Watercolour on Vellum

The first portrait miniatures were painted by artists trained to illustrate hand-written books. They used similar materials and techniques, painting in watercolour on vellum, a fine animal skin (shown right, A). The Elizabethan miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard particularly recommended painting on the skin of an aborted calf, which was hairless and very smooth.

The vellum was stuck to a playing card for extra support using starch paste. It was smoothed down by rubbing with a burnisher (shown right, C) a dog's tooth set in a wooden handle. The playing cards (shown right, B) were made from pasteboard (sheets of paper glued together). The translucent vellum was stuck to the plain side to give it a white colour.

In the 16th century most miniaturists prepared their own paints. Pigments were made from minerals, natural earths, plants, insects, and gold and silver leaf, or manufactured artificially. They were ground to a fine powder and bound with gum arabic. These ingredients were then mixed with water in mussel shells which made convenient little pots.

Miniaturists used brushes made out of squirrel hair set in quills and mounted on wooden handles. To polish the gold and silver used to paint the jewels and inscriptions, they used a small stoat's tooth set in a wooden handle.

Some of the materials and tools are shown below, click on the images for larger versions.