#lindisfarnegospels — Public Fediverse posts

Orcas and Otters and Eagles! Oh My!

A couple of months ago a reader sent me a photo of a Pictish stone I hadn’t seen.1 It was absolutely crammed with beasts, including two I hadn’t encountered on a stone before (a bear, and a goat—I think), plus two new combinations: a doe and faun, and an eagle eating a salmon.

It’s a puzzling stone because some of the beasties are incredibly lifelike—the bear is easily recognisable, so much so that you can tell it’s a brown bear, and the doe and faun are lovely!—while others are, well, perhaps the kindest way to describe them is ‘stylised to strangeness’. One beast in particular, the goat, is so odd the only reason it could be a goat is the horn.2 And the eagle eating the fish is so stiff I’m guessing the stone mason had never seen such a thing happen in the wild, so they just took an image of an eagle, swivelled it 90 degrees at the hips, and made it look as though it was lying on top of the fish like a toppled tree. (As I’ve noted elsewhere, some Pictish carvers were not very good at depicting animals in motion. Static and in profile? Yes. In motion and/or turned a few degrees? No.)

Still, I really liked that doe and faun, and I thought that if I rationalised the weird goatish beast just a bit it could at least look interesting. And then of course I thought I’d draw my own version of a Pictish eagle, only without the bother of the fish.

So that’s what I did—trying to represent Pictish style but with a slightly more 21st-century sensibility—that is, a sense of personality and a lot more movement:

I admit I completely forgot about the bear. Eh, maybe another time.

But then I started thinking about all the beasties that might, reasonably speaking, be familiar to Picts of the Early Medieval but that aren’t—as far as I know—represented on any stones.3 Things like dolphins and orcas, beavers, lynx, otters…

I’d already tried my hand at the lynx (though sadly that came out rather stiffly—it gave me much sympathy for the poor old stonemasons of yore) so I thought orcas might be cool. And they were! But. And. It turned out to be a bit difficult to render them Pictish style because—having lived in Seattle for more than 30 years—when I think of stylised orcas I tend to think of First Nations/Native American, particularly Coast Salish, imagery.4

Given that both cultures—Picts and Coast Salish—were working with the constraints of two-dimensional sculpture, it’s not surprising that there is a certain similarity between the two art styles. Anyway, to get the influence out of my system I did a version of the Tulalip Casino logo as it might have appeared on a Pictish stone. It’s a male orca (note the shape of the dorsal fin) with classic predator teeth.

Once that was done I felt better and could buckle down to a proper attempt. I wanted a killer whale, one that looked Early Medieval without also looking like the evil, mustachio-twirling villain of a silent movie. Also, given that traditionally female orcas do more hunting, I wanted her to be a girl.

I was pretty happy with that—and I wanted more of a challenge: to draw something more dynamic, less of a simple profile. So then I came up with this.

So now I couldn’t decide which I liked best. They were pretty different in tone: one serious, watchful, deadly; the other playful and carefree. And then it struck me: they belonged together!

When I worked on the hares I managed to get some dynamic figures—but they were still largely in profile. I wanted a really big challenge—and what better beastie to work with than an otter?

Otters, like hares, are very difficult to draw in simple black and white lines. The first few I tried looked like Frankenbeasts: a blend of seal, weasel and beaver. (One unfortunate version was rather like a manatee…) So then I decided to begin with basics: the dreaded static profile. And here I ran into a different problem: they looked like cute cartoons. However, after studying photo after photo of otters in the wild, then one of an otter skeletons, I finally figured out how to draw something recognisably otterly, vaguely Early Medieval, and with some personality: alert, curious, delightful but not too cute…

But it’s still a profile. Yes, I turned the head (I’ve learnt that’s the best way to animate an otherwise stiff pose) and artistically curved the tail but, still: a fucking profile. None of that otterly twisting, turning, diving playful curiosity that is so characteristic. So then the hard work began.

I’ll spare you the litany of woe, the shouting at my iPad, cursing the universe for making such weird and simultaneously delightful animals, and bellowing at the cats when they deleted six minutes work by thoughtfully tapping the wrong icon, and just show you what I ended up with (click through each image to larger versions).

There are things about all three that I like, and things that I can’t figure out how to fix. I experimented with different ways to draw the head, the paws, the limbs. None are quite as successful in their own right as the one in simple profile. If I had to choose a favourite of these three it would be the last—it feels more alive and proportional than the other two.5 I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s also the one that’s least Medievalised. At my level of artistic skill (beginner, self-taught), that mix of Lindisfarne Gospels and Pictish Stones style that I’m fond of does not play nicely with dynamic movement and personality. Could an actual artist do it? Very probably. (And if one of you wants to have a go I would absolutely love to see some otters done right!)

But for now I might be done with drawing. I need to be writing.

1. I’ve searched and searched but can’t seem to find who it was—sorry! ↩︎
2. Hmm. Maybe also that bifurcation in the belly—which I take to be an indication of the anatomy of a ruminant. But, oof, the legs, hooves, and tail… ↩︎
3. Except, maybe, dolphins/Pictish Beasts ↩︎
4. See, for example, this wonderful sculpture from Kwakwaka’wakw Master Carver Bill Henderson. At the other end of the scale you get commercial casino logos, like this one for the Tulalip Bingo & Slots. ↩︎
5. The middle one in particular feels sort of bulgy, not to mention stiff—a bit like a puppet on strings. ↩︎

Phases of George

Happy Çaturday! Today will be all about George, and my different drawings of him reflecting different aspects of his personality.

