Celtic knot designs

Celtic knot designs, or ‘interlace’ as they are also

known, are beautiful examples of eye-trickery
based originally on the form of a plait.

These uniquely flowing patterns seem to have

originated thousands of years ago with the tribes
who came to inhabit Britain before the arrival of
the Romans and, later, Anglo-Saxons. These
earlier Celtic tribes developed the elaborate
‘woven’ patterns which we now see in museums
as decorative elements on surviving objects such
as shields, cauldrons, Celtic stone crosses etc. But
they didn't appear in books during this early
period; there weren't many books in circulation among the Celts then.

But the patterns survived, through the Roman and Anglo-Saxon invasions of the British Isles,
and through huge changes in culture. So it was, by the fifth century AD, that very similar Celtic
knot designs were still known and used during the Anglo-Saxon period. And sometime before
AD700, knotwork designs were adapted to ornament the astonishingly elaborate, luminous carpet
pages and decorated initial letters in Irish Christian and other manuscripts – most famously, the
Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels (as illustrated above).

What is so special about Celtic knot designs?

The mystery of Celtic knot designs, and interlace in general, lies in the seamless perfection of the
finished item, which both baffles and delights the eye and mind with its precisely interwoven forms
and exuberant colour. “How on earth,” one wonders, peering at the elaborate detail, “did they
manage to do all that with just one line?”

This is one of the most intriguing features of many Celtic knots; starting at any point, you can
follow the thread all the way over and under, up and down, back and forth, right round the design
to come back to where you started. It is a lovely metaphor for variety in unity.

It's also an incredibly useful design feature for frames and letter fills.

There is quite a lot of theory out there as to how first the Celts, and then the gospel-decorating
monks, actually laid out the grids and lines to build up the complex, symmetrical patterns of their
carpet pages and huge, flowing letterforms. Did they draw hundreds of little boxes first? Did they
work round dots? Did they use just a few small lines, and were capable of visualising the final
result so clearly that they painted the final design almost freehand? Or did they laboriously draw
all the details in the faintest of greys and then very studiously colour it all in?
Judging by the number of experts who've published different theories about how Celtic knot
designs were originally done, it seems almost certain that different techniques must have arisen in
the various scriptoria among different illustrators. So I say, once you've looked at the theories on
offer, you should feel totally free to either follow them if they work for you, or develop your own.
It's not 'whether you're doing it right' – it's whether it gets the result you want.

I've developed a method that's particularly useful for creating decorative borders, and that can
also be adapted to create infill for large, decorative initials. These are the two main uses to which I
put Celtic knot designs.

Celtic knot designs – ‘knot’ as hard as they look!

O.K., I apologise for that bad pun. But it’s true that the basic ability to draw a Celtic knot design,
like knowing how to write a sonnet, has less to do with inborn talent than with understanding the
underlying principles and practising the skills. With not too much effort, therefore, you can both
grasp the essentials of how any Celtic knot has been designed and also start creating your own
interlace patterns.

So stop wondering and have a go – here are some Celtic knot design how-to pages.

Time to think
Like the Irish monks, all you then need is a little time.

Granted, the ambitious complexity of the Celtic knot designs in the great manuscripts sets a
standard of patience that most of us can only envy – while carefully proportioned mathematical
structures underlie the fabulous panels of knotwork which decorate the carpet pages.

However, depending on how many hours you wish to invest, you can create any number of
extraordinarily elaborate and complex ‘knotted’ designs in a traditional Celtic style. How much time
is enough? Well – half-hours, hours, days or weeks! It comes down to how large your design is,
and how quickly you can draw tiny lines and colour in tiny boxes.

Like calligraphy itself, though, the benefits of drawing interlace are not restricted to the final
product.

As you design and draw your Celtic knots, you may find the process to be a similarly relaxing,
almost meditative activity in which alertness and creativity combine with simple repetitive
movements. It’s a good time to set the world aside and let your mind unhurriedly put its affairs in
order.

But, if you are in a rush, bear in mind that scanners and image software make it easier to
manipulate and reproduce sections of interlace quickly. And any time invested is well repaid if you
keep a master-file of your finished Celtic knot designs which you can then use over and over for
later pieces.

Other traditions of knotwork on the calligraphic page

In fact, knot patterns and interlace of one kind or another are not restricted to the Gaelic Celts or
the early medieval period. Such designs decorate many other artefacts and illuminated pages both
on the Continent and in later ages. Often, they accompany beautiful calligraphy. Perhaps their
latest flowering before modern times in Europe was the white-vine decoration beloved by Italian
Renaissance bookmakers as a border for the period’s exquisitely clear humanistic script.

