formal specialist training, 1980–1983

Andrew Jamieson received three years of formal specialist training in heraldic painting, manuscript illumination and calligraphy at Reigate School of Art, completing his Honours Diploma in 1983.

​

It was a rigorous training in disciplines that demand patience, precision and a thorough understanding of traditional materials and methods. Drawing, painting, lettering, gilding and the preparation of surfaces were taught as related skills, each contributing to the creation of a finished work.

​

Those foundations have remained central to Andrew’s professional practice since 1983.

​

traditional materials & methods

Many of the materials Andrew continues to use would have been familiar to craftsmen working in the medieval scriptorium.

​

He has extensive experience in selecting and preparing calfskin vellum for drawing, painting, writing and illumination. Gold leaf may be laid over prepared gesso and carefully burnished to produce its characteristic brilliance, while shell gold — finely powdered genuine gold prepared as a paint — allows much finer details to be worked with a brush.

Calligraphic work may be undertaken with specially prepared goose or swan quills, broad-edged pens and traditional inks. For particular commissions Andrew also works with techniques such as egg tempera.

​

The value of these methods lies not simply in their age, but in the qualities they bring to the finished work: the surface of vellum, the brilliance of burnished gold, the delicacy of a painted line and the unmistakable presence of something made by hand.

​

​

tradition as a foundation

Andrew does not set out to make facsimiles of medieval works.

​

Historical technique provides a foundation rather than a restriction. His training allows the visual language and craftsmanship of earlier periods to be understood and then applied to original heraldic, calligraphic and illuminated work created for the present.

​

More than four decades of professional practice have continually developed those skills. They remain part of the same working tradition in which Andrew was trained: one in which knowledge of materials, disciplined draughtsmanship and craftsmanship are inseparable from design.

​

In 2023 these disciplines came together on an exceptional scale when Andrew was chosen to design the official invitation for the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla.