In fact, the qualities of good illumination are the same as _the qualities of good writing--Simplicity, Distinctiveness, Proportion, &c._ (see p. 239). And the "convention" (here literally a _coming together_) required is only such as will make the drawing and colouring of the illumination and the form and colour of the writing _go well together_.
NOTE.--Figs. 135 to 141 (woodcuts--with part of the text--from a Herbal printed at Venice in 1571 [p. 369]) and figs. 132, 133, and 134_a_ (wood engravings by T. Bewick, printed 1791) are suggested as examples of drawing--of plants and animals--suitable for book-decoration (see also figs. 134_b_, _c_, _d_; Plates XV., XVI., XXIII., and notes on "limner's illumination," p. 203).
Cultivate the simplest and most direct methods, and make "rules of thumb"[52] for work-a-day use, to carry you successfully through all routine or ordinary difficulties, so that your hand will be trained and your mind free and ready to deal with the harder problems when they arise. [p222]
Use a limited number of pure, bright colours, and keep your work clean, neat, and definite.
Go straight ahead, trusting to workman-like methods, and not calculating overmuch. Do the work in a regular order, settling, first, the general scheme, the size of the book, the writing, and the margins; then when you are ready--
1. Prepare the sheets (see pp. 99, 110, 167).
2. Write the text--leaving spaces for decoration.
3. Write in-- (_a_) The coloured writing. (_b_) The coloured capitals. (_c_) The line-finishings.
4. Illuminate-- (_a_) The Initials. Following a regular (_b_) Line-finishings. order in the various (_c_) The Borders. processes involved.
5. Bind the book (p. 346), or have it bound, in order to make a real and finished piece of work.
Practise an artistic economy of time and space: usually the quicker you write the MS. the better it is. Allow sufficient margins to make the book readable and handsome, but not so wide as to make it appear fanciful. Allow sufficient ornament, not overloading the book with it. Let the ornament be of a type suited to the book and to the subject--not _too painstaking_ or elaborate in an ordinary MS.; not too hasty and slight in an important work.