Islamic art, especially, has a long and parallel tradition of geometrical knotted patterns as part of
architecture, metal decoration, carpet pattern pages in books, and other ornament. In the Islamic
tradition, as in the Celtic, knotwork designs find a kind of culmination in illuminated manuscripts of
sacred texts.

Celtic knotwork designs: bibliographical note for those interested

There are several, only somewhat differing methods which can be used to construct Celtic knot
designs and related patterns. All of them are based on a grid layout and ways of placing diagonal
lines. I don’t go into all the methods here: it’s a big subject with its own specializations and
theories and I don’t claim to be an expert. Like anything else on this site, I’ve presented what
seem to me to be the most immediately workable methods for the needs of an amateur
calligrapher.

However, everyone’s eyes and minds work differently and if you don’t find that the methods
outlined on these pages are sympathetic to your own way of working, you might like to study from
some of the excellent books available on the subject.

(Where possible, I've provided links to the titles in Amazon.com ... I'm working on links to
Amazon.co.uk for my UK visitors! Any proceeds will go towards site upkeep. Don't forget to check
the 'used' section for bargains -- I do.)

I also found that MacKinder’s methods build usefully onto Meehan’s. They go into more depth
without going over my head, and give me a better understanding of how the knots are
constructed. Like Meehan, MacKinder has presented his whole book as a calligraphic work, written
in a narrow but handsome quasi-Carolingian roundhand.

Other works are available, and it is also very useful to possess at least a few facsimile pages of the
original masterpieces from Kells, Lindisfarne and Durrow so that you have an idea of the tradition
in which you’re working. Apart from anything else, they will encourage you to use a palette of
softly variegated colours to balance the absolute geometry which characterises Celtic knotwork
designs.
How to draw Celtic knots
Another valuable calligraphy skill!
If you’d like to know more about how to draw Celtic knots for use in decorative borders,
illuminated letters etc, these pages show you:

• how to draw the basic unit which makes up all Celtic knots
• how to join cords to ‘knot the ends’
• how to repeat units to create twists, plaits and weaving (2, 4, 6 and 8 strands)
• how to create all kinds of patterns in your knots

Here’s the knot I’ll be using as an example. As you work through,

you’ll learn a lot more than just this one knot! You'll practise the
skills you’ll need so as to know how to draw Celtic knots of your
own. You should then be able to design your own page borders, knot
decorations, illuminated letters etc.

Materials
You will need basic art materials:

Pencil, paper, and eraser for the working drawings.

A small ruler for measuring out the squares.
Black (or colour) for filling in your Celtic knot design at the end.

The underlying rules

When you learn how to draw Celtic knots, you’re actually learning how to plait on paper. All Celtic
knotwork or interlace is based on the structure of a plait with (usually) two, three, four, five or six
strands. By interrupting this plait in certain ways, linked knots are created.

The one thing all plaits and weaves have in common is crossed cords (or crossed strands, cables,
strings, lines, strips etc). Cords cross each other, over and under, to make all plaits and interlaced
patterns.

So here’s the first secret – the real starting point for how to draw Celtic knots is not a plait but a
simpler unit – the building block of all Celtic knots: two crossed cords in a square.

How to draw Celtic knots 1: CROSSED CORDS

The basic, underlying unit is ‘two crossed cords in a square’. Here is what it looks like:

Notice which cord is drawn on top. It’s the one starting top left and coming down to bottom right.
That makes this unit a ‘right-handed cross’. It’s called ‘right-handed’ because it looks like your two
forefingers crossed with the right hand on top:
If the other cord were on top, it would be a ‘left-handed cross’. Both are necessary. All Celtic
knotwork consists of lines of right-handed crosses alternating with lines of left-handed. Together,
these construct the ‘over-and-under’ of a woven design.

We’re going to start by using right-handed crossed cords, and add the left-handeds later.

Here’s some good news. If you can draw these two crossed cords in a square well, you can learn
how to draw Celtic knots:

Drawing these crossed cords well means:

• Get used to stopping your lines well short of the box edges. This will be important later on. (I
have actually drawn mine rather too long in these examples, to emphasise the 'cord' look.)
• When you draw the two lines which form each cord, keep them parallel and the same length.
• Make both cords middling fat (for the moment) and the same thickness as each other. A good
guide is to imagine each line originating from a point one-quarter of the way along each edge of
the square, like this:

So, you’ve got the idea of the crossed cords? It’s the first principle you need to know well: these
uniform Xs in boxes are a fundamental building block from which you can create all the knotwork
you like.

