Rebecca Bashara is my WAW Artist of the week. I've seen her work for years at the Metal Guilds Show each spring. Each time I see her stuff I'm more and more impressed. It's gorgeous in person. She does amazing work. Check out her web-site to see more.
I was asked for a bit of clarification on my last Celtic Knot Tutorial. The question was about the 4 dotted diamonds where you would insert 2 parallel lines verses the 3 dotted diamond which are left alone. I did this small, all on one page, knot to hopefully help illustrate this a bit better. The box on the top left only has the divider lines and border lines.
The second and third boxes on the top line (pictured above) have the dot that is added to each square box. I've numbered a few of the dots and traced around one 4 dotted diamond (add 2 parallel lines) and one 3 dotted diamond (always next to a border or divider line). The two parallel lines are added every single instance where there is a 4 dotted diamond. This will basically be the whole knot with a few exceptions along the border and divider lines.
The boxes on the bottom row show the lines being connected to complete the knot and all the dead space around the knot is filled in. I did this knot all in pencil and have squared off all my turns so you can really see how each dead space around the knot are little squares.
Looking at my stats on Typepad (just as addicting as ego surfing), I've noticed that the first Celtic Knot tutorial that I did is by far the post with the most visits. Because of that, I had been wanting to post another tutorial. Then I had someone ask for help and I figured now was the time.
This tutorial will be similar to the last one just because it's the same method. This knot is a lot more complex than the first one I did. I also added color to have the pattern pop out more. I'm hoping this shows you how limitless the possibilities are. The picture above is the finished project. You will find that this knot is not perfect. You can see small errors where the pen got away from me or ink from the markers bled to another section. These are things that I can live with. With practice (I'm still practicing) these will become few and far between. I think these imperfections add character to the piece.
The supplies you will need are few. You will need a pencil with a good eraser (I prefer mechanical pencils to get a consistent line), ruler (I used a quilt square ruler), fine tipped pen (sharpies work well, but they can bleed a bit) and dot paper. You can download this graph paper program which will supply you with oodles of free graph and dot paper. Scroll to the bottom of the web-site and pick the very last option called Graph Paper Printer Program Version 4.21 created by Phillipe Marquis. Once this small program is downloaded to your computer, you can make graph and dot paper forever. I have looked at other graph paper sites on the internet and this is still by far the best one out there. That's it; that's all you need to get started.
I'm using paper that has dots 10mm by 10mm. This is a great size to learn on. Personally, I usually use dot paper that is 5mm by 5mm. The person who emailed me for help wanted to know how to create a knot that is 14 dots by 14 dots, so that is what I'm using as my example. Let's begin.
Easy enough, right? It really doesn't get much harder than this.
All the character of your knot will come from the divider lines. The more lines, the more complex your knot will be; which makes it more eye catching. There is only 1 rule: No diagonal lines. You can have lines butt up against the borders, blocking off sections, and as long or as little as you'd like. Again the possibilities are endless. I will usually sit with the square for a bit before adding lines. I add a few, wait and then add more. I tend to be a very symmetrical person. You can branch out and try all kinds of different things with your divider lines.
Next you will put a dot in the middle of each 4 dotted square. This will turn your big squares into smaller diamonds. I've tried to find dot paper that does this for me (yes, I'm that lazy), but all that I could find made the diamonds very oblong and not suitable for Celtic Knots. Dots will only go in the center of complete squares. If you have a 3 dotted triangle, no dot is needed. You can add these dots before adding divider lines. I almost always do this after the divider lines because there will be less dots to create. I eyeball my dots. The more precise your dots are, the more precise your knot will be.
Now you are ready to draw the lines that will form your knot. Start by picking any diamond. Draw two parallel lines just inside the dots. (The closer the lines are to each other, the narrower your knot will be. There is no harm in this. If that's the look you are going for, great. Just stay consistent.) You will draw two parallel lines in every single diamond. The key to this is that your parallel lines will go in the same direction in every OTHER diamond. I usually draw all the parallel lines that go in one direction all at the same time. Then I turn the page and add parallel lines going the opposite direction. The end goal is to create a cross hatch pattern. You will not put anything in the 3 dotted triangles.
Next you will draw your knot by simply connecting all the lines. The picture above shows this step about 3/4's of the way done. Looking at the lines that still need to be connected, you can get a sense of how they will be drawn. Remember with Celtic Knots all lines go over and under. You have a problem if you have two overs together or two unders together. This usually means there is an error with your cross hatch pattern. The beauty of using pencil is that it's easy to fix these sort of small problems. When you come to a divider line or a border line, your knot will need to turn. The outside line of the curve will remain straight and it will butt up against the divider or border line. The inside line of the curve will turn to connect with the line that is waiting for it. Your turn will be at a 90 degree or a 180 degree angle. Your turns can be nice square angles or natural curves. (For this piece I tried to stay with square 45 degree angles. The 180 degree turns are very curved.) The dead space between the lines of the knot should form little squares. The nice thing about connecting all the lines in the knot after completing the cross hatch pattern is that you've already done all the work. You are just connecting all the pieces. There is no guess work involved at all.
Looking at my design, I decided to make the small individual loops blue to help those areas stand out. You can keep this black and white if you prefer. I outlined all of the other lines in black. This is where you can fix lines that weren't drawn straight. You want the knot to appear to be continuous, so try to draw your lines as uniformly as you can.
Now that the knot has been completely outlined, erase all pencil marks. I always find spots that I missed outlining when I erase the pencil. Simply add in any missing lines.
