up for Tuscan Sky 3 can be seen on the same journal page (far left) as the one used for Tuscan Sky 1. I had to first work out how the corners would meet since the source pattern only ran along the sides of a doorway to Lucca’s duomo. Here’s a roundel with a single zigzag border from the duomo entryway. The sky was seen from our house after we returned home the following day from Firenze – once again backlit clouds like in Tuscan Sky 2 but this time a few low, grey clouds drifting in from the Mediterranean.
As in all of the these paintings, the question at hand when it’s time to paint the borders is: How to do so to enhance the sky and create a dialog between sky and border. I offer images of before and after so you can judge for yourself.
