 What are illuminated manuscripts?
The Book of Durrow is one of the earliest known illuminated manuscripts from post-Roman British Isles. But what is an illuminated manuscript? The term “manuscript” is literally translated to hand (manu) written (script). In the dawning days of Christianity, religious texts were written or copied by hand priests and monks. These texts usually focused on the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but could include material like special prayers and excerpts from the Bible. The texts were initially handwritten but, over time, they became more structured and elaborate. These religious manuscripts became works of art, their pages filled with colorful and brilliant images and lettering. These illuminated manuscripts contained carpet pages, full pages filled with intricate text, artistic details, and gold leaf. The term “illuminated” refers to the gold or silver leaf used to make the page shine, allowing the book to be seen from a distance and dazzling the audience.
0 Comments
 Triangles are the perfect shape to use as a guide for drawing triquetras. The triangle’s shape provides the template for the loops, determining the shape and size of the finished design.
In today’s drawing tutorial, we will use an equilateral triangle, a compass, and a bit of freehand to create a triquetra (or trinity knot) that is even on all sides. This drawing project is similar to a previous tutorial with three overlapping circles. So grab your drawing supplies and let’s get started!  A triquetra (or trinity knot as it’s sometimes called) can be a handy design element to put in corners as a stylish way to fill space. In this tutorial, we will draw a triquetra using a right-angle triangle that puts the point of one loop into the 90˚ corner. No special supplies are needed for this tutorial, just a pencil, eraser, paper, and a straight-edge. But if you are not using grid paper a T-square or L-square might come in handy. If you don’t have grid paper or a T-square use a piece of paper folded into quarters. Remember to draw your triangle and initial arcs lightly as it is only a guide that will be erased. So let’s get to it!  The past few weeks have been dedicated to new tutorials featuring triquetras using triangles as a guide. In this technique, arcs are drawn around a central point. You can certainly find this point using guestimation, but there is a way to find the precise center of the triangle. So today’s blog takes you step-by-step through the process!  If you want to learn how to draw a triskele—like those seen in Ireland—you’ve come to the right place!
In today’s blog, I will take you through a step-by-step process for drawing a basic triskele design. You can then use this simple design as a base for a more complicated design.  In today’s blog, I’d like to walk you through creating a panel with Celtic knotwork inspired by those seen on a Celtic Cross in Clonmacnoise, Ireland. We will draw four 4 x 4 grids that are interconnected using the same repeated design.
 In today’s blog, I will walk you through the steps for drawing a simple triquetra using three circles to get an equilateral shape. There are other methods you can use, such as using a square to map out your angles and intersections, but whichever method you choose, you will end up with the equilateral triangle as the base for this style of triquetra. (There are other triangles and triquetra shapes, but this tutorial is for the triquetra that is even on all sides.) In my method, you won’t draw this triangle, but if you connect the intersections, you will see that they unveil an equilateral triangle.  How to handle corners in Celtic knotwork Drawing borders with knotwork patterns can be a gratifying way to add drama to art pieces, picture frames, mirror frames, and trays. But what happens when you get to the corners? Dealing with corners can be tricky, but there are a few ways to handle this dilemma.  In a previous tutorial, we created a circular Celtic braid. This tutorial will be a simpler version of that design, just a basic twist that I will be using in a new piece of Celtic art—a High Cross.
