About
I began to immerse myself in Celtic art back in the 1980's. Partly because of my participation in a historical research and recreation group, but mostly because I enjoy and appreciate all the forms of Celtic art.
Participation in the historical research and recreation group also provided me with access to a large group of people with similar interest in Celtic art. Which in turn provided a greater understanding not just of Celtic art but also what was lacking in modern Celtic art.
If you take a really good look at ancient works, not artist renderings of these works. You'll see that every matching line or arc are drawn exactly the same. They are also precisely mirrored in its adjacent counterpart. This balance or symmetry is as much a part of the art form as the interlacing of the strands.
This balance and symmetry is unobtainable using the freehand drawing methods being taught because they lack the fundamental basis of Celtic art, and that is geometry.
Celtic art forms are geometric art and cannot be properly drawn without the geometry.
Below is a sample of a common design. It is reproduced in a number of books and people have used it to decorate all sorts of items. It is drawn freehand, without any true understanding of geometry and geometric techniques.
As you can see it's kind of clunky and asymmetrical (for more on this visit our Celtic Art Styles page).
Drawings and drawing styles like this led me to develop a technique for drawing Celtic knot works using geometry.
Here is what the above design looks like when drawn using proper geometry.
Since developing this geometry based technique I have been drawing, painting, carving, and making things with Celtic knot works and Celtic art with a higher degree of accuracy, symmetry and quality then can be obtainable elsewhere.
These Celtic knot work designs are being made available to you here. To learn more about the Celtic knot work designs available here on CelticKnotworkDesigns.com and how we create them visit our Celtic Art Styles page.
The Thor's Hammer
Thor was of course one of the most famous characters in Celtic and Norse mythology. Normally Thor's hammer is depicted as having a large rectangular head.
I had to take some artistic license with the symbol to make it fit into the logo for the site. There are two small copies of it in the site logo.
I had to draw it with the head curved to match the curvature of the knot work in the logo or it wouldn't fit. Not only not fit physically but stylistically as well.
You'll also notice this stylized Thor's hammer is used as the site's favicon. The favicon is the little icon that appears next to the site name in the browser tab. The favicon is also the only thing you will see in the browser tab if you have a lot of tabs open.
On the Personal Side
This funny little guy will be showing up in places and I wanted to let you know about him.
This was my original art signature / logo. I created it back in the 1970's to sign and identify my work.
It is made from my initials S P M for Sean P. Murray.
The M is the most obvious as the forehead. The S is not as obvious because it creates the ear and hairline. The P is in there as his nose and part of the face line.
It started out as just my first (S) and last (M) initials connected like this.
Then one day I realized it looked incomplete, that the open end of the S had to connect to the open end of the M to close the design. Like this.
As soon I connected the two I realized it looks like a hairline and that my middle initial (P) would be perfect as the nose.
The line of the P was extended so the rest of the face (eye and mouth) could be added to complete the design.
And that is how this funny little guy came to be my personal art signature / logo back in the 1970's.
I retired this little guy when I started immersing myself in Celtic art back in the 1980's. He didn't fit with the new style, especially with the big hair of the 70's and 80's going out of style.
It's time to bring this little guy out of retirement.
Part of the reason being that these days you cannot have just a website to have a web presence. You have to have a presence on several of the social media platforms, sell through several of the popular marketplaces in addition to a website if you are to have a web presence.
Compound that with my wife and I intend to share as much of our combined knowledge and experience with you online. Each subject will be the focus of a separate website and web presence.
We need a single logo that can be used in all or as many of these places as possible to link them all together so you will know that it all comes from us.
