"Bilbo's Last Song" took about two days. The first day, I laid the wash--which took several tries until I got one that looked just so, to suit me. While I waited for it to dry, I worked on rough drafts and pencil layouts.

The second day I wrote it out on graph paper, using the nibs I planned for the completed project. I used a light table to trace over it in order to rule faint pencil guidlines on the prepared background, and also used the pencil to trace the first letter of each line. The actual calligraphy itself took only about an hour.

The "Sting inscription" took me about four hours, and about three tries, before I got one I was satisfied with enough to paint the illumination. And then maybe another hour to paint it.