 This week, I have started work on tutorials for drawing circular Celtic knot borders. Today’s blog post takes you through a couple of drawing tips that could be helpful for you as you follow along with these more complex Celtic design tutorials. Grab a pencil, a piece of paper, something with a straight edge, and a compass, and let’s get started! (Don’t have a compass? Use two pencils tied together with string at a length suitable for your project.)  Hi again everyone! Are you ready for another Celtic drawing tutorial? This one is more complex than the border knots we’ve previously done. If you haven’t seen those tutorials, I suggest you click on the “Related blogs you may want to read” links at the end of this blog before attempting this circular Celtic knot tutorial. This tutorial is more advanced, and it will be beneficial to learn some basics first! Having said that, anyone can do this! I broke the process down into easy-to-digest bite-size snippets so that even a Celtic knot newbie can follow along! There are a lot of steps, so let’s jump right in…  This drawing tutorial is the fourth in a short series of lessons to teach you how to draw a few variations of Celtic border knots. In the previous lesson, we added vertical breaks to a basic braid pattern to create a different knot style. In this tutorial, we will add horizontal breaks to the basic braid pattern to create yet another knot style with a different look. Below is a list of supplies you may want on hand (Amazon affiliate links are included), but you certainly don’t have to have all of these supplies to do this tutorial. Just find yourself a piece of paper, a pencil, and an eraser, and let’s get to drawing!  This drawing tutorial is the third in a short series of lessons to teach you how to draw a few variations of Celtic border knots. In lesson one, we learned how to draw a simple twist. In lesson two, we used a grid system to draw a basic braid pattern. In this third tutorial, we will build on what we have learned to create a variation using vertical breaks. Breaks introduce a level of complexity to the design that adds visual interest. There are many ways to add breaks to a border pattern, but today’s lesson will show you how to add two simple vertical breaks to the braid we have previously drawn. Below is a list of supplies you may want on hand (Amazon affiliate links are included), but you certainly don’t have to have all of these supplies to do this tutorial. Just find yourself a piece of paper, a pencil, and an eraser, and let’s get to drawing!  This drawing tutorial is the second in a short series of lessons to teach you how to draw a few variations of Celtic border knots. In the first tutorial, we used a grid system to draw a simple twist. In this blog, we will build on what we have learned in that lesson to create a braid pattern. The braid forms the building block for many Celtic-style borders. Below is a list of supplies you may want on hand (Amazon affiliate links are included), but you certainly don’t have to have all of these supplies to do this tutorial. Just find yourself a piece of paper, a pencil, and an eraser, and let’s get to drawing!  This drawing tutorial is the first in a short series of lessons to teach you how to draw a few variations of Celtic border knots. This first tutorial will show you how to draw a simple twist. The twist is not a Celtic style, but the tutorial series will build on this simple pattern, creating more complex weave patterns as we go. Twist borders can be found in many ancient art forms, such as Roman mosaics, and are easy to draw. If you use grid paper—or draw out a grid with guidelines—you will get a perfectly symmetrical twist every time! Below is a list of supplies you may want on hand (Amazon affiliate links are included), but you certainly don’t have to have all of these supplies to do this tutorial. Just find yourself a piece of paper, a pencil, and an eraser, and let’s get to drawing!  Image by ajcabeza on Adobe Stock. What would you say if someone were to ask you to describe a fairy? Would you envision tiny winged humanlike beings small enough to fit in the palm of your hand? Sure...this is the image conjured up by the modern mainstream. If you look up the word fairy, you’ll find descriptive terms like diminutive, magical, feminine, imaginary, and supernatural.  Image by Yuliya on Adobe Stock I love the month of March for two reasons—spring and St. Paddy’s Day. Most years, I try to find some cerebral topic to write about for St. Paddy’s Day as a way to embrace my own Irish heritage respectfully…but this year, I thought we’d just have a little fun! No sense in taking ourselves too seriously, right? This year’s topic is fun facts about the little green men. No, not aliens…Leprechauns! What do you know about those little green goblins called leprechauns? Today, I thought I’d give you ten fun facts you can share at that St. Paddy’s Day party!  Celtic knot painted on a decorative tray. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2022. Welcome to part two of my DIY chalk-painted tray project! In part one, I chalk-painted a decorative tray using a “chippy” weathered effect. Now, let's go through the steps I took to design and paint a border around the vertical exterior sides of the tray. This will not be a tutorial on creating Celtic knots—that would turn this blog post into a book (which is in the works, by the way)! The goal is to help you create a simple design that can be traced onto the newly painted decorative tray for a bit more pizzazz.  Celtic Shamrocks Wood Burned Decorative Plate by Di's Studio Designs. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2019. The legend of the shamrock is closely tied to St. Patrick—a man who was born in Roman Britain, lived as a slave in Ireland as a youth, escaped his bondage, and then spent some time back in England, where he seems to have become a Christian missionary or priest. In Part 1 of this project blog I repainted a frame from a mirror I bought at a local thrift shop for dirt cheap. My original intention was to paint a base coat for the reddish undertones I wanted to show through a crackled gold top coat. The end result looked ok…for a different room. The almost solid gold color just looked gaudy in my dining room, even though I have a lot of decorative things with gold accents. This mirror, unfortunately, was just too over-the-top gold. The end result was me painting over it with a new layer of crackle and white craft paint.  Painted frame from the previous DIY project. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021. |
Author
Some of the posts on this site contain affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. 
Categories
All
Archives
October 2024
|
RSS Feed