Fill in all of the dead space around the knot. This will create the contrast to make your knot stand out. It will also hide all the dots on your paper. This is a great activity to do when watching a movie. It's pretty mindless filling in all of the little squares. You can leave the knot as is and be done. You can color in a few of the intertwining knots as I did in the very top picture. Since all the dots are now covered, you can cut this knot out and frame it, make a card, etc.
Here is the list of bulleted items from above that you can use as an instructional cheat sheet.
Thus concludes this tutorial on drawing a Celtic Knot. I would love to hear feedback from you. Send me a photo of your knot. What worked and what didn't? Did additional questions/problems come up? You can take these instructions and create a knot of any shape or size. It doesn't have to be a square. By changing where you put your divider lines, the pattern of your knot will change. Try it out and have fun!
Welcome to my very first tutorial! I've been wanting to post this for some time, and now the time has come. My mom and I took a class many, many years ago on how to draw Celtic knots. I have been drawing them ever since. It's actually super simple to do and the possibilities are endless. Any one can do this, you don't need artistic ability. Believe me, I can barely draw a straight line.
You will need very few supplies. You will need a ruler, a pencil (I prefer mechanical ones. Don't be jealous of my fancy Sudoku pencil....Thanks Karen!), a pen (fine tipped Sharpies work great), and paper. You can use graph paper, but I prefer to use dotted paper. You can download a free graph paper program here. Scroll to the bottom of the web-site and pick the very last option called Graph Paper Printer Program Version 4.21 created by Phillipe Marquis. Once it's downloaded to your computer, you can make endless graph paper. This program has an option to print dotted paper. The paper I'm using for this tutorial has dots 10mm by 10mm.
The first step is to draw a box the size you want the Celtic knot to be. I made my box 7 dots by 7 dots. See this is easy, you can do it!
The next step is to put in some divider lines. This makes the knot much more interesting. If there are no divider lines, you will still end up with a knot, but not a very fun knot. The only rule for drawing dividers is never (and I mean never) draw a diagonal line. Stick to horizontal or vertical lines. You can draw your lines anywhere and you can put in as many as you would like. Experiment a little, you really can't go wrong. For this tutorial, I tried to keep it simple.
The next step is to add a dot into the middle of each dotted square. This turns your big square boxes into little diamond boxes. You can add the middle dots before making divider lines, but I found that if you make your divider lines first, there are less dots for you to create. I ended up adding a couple extra divider lines to make the end knot a little more interesting. Yes, you can make divider lines that butt up against the border. I free handed all the dots trying to make them even, but not being too worried about it.
Here is the meat to your knot. The next thing you will want to do is draw parallel lines in each of the diamond boxes. The key here is that you will draw parallels that go the same direction in every OTHER box. You will only add parallel lines to a fully completed box. You can see where there are divider lines or border lines, there are 3 sided boxes. Since it's not a 4 sided box, you will not draw any lines in these boxes. I usually draw all the lines that go the same direction all at one time. You can keep changing direction if that's easier for you. It doesn't matter where you begin your parallel lines nor does it matter which direction you start.
As you can see here, after completing all the lines in one direction, I came back and drew parallel lines in the other direction. This makes a cross hatch sort of design.
Next you will simply connect all the lines. Remember in Celtic knots the lines always go over and under. If you find you are drawing two overs or two unders, then an error has occurred. Usually this is due to miss drawn parallel lines. Check your cross hatch pattern to make sure the lines change direction every time. The cross hatch pattern will give you this natural over and under flow. Once you get to a divider line or a border line you will round the corner to join up with another group of parallel lines. Celtic knots are never ending, so don't dead end at the border. Sometimes it will be a 90 degree turn as in the sides of the border. Other times it will be a 180 degree turn as in the corners of the border. When you make the turn, there will be a line waiting to be connected. I know this sounds tricky, but it's really pretty simple. The lines pretty much pave the way for the design. As you can see some of my lines are fatter than others. This will all be smoothed out in the next step.
Once all of the lines have been drawn, take your pen and copy over your pencil lines. You can use a ruler to get perfectly straight lines. I used a ruler for half of this knot, but it was taking to long and I grew impatient, so I free handed the rest. Also, it's hard to judge where to end your line with the ruler, so I made a couple little mistakes where my line crossed over another. You can eyeball the lines to be drawn to help even out where some lines are thicker or thinner than others. This is the time to try to be uniform. The perception is that this is one solid knot. So try to make your turns uniform with others and also try to make lines that bump into each other square. Practice will definitely help with this. You can see how my lines are not uniform the entire time, but they are much closer than when I drew them in pencil.
The last step to your knot is filling in all the little boxes to make the knot pop out. This is another place to help even everything out. Once all the boxes are filled in, erase the pencil marks and you are done. You can draw in the divider lines. I choose on this knot to erase those lines (see first photo). Drawing the divider lines will just add a new look to your knot. You can also round your corners if you don't like the pointed look. Really anything is possible now that you have learned the basic steps. You can make your box any size or shape, just remember they need to be horizontal or vertical lines. No diagonal lines. You can draw as many divider lines as you like. Have fun with it!
If you get stuck on a step or my directions make absolutely no sense (I'm thinking the latter is probably going to be more true) email me for help. I would love to hear feedback from folks who have tried these instructions.
F**K - A Documentary (****)
Control (****)
Under the Greenwood Tree (***)
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (*****)