Yes, I know it doesn’t look much like how to draw Celtic knots … yet :) But it will, very soon!
Drawing Celtic knots 2: JOINS MAKE KNOTS
I hope that last page about the crossed cords was clear; it'll be used again soon.

For drawing Celtic knots, the next thing you need to know is that you can make the ends of
crossed cords turn and join up with neighbouring cords. When they join, they ‘seal off’ that section
of the interlace. This is the basis of all Celtic knot patterns. (More on this later.)

It’s also the way you tie up the loose ends of a panel or knot at the end of the space you want to
fill.

For example, look at the two ends of the knot to the left.

You can see that the 'in-and-out' section of the knot pauses where
the cords from the top and the bottom join together tidily in a
squared-off loop.

So here is what this page is about: how to join up the ends of interlace to make self-contained
knots.

In order to join cords to finish off the ends of a knotted section, you must create a special space in
which to do so.

This space is a new half-square which you attach to the side of the box where you want the join
to occur.

This is a very useful rule to remember if you’re drawing Celtic knots to fill a panel, border, letter
etc: any junction between cords at the end of a section of knotwork requires a space one-half the
width of the square which the cords cross in.

To put it another way: the square is the basic unit in which cords cross. The half-square is the
basic unit in which cords join to make knots. Squares for weaving. Half-squares for tying up the
ends.

Here are the crossed cords again, now joined up in the half-square on one side:
Notice that the cord-line is quite angular where it tucks into the corners. This is often, but not
always the case in Celtic knotwork.

And here is the basic unit again, now joined up on the other side too:

It’s not a very complicated knot, yet – not much of a knot at all – but it is assuredly an authentic
scrap of Celtic ornament, soundly constructed!

Tips:

• Keep the cord thickness constant. This is important in drawing Celtic knots, and not always easy.
It helps to draw the outer line (nearest the border) first, then the inner.

For the long verticals at the end, remember the cord thickness is roughly a quarter of the original
box width, so roughly one half of the end-box is about right.

• Draw smooth curves. (This is easier if you draw your crossed cords quite short to start with --
even shorter than mine.)

• Make the cords go right up to the edge of the space you’re working in. Merge the outer curve of
the cord with the square outline.

Recap: Crossed cords as the basic unit was the first useful principle. Join ends for knots is
the second.

There are only really two more fundamental principles to grasp in drawing Celtic knots!
How to draw Celtic knotwork 3 – REPEATS MAKE INTERLACE
Happy so far? :-)

This third page on how to draw Celtic knotwork depends on your first knowing about crossed
cords as the basic unit and also how to join cords to finish off a knot.

Now for how to make your Celtic knot literally as long as a piece of string.

The simple crossed-cords-in-a-square unit repeats very easily to create long twists, plaits or
sections of interlace. Here’s the basic two-crossed-cords-in-a-square unit again:

And here is the same, basic unit of the Celtic knot joined up with another, identical unit placed
alongside it:

Notice that when you are repeating units like this, you don’t need to add any extra space in
between in order to join cords (unlike the ends of knots). You just ‘scoop’ the line round and it
joins up. (Joining cords to finish off the ends of knots is covered in more detail back in the second
page of the tutorial.)

So here is the first piece of Celtic decoration that can be made. It's the basic unit joined with
several others to create the simplest possible version of a plait – a two-strand twist:
It’s pretty enough and it makes a nice border; and it’s used in the original Celtic manuscripts to fill
narrow, pointed spaces, as in this example from the Canterbury Codex Aureus:

But it doesn’t look much ... a bit like watching someone juggling two balls. And it gives the
impression you could just unravel it with a flick of the wrist.

Nevertheless, this two-cord twist is a vital step on the way to learning how to draw Celtic knotwork
of far greater scope and ambition.

You can see that some of the same rules apply for repeating a pattern that we saw in joining cord-
ends. It helps if you don’t draw the original crossed cords too close to the edges of the square they
sit in. That way, you can draw smooth curves to join the cords, without kinks or irregularities.

Doubling up a two-strand twist

So far, you may feel that we have twisted lots of bits of string into nothing very impressive in
terms of how to draw Celtic knotwork. But what happens if we repeat the same simple crossed-
cords unit upwardsas well as along?

What you're doing here is running another twist along the top of the one you've already got. Then,
you're simply extending the lines of the bottom row of crossed cords so that they meet up with --
and become -- cords in the top row.

At the edges, cords turn back into the plait again. In the middle, cords keep going in straight lines
if they possibly can.

Like this:

By golly, it’s a four-strand plait! – a section of woven border! Why, that’s almost all you need to
know about how to draw Celtic knotwork!

If you don’t find that exciting … well, fine.

