The Book of Kells is one of the all time great illuminated manuscripts. It has come down to us from the beginning of the 8th C. It is replete with enchanting people and animals engaged in all sorts of shenanigans. It has a decorative style in keeping with my own. When I was looking at it on my iPad app one day, I realized, "This is my model! This is the container for my idea!" I was immediately able to see images of the four angels with those wide eyes, poker faces yet totally engaging expressions, curling manes of hair, long thin fingers, in variously colored and patterned garments. I did not have to be well versed in anatomy to draw these figures. But I did need to study the style more closely...
Questions arose: How are their faces drawn? In what way does the body show underneath the clothing? How are folds in the garment depicted? How do their hands 'hold' items? Did their wings look like bird wings? These questions took me back again and again to studying the book. I tried some preliminary drawings. For these sketches, I use a program called "Paper by 53" on my iPad.
Here is one of the preliminatry sketches. He looks to me (if I may be so grandiose) to be the Book of Kells meeting Picasso!
But now, I had what I needed to enter into the next Kabbalistic "world:" the realm of Formation---picking up the medium and beginning to acutally form the work!
Next: "Drawing the First Draft."
