This design was traced from an illuminated medieval manuscript and elaborated on with my own style. I used complementary colors blue and orange with yellow accents for a vibrant effect. The Celtic knot in the center anchors the piece.
These are based off an old manuscript (and I wish I could remember which one) and since I did them digitally I could easily change the colour scheme. These are for my online shop on Zazzle, for cards and such where customers can put their own text inside the border. Since blue and green are my favourite colours I usually stick with those in my designs but I did a red version for a change.
Sea-inspired border
This is a version of a ‘carpet page’ decoration in the Book of Durrow, an 8th century illuminated manuscript from the British Isles done in the Insular style. Carpet pages were pages where the illumination filled the entire space rather than having a mixture of writing and painting, and also the image looks rather like a carpet.
One day in December a couple years ago, I was passing by a home furnishing store in my town and noticed a gorgeous natural wreath made with dried oranges and cinnamon sticks. It really caught my eye and I went home to find a reference photo and start a digital painting of it. Here is the result.
I just love Celtic knot designs so much! The possibilities are endless. I have been experimenting with colours. Here I used three shades of both the blue and the brown which seemed more interesting to me than just flat even colour.
Happy 2018! I usually go to bed relatively early on New Year’s Eve for some reason.
Trying to get back to my artwork after the holidays is a little difficult since my kids have been off school since the 22nd of December and it’s HARD to get things done when they’re home all day. However, I managed to eke out this design the last few days and am happy with it. I will put it on some products in my Zazzle shop and hope it sells!
The design comes from a medieval Greek illuminated manuscript that I adapted to make more Scottish.
Letizia Morley - ARTIST 