St. Patrick's Day Gift - The Book of Kells

[Dan Seese]

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Trinity College has announced that the Book of Kells is now viewable in the library's online repository. I've written an article about The Book of Kells (where I also provide a link to Trinity's repository):
http://www.danseesestudios.com/blog/201 ... f-the.html

Or just go directly to the Trinity College link and lose yourself in the beauty of this ancient hand lettered & illuminated manuscript:
https://tcld.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/b ... ew-online/

[BruceJackson]

Thanks Dan, great link.

The Book of Kells is one of those keystone pieces of work that always surprises and inspires. Every time I look at an image from it, I'll be shaking my head in amazement and appreciation, thinking, wow, I want some of that. I want to be able to do that.

I have a useful book called "Celtic art - the methods of construction" by George Bain.

It's a good reference for lots of historic examples and he takes you through his very simple and logical method for drawing complex knotwork. Starting with drawing dots in a geometric pattern, drawing lines between then, then expanding those lines with outlines and overlaps.

[Terry Colley]

That's a great link Dan
The library at Trinity is well worth a visit if you go to Dublin, I was lucky in that my eldest daughter did her degree at Trinity so we visited the library several times over the 4 years she was there. As a student she could get us in for free, the book itself is in a low light room for conservation reasons and they change the pages on a regular basis. This also provides a good excuse to visit the Dublin pubs with some fine gilded mirrors and of course a pint or two of the black stuff
Cheers Terry

[Dan Seese]

Hi Bruce,
I know what you mean about shaking your head in amazement. The tiniest details are so intricately woven with knots, animals, people . . . One of the things I love about the online version is that you can zoom in so closely.
I have the George Bain book you're referring to and have used the dot construction method. I've also just drawn my lines in pencil, and then after figuring out the correct ins & outs, I complete it in pen. Though, I think for more intricate work the dot method works best.

Terry -
What a treat that must have been to have a 4-year excuse to regularly imbibe in the Book of Kells, gilded pub mirrors of Dublin and drawn Guinness pints. Those three items are at the top of my list if I can ever get myself over to the Emerald Isle.