[Scriptoris] Gift--diapering grid instructions

[Elaine Crittenden]

Wonderful news! This blonde has finally figured out how to get even 
diapering lines. I give it to you as an Easter/Passover present. (If you
share it, tell the recipient it came from your fellow scribe,

HL Lete Bithespring from Barony of the Steppes in Ansteorra.)

The way to do it is thusly:

The hypothetical project--
You have a 2 inch by 2 inch square with a versal enclosed, and you want
diagonal diapering where the letter is not.

The grid guide overlay¹s construction--
1. Draw an exact 4 inch by 4 inch square and carefully cut it out, keeping
the cuts exactly on the lines. This is to give you ³wiggle room²
for placement of lines on your 2 x 2 square.
2. Turn the square to a 90 degree from horizontal to make it into a diamond
shape.
3. Paste onto a horizontal/vertical grid spaced the distance you want the
lines separated, or draw them, evenly spacing them so they look like quad
(quadrille) paper.
4. Using highlighter markers, color over a line, skip the next, leaving it
the grid color.
5. Change marker color, and color over the third line in the series, leaving
³evens²  plain.
6. Continue lines in a marker, grid line, marker, etc. pattern until the
entire horizontal grid lines are coded.
7. Repeat for the vertical lines.
Reason: Later, when drawing the diagonals, you won¹t get confused as to how
to line up the ruler. Just look for, say, orange highlighted lines on both
sides of the open space over the versal.

8. Using a straight edge or metal ruler and a new Xacto blade, cut out the 4
x 4 diamond to leave a hole that size in the grid.
Hint: put the ruler on the grid and cut inside the diamond which will be
empty. If the knife goes off the line, you won¹t have cut your grid.

9. Turn the diamond hole in the grid another 90 degrees to have it into a
horizontal square again. Now the grid will be the diagonal.

10. Place the square hole on the versal-in-a-square. Line up a horizontal or
vertical line from the grid Œs square with the versal¹s square. Note: It is
more esthetically pleasing to not have the diagonals end in the versal¹s
box¹s corners, unless you are actively reproducing a specific piece of art
work.

11. Using low tack tape (3M¹s #811/Removable or Post-it¹s band of stick¹em),
tape the grid down.

12. Line up the straight edge/ruler with a color coded line or the inter-rim
plain grid lines, and lightly pencil the diagonal lines in the area(s) where
you want to have diapering guide lines.

Voila! Done!! Now to the fun part--the painting...