How to Make a Medieval Illuminated Letter Drawing

One of my favorite time periods to learn about in art history were the Middle Ages. Maybe because I have always been a fantasy snob and this time period reminds me of all my favorite stories I read growing up.

I had never taught this time period of art in depth with my middle schoolers before. I decided to give it a try this year and really lean into the history of it. For our project, we created illuminated manuscript inspired drawings using the first letter of their name.

I was shocked and blown away at how engaged they were with this! And I loved seeing how much effort and detail they put into their projects!

Lesson Introduction and Project Overview

I first spend time in class teaching students about the art of the Middle Ages. I created an in depth slideshow in CANVA along with doodle notes.

I will say, this presentation is a bit lengthy so if I have a class that is a bit squarely, I will either break it up into a few days.

I find that most of my students get interested and engaged in this art style! It has helped me to call out medieval references in pop culture like Robin Hood, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, etc.

In this presentation we look at illuminated manuscripts and the beauty of them. My students really enjoy the Black Hours and the Book of Kells specifically!

For their project, they were to create an illuminated letter art piece focusing on the first letter of their first name. Their design had to have a variety of things in it such as line designs, medieval objects, nature objects as well as metallic gold or silver. Some of the students stuck to just those items and others went above and beyond and added even more!

I find that if I give them a list of things to include, while leaving room for them to add their own unique artistic spin, I am able to get the best results.

Supplies Needed:

• Rulers
• Mini pasteboard from Walmart (I believe they are 11 x 14)
• Gold and silver metallic markers (We had Sharpie brand but you can use any brand that will show up nice and vibrant!)

I wanted to open up the art room to give students choice in what mediums they wanted to use. Some did watercolor paint, some did color pencils, some sharpie markers… but a LARGE number of them decided to go with the infamous BETEM paint markers (seriously- I can’t get them to stay away from these markers!)

But overall, I wanted this project to be fairly low prep in terms of supplies and materials. It’s the beginning of the year still and I wanted to slowly ease my way into the “chaos” of an active art room.

Planning Their Designs

Something I really wanted to push this year with my students was forcing them to PLAN out their ideas. I already do this a lot with sketchbook assignments and other projects. But I found they were starting to slip on this step and were just putting whatever came to their brain on their project paper. It adds an extra step to the entire process, but I find that it is extremely valuable. It forces the students to really think about and make decisions upfront and it eliminates many mistakes they will make a long the way.

For this stage ,I give them a blank template for them to sketch their ideas. I also give them a pack of handouts with a variety of medical and nature objects as well as a variety of letter styles for them to use as inspiration.

I stress and stress to them “THIS IS A ROUGH DRAFT NOT YOUR ACTUAL PROJECT, DO NOT SPEND A WEEK ON IT” (because we ALL have those kids who would do just that if we let them!)

I also gave them a check list of all the things they need to have in their design so they can refer back to it as they plan. Before they get their pasteboard, they have to turn in their planning sheet to get approved by me.

Creating Our Illuminated Letters

The first thing we start drawing is the border simply by using the width of the ruler they had. I did not want to bother doing any kind of measuring.

The next thing they add is their letter. For this part, I printed off a bunch of letter “stencils” for them to trace onto their poster (by either cutting and tracing or by using one of our light pads to trace).

You can always make them draw it free hand, but I personally did not want them obsessing over the proportion of their letter for days on end. I wanted to get to the decorating part!

Finally, they draw the rest of their design! When it comes time to add their metallic silver or gold, they used paint markers or Sharpie pens. They are always excited to get to that part :)

If you would like to use any of the resources I created to try out this project, you can find it all on my TPT page. Click the image below and be directed to all the goodies!

Happy Art Making!