George, the International Cat of Mystery, is a chameleon. (Being a master of disguise is, obviously, one of the job requirements.) At two months old he was perfectly capable of looking ancient; at two and half years old he was equally good at looking like a bright young kitten, like so:

This was an experiment in the use of different brushes in Procreate.1 Getting his mood right was all about getting the tilt of his head and the four-square forelegs. I love trying to draw him—trying being the operative word because although his features and body ratios have stayed essentially the same the last three or so years, his whole look can change radically. Here he is the same season, looking heavy, emotionally and physically.

Now, at six and half, he and Charlie have finally started to behave like adult predators: they sleep about 92% of the time. Here he is last year:

I decided to use this picture to draw him medieval style for my zoomorphics project:

But well, I got no further than changing his head before it became clear that that untidy legs-and-tail clutter would make the stylised black and white schema I’d chosen to experiment with—spirals to represent joints and triangles for stripes—awkward, so I simplified the pose. Even so, his muscular hip and thigh ended up looking suspiciously like a cartoon ham:

A week or two ago the weather here took a decided turn towards the dark, wet, cold of winter, and since then both beasts have barely moved from their beds (that is, our bed) or chairs (that is, my wheelchair, or my NuStep exercise machine). Their sudden sloth had made me miss their kitten days when their antics were constant, an endless energetic delight: running, leaping, climbing, followed by sudden instant collapse into unconsciousness. As a result I found myself scrolling nostalgically through old kitten photos…

Here’s George at three months old.

I’ve learnt a lot about how to draw Early Medieval style since that first, George-as-ham effort, so I decided to have a go at capturing his kitten-Georgeness. This time I abandoned the Lindisfarne-style head in favour of trying to draw what it actually looked like—ditto the paws—though still in vaguely Early Medieval-style. I kept the Lindisfarne-type inner lines.

I liked that, but then I wondered: How would he look Pictish style?

You’ll note that the two pictures are not identical—and I’m talking more than the Pictish joint curls. The differences are subtle but nonetheless I think they give the two Georges a slightly different feel.

Have fun trying to work it out.

1. These days I use Photoshop almost exclusively—probably because what I’m doing feels much less like representational ‘art’ and more like experimenting with graphic simplicity. ↩︎

#cats #charlie #earlyMedieval #george #kitties #lindisfarneGospels #photos #zoomorphics

The symbols of the four evangelists are explained in a blogpost by #PatriciaLovett, with illustrations from the 12th century #BuryBible (shown below) & the 8th century #LindisfarneGospels:
https://www.patricialovett.com/the-evangelists-symbols/

The symbols of the four evangelists are explained in a blogpost by #PatriciaLovett, with illustrations from the 12th century #BuryBible (shown below) & the 8th century #LindisfarneGospels:
https://www.patricialovett.com/the-evangelists-symbols/

The symbols of the four evangelists are explained in a blogpost by #PatriciaLovett, with illustrations from the 12th century #BuryBible (shown below) & the 8th century #LindisfarneGospels:
https://www.patricialovett.com/the-evangelists-symbols/

The symbols of the four evangelists are explained in a blogpost by #PatriciaLovett, with illustrations from the 12th century #BuryBible (shown below) & the 8th century #LindisfarneGospels:
https://www.patricialovett.com/the-evangelists-symbols/

@magdelenehall Amazing discoveries, thank you for highlighting! I've just ordered Michelle Brown's book, due out 1 Oct: https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/bede-and-the-theory-of-everything

#NewBook #Bede #Lindisfarne #quill #MedievalManuscript #LindisfarneGospels @histodons @bookstodon

@magdelenehall Amazing discoveries, thank you for highlighting! I've just ordered Michelle Brown's book, due out 1 Oct: https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/bede-and-the-theory-of-everything

#NewBook #Bede #Lindisfarne #quill #MedievalManuscript #LindisfarneGospels @histodons @bookstodon

@magdelenehall Amazing discoveries, thank you for highlighting! I've just ordered Michelle Brown's book, due out 1 Oct: https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/bede-and-the-theory-of-everything

#NewBook #Bede #Lindisfarne #quill #MedievalManuscript #LindisfarneGospels @histodons @bookstodon

@magdelenehall Amazing discoveries, thank you for highlighting! I've just ordered Michelle Brown's book, due out 1 Oct: https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/bede-and-the-theory-of-everything

#NewBook #Bede #Lindisfarne #quill #MedievalManuscript #LindisfarneGospels @histodons @bookstodon

#OldEnglish #WOTD: bōc-lēden, n.n: book-language, Latin (since most books were written in Latin). (BOAK-LAY-den / ˈboːk-ˌleː-dɛn)
Image: Lindisfarne Gospels; England (probably Lindisfarne), c. 700; British Library, Cotton MS Nero D IV, f. 27r.
#LindisfarneGospels

#OldEnglish #WOTD: bōc-lēden, n.n: book-language, Latin (since most books were written in Latin). (BOAK-LAY-den / ˈboːk-ˌleː-dɛn)
Image: Lindisfarne Gospels; England (probably Lindisfarne), c. 700; British Library, Cotton MS Nero D IV, f. 27r.
#LindisfarneGospels

#OldEnglish #WOTD: bōc-lēden, n.n: book-language, Latin (since most books were written in Latin). (BOAK-LAY-den / ˈboːk-ˌleː-dɛn)
Image: Lindisfarne Gospels; England (probably Lindisfarne), c. 700; British Library, Cotton MS Nero D IV, f. 27r.
#LindisfarneGospels

#OldEnglish #WOTD: bōc-lēden, n.n: book-language, Latin (since most books were written in Latin). (BOAK-LAY-den / ˈboːk-ˌleː-dɛn)
Image: Lindisfarne Gospels; England (probably Lindisfarne), c. 700; British Library, Cotton MS Nero D IV, f. 27r.
#LindisfarneGospels