Studio blog: Celtic knotwork challenge

I recently took part in a Celtic knotwork challenge set by Nancy of I Teach Tangling, who put out 6 different knotwork grids over the course of 12 days, for Celtic knot artists to interpret as they wished. If you look closely, you’ll see that each piece has slightly different layouts, and these were determined by the grids Nancy created.

This was a great challenge to take part in, as I really enjoyed playing with different materials and methods of colouring in than I normally would. The first two days are drawn in my normal style, of pen and Derwent Graphitint pencils, then on day 3 I played with Koh-i-Noor Magic pencils, day 4 I used Daniel Smith watercolours with pencils, day 5 I used an Art Graf watersoluble pencil, and on day 6 I used a non-branded watercolour with Derwent Inktense pencils.

For those who haven’t studied Celtic knotwork, the grid forms the base of most knotwork, and artists use this as a base to form their own knotwork. There were lots of different styles by different artists taking part in the challenge (I was taking part on Instagram), and it was great to discover some new artists through it.

Thanks to Nancy for organising this, it was lots of fun!