There are days I simply paint with nothing particular in mind. Here I am using walnut ink and watercolor, making calligraphic strokes and filling in the spaces with different colors. I love how the walnut ink spreads into the wet paint.

I scan the painting and in Photoshop I move things around, stretch areas, and crop till I have a border with the feel of a landscape painting. I overlay a page I had made with the scanned images of the edges of a sheet of
Arches 140 lb hot press watercolor paper. This makes the impression of torn paper over the background.

Here is a close-up of a corner.

I draw a Versal L to use for the first word, Lord, reminiscent of Initial Letters of old manuscripts.

I outline the letter in Photoshop and place it over an area of painting to get the painted letter.

Since this is designed as a work for reproduction, my final letters are more important than lettering the whole piece without a mistake. So if I don't like the look of a letter, I letter it again, and again, and again. Whatever it takes, really.

Some letters I underline to remind me that is a good one. Eventually, I get them all done. I am lettering these about twice the size I actually need them. These are 1/4" tall.

Obviously, "g's" give me a hard time, but I persist. And I don't just do one good letter and replicate that. Every letter is hand-crafted, otherwise it becomes typography instead of calligraphy.

Here are the letters, cut and pasted in Photoshop, selected and painted brown.

A close-up of the final letters.

I add a small bit of decoration. Using the stamp tool in Photoshop I click on an area of real gold leaf adhered to paper
and copy it onto my leaf in black to make the leaf look like it was made with gold.

Here is the final piece, now printed and matted and ready to show.

It is also available as a framed print. 12-3/4" x 15-3/4" solid wood frame, archival paper, ink and mats.