Whitework is a form of illumination that dates from around the 11th century or so (maybe even a little earlier), and was taken to high perfection in the Renaissance.  To do it takes practice and patience, a steady hand for long thin lines, and a little bit of self-perfection.  The following is my attempt to explain how to do it... but it is a very hands on and visual type of technique, so I’m not sure a handout such as this can do it justice.
       To start off, you need a good brush, to the left are two examples of good ones and one example of the kind of brush I DO NOT recommend (though it will work with a lot of reloading and picking up of the brush... it is the red-handled one in the picture to the left).  The first one (blue handle) is a Royal natural sable brush, #0, and has hairs that are 3/4" long.  The second one (green handle) is an AmericanPainter artificial hair, #5/0, and has hairs that are 3/8" long.  The third one (red handle) is also an AmericanPainter artificial hair, #10/0, and has hairs that are only 1/8" long.  My recommendation is to go for a #0 to a #2, but not smaller,  as a general rule… and try for natural sable, but know that artificial will work, as well.  The main thing is that you need to make sure the brush will hold a VERY find point when it is loaded with paint.  None of the three brushes I show were very expensive, so price isn’t a factor, either.

    Now, you need your paints.  I tend to use Winsor & Newton (W&N) gouaches,  so they are the  only ones  I can  honestly talk about… but, I don’t by any means say they are the only ones you can use.  I prefer either Spectrum Red or Cadmium Red Deep for my red, Cobalt Pale Hue for my blue, and you MUST use either Permanent White or Titanium White for whitework, no matter which brand.

      I always add a drop (off the end of a brush) of gum arabic to my paints when I do the initial mixing, mainly because W&N tends to skimp on it in their tube gouache for shipping, but they add a bit more glycerin, so you need to remove it as you squeeze color out of the tube.  I usually have either a cloth or a Kleenex handy just for this process.  Mix your paint up thick enough to cover yet thin enough to flow through your brush… the white will be the most difficult to get right… kind of like thin cream, but not as thin as milk.

     Now, you need learn to hold your brush just right.  Start off holding it as if it was a dart and you are aiming at the dart board.  Try to keep that hold and set the brush to an almost 90° angle to the paper like I show you here…   Try not to rest your weight heavily on the heal of your hand, but rather use your little finger for balance.  You  want to be able to smoothly “glide” your hand when doing long lines in bar illuminations.  I find it easiest to do this from left to right, but you will need to find your own way of doing it… it may be easier for you to move from top to bottom, or if left handed, from right to left.   I recommend you make a few painted in bars and practice to see just how fine a solid white line you can make.  You also have to have a very light touch…  only  the very tip of the  brush should touch  the  paper,  you don’t want to  put  any weight at  all  on
the hairs.  Another trick I learned is to kind of roll the brush between the thumb and first finger as I draw the line, to keep the tip just barely touching at its most sharpest point.  This takes practice, so don't try it on an important piece until you have learned how to do it!!

     Now we get to the meat of how to do whitework.  I have found there are two kinds of whitework out there…  you’ll find one that starts out with a light shade of the initial color, then the full shade of it is painted over that.  You need to be able to visualize exactly where you want your whitework to go with this technique, and be sure the lighter shade shows up in those places.


Fig. 1.  Light shade
Fig. 2.  Dark shade added to light

Fig. 3.  Whitework started
Fig 4.  Whitework completed

      As you can see above, you start painting the light shade, then you have to do the voided darker shade.  Be sure the paint is dry (at least an hour, or more) before you start doing the whitework on it.  Be creative, there are all sorts of different designs you can play with. 

       The other technique is done with the main color and whitework on top of it.  This is probably the easier technique to do, but it still requires a bit of practice.  See below.


Fig. 4.  Base color
Fig. 5.  Outline of design

Fig. 6.   Use water to soften design
Fig. 7.   Go back over design with white

      Two of my most favorite designs for inside a letter are the ribbon and the acanthus leaf... here are examples of how to do each of them:


Fig. 10.  
First step, basic lines to start the ribbon
and acanthus leaf whitework.
Fig. 11.
Second step, rough in the shapes
of the ribbon and acanthus leaves

Fig. 12.
Third step, add a little dimension...
the back part of the ribbon goes from the
outer edge to the inner bar and the inner
bar to the outer edge.
Fig. 13.
Fourth step, use the background color
to fill in the bar on the outer part of the
ribbon; draw in the veins and dots of
the acanthus leaves






                                 Fig. 14.
     Fifth step, final shading with white and some
     water to finish off the look of a real ribbon
     and give depth to the leaves.

       Using this same basic technique, here is another style you can do… as you can see, this one has two colors inside the illuminated area, the white is used to separate them, and then the whitework is used to accentuate the design, following the contours of the painted area around the gilded letter (don’t just use straight lines for the outer edges of the color block, but feel free to use kind of little cut-outs at the edges like they did).  In Fig. 8, I've started the whitework very tentatively to give you a clue of how to start roughing your design in, then in Fig. 9, I used a bit of water here and there to fill in details as needed.


Fig. 8.  Basic start, rough outlines of the design
Fig. 9.  Completed design

       Whitework bars can also be loads of fun to play with.  I’ve done up a few in color for you here.  My two most favorite manuscripts for whitework bars are the Macajowski Bible and Gaston Phebus’ Book of the Hunt.   The latter also has some great diapering (which also requires a bit of whitework finesse). 



      Below is a practice page... just print just it out as a single page onto either Bristol Board or card stock (regular printer paper will warp a lot on you when you apply paint to it).  Paint it with your favorite colors (blue and red were the most commonly used colors for this style of illumination) and then practice doing whitework on it.  Cut on the dotted line in the center, so you will have two copies.





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