Once upon a Medieval time

…there existed Early Christian and Late Antique art, Byzantine art, African Medieval art, Migration Period through Christianisation, Insular art, Islamic, Pre-Romanesque, Romanesque, Gothic,…art. From ivory reliefs (run elephants run), paintings on wood (hide trees hide), silk (slither silk worms slither), ground gold (run hither), wall-paintings with big eyes (aliens visiting) and then we start into the jewels and things I definitely can’t make.

Words that jumped out at me: Catacombs. Runestones. Crypt. Antiquarians. Abby. Relic.

The Rules.

(this ‘rules’ reminder is for my benefit).

1. Weed (original photo to digital painting).
2. Apply to movement, colour alteration OK (opt. deconstruct with all elements included somewhere).
3. Miscell.

Goal 80% achievable:

Since we are going Medieval this month, I should be looking at dark imagery (my favourite), biblical subjects (blood, sweat, and tears), classical mythology (cool), and Gothic architecture (oh yeah). Did I ever say I’m an otherworldly fan?

Anyhoo. While I think this goal is quite achievable, I’m seeing a slight flaw in my otherwise brilliant plan. How to make my weed look gothic without relying heavily on digital art? And the same issues for Mythological? Dark? Even biblical? Hmmmmm…. Out of all my studies, I think Insular art might be doable—fancy text and big initials (that emdash was not generated by AI). Even this I won’t be using wood blocks or metal plates etc. I was going to do a runestone and stick my weed on it with some runic inscriptions, but it just felt lazy, even to me.

Ah, September! I should not have chosen Medieval this month, not with Halloween coming up in October.

What really happened 50%:

I see a pattern where I rely heavily on digital art using my iPad and Procreate software. And while I’d love to really investigate the art movements by reproducing work that genuinely represents the art of that time… I just can’t and don’t have the time or money. I’d gain a much deeper understanding of the way art was produced at the time, but my appreciation for the principles that govern artistic expression, such as beauty, art and taste (aesthetics), is still valid.

Some characteristics of Insular art that I’ve tried to emulate (follow):

• Abstraction (sort of met)
• Focus on linear pattern and rhythmic form over three-dimensional space and perspective (yeah, maybe)
• Colourful surfaces (yeah, damn it (I wanted dark and mysterious))
• Knotwork, zoomorphic patterns, and interlacing motifs (no meaning behind my motifs, no knots)
• Historiated initials (I used an initial letter and decorated it with designs representing scenes from the text… sort of met, but I can see that if I had time, how I could really give meaning to my historiated initial)

Here it is (not dark but downright perky – what’s wrong with me?):

The above is based on this public domain image from Wikipedia:

Technical

I thought to add this section in for those interested in a technical side of my work presented here.

Dimensions 2064px x 3047px (physical 397mm x 586mm)

DPI (dots per inch) 132 (I have no intention of printing this)

Max layers on Procreate for this work was set at 162 and I used 130 with 24 layer groups.

Colour profile was sRGB (standard Red Green Blue)

Strokes made 500 and it took me 5 hours and 41 minutes.

Brushes used: Technical Pen (Inking), Myrtle (Vintage), Pollen 3 (Effortless Flower brush)

Benefits

While I’m not spending the time I’d like to, I am finding that actually trying to capture some of the characteristics of an art movement and trying to mimic something I like, that I can do in the time I have available, does impact my artwork. I’m picking up some ideas, skills and knowledge which I hope will provide me with an art style that is unique to me.

See ya next month.

PS. Binary for this month – red and green (I know, I’m stretching the whole concept of binary opposition here)