To be serious: this is also the time to notice one very important point which applies to any ‘how to
draw Celtic knotwork’ method:

What goes over must go under; what goes under must go over.

A cord which has crossed over the top of another cord must go under the next cord it encounters,
and vice versa. It’s a strict rule for interlace patterns.

Remember you drew your original two-crossed-cords-in-a-square as right-handed crosses? Now

where your cords join upwards they must form left-handed crosses staggered in between the
original right-handed crosses. Over and under, over and under is the unvarying rule.

Take another look:

So, whenever you find yourself wondering how to draw Celtic knotwork, use the following rules.

If crossed cords are right-handed in the middle of a square, they are left-handed where four
squares meet up (and vice versa, if they’re left-handed in the middle of a square, they’re right-
handed where the corners of the squares meet).

Another way of looking at it is that if the cords cross right-handed along the edge of a plait or
pattern, they’ll cross left-handed ‘up a level and along one’, and they’ll cross right-handed again on
top of that.

If you haven't already done so, now's the time for you to demonstrate how to draw Celtic knotwork
... well, interlace, anyway.

First, draw six squares in a block of three by two:

Add two half-squares down the left-hand and right-hand edges, in which to join up the ends:
Then draw six right-handed crossed cords, one in each box, remembering not to go right to the
edges. (If you’re not sure of this element of Celtic drawing, see the [earlier] tutorial page):

Then draw the left-handed crossed cords that go in between, on top of the places where the
square boxes meet up:

Then join up all the ends along the edges by drawing smooth curves between the outside lines and
then smaller curves between the inside line. This element of Celtic drawing governs the final ‘flow’
of the knot. Keep the cord-width constant:

Then join up the ends in the half-squares. The top cord in the top row joins the top cord in the
bottom row; the bottom cord in the top row joins the bottom cord in the bottom row. Like this:
Check your cords are all going over-and-under-and-over-and-under. If not, check the earlier steps
for where the drawing went wrong, and correct it, or start again.

If all’s well, colour in the little spaces between the cords, and rub out any construction lines (the
lines of the original squares):

Congratulations. You have (I hope) just produced a piece of genuine Celtic drawing. It’s not quite
patterned knotwork yet, but it’s very close indeed, and it's authentic Celtic decoration.

There's one important page left -- on how to draw more interesting Celtic knotwork patterns by
introducing breaks into the weaving.

(And there's one more after that on inking and outlining techniques which you might also find
useful.)
Celtic knotwork design 4: BREAKS MAKE PATTERNS
Interlace all done? Time for a break.

No, not the tea-and-biscuits kind of break!

A ‘break’ is what makes fancy Celtic knotwork design out of plain weaving. Plain interlace does
decorate calligraphy nicely, but when you add breaks it becomes much more exciting.

A break is like a short wall or barrier introduced into the interlace pattern. It is shown during your
drawing process by a line that is at least one whole square long in the grid of squares. The cords
which encounter this break-line in the pattern cannot cross it. Like thwarted worms encountering a
stone in the earth, they are obliged to turn aside:

Where the cords turn, they also meet each other, and then they join to form a closed loop. Various
combinations of these side-turns, new joins and loops create the attractive patterns or knotwork
which are so characteristic of Celtic design.

Here's another illustration below. Look carefully in the middle and you can see a vertical break line.
It's repeated three units to the right. The cords in between, rejoining themselves, form a pleasing
figure-of-eight pattern that repeats as often as the vertical breaks continue to be added.

The idea of the break-line is also the basic principle of joins make knots. Remember the half-
squares you introduced earlier, at the sides of the panel, as spaces in which to join the ends of
cords? The edges of those half-squares are ‘breaks’. The cords encounter these breaks, turn round
and join with their neighbours to re-enter the interlace and seal the knot.

Similarly, when you link cords by drawing curves between the basic units, you are making the
cords approach the edge of a pattern and then ‘bounce’ off it so they flow back into the weave.

In just the same way, as shown above, you make cords form a decorative Celtic knotwork
design inside your interlace by adding an internal break which forces the interlace to turn or
deflect, merge into its neighbour and so weave its way back in and round by a new route.

How to include breaks to make a Celtic knotwork design

Warning: there are any number of ways to add breaks wrongly so you end up with a muddle of
loose ends and cats’ cradle. Not that I would discourage experimenting with it! But by following
two very simple rules, you will save time, effort and paper, and also learn how to draw a Celtic
knotwork design which looks authentically good.

• A break-line positioned on the edge of a square (ie directly on top of a grid-line) must start and
stop half-way into a square (ie between grid-lines).

• A break-line positioned in the middle of a square (ie halfway between grid-lines) must start and
stop on the edge of the next square (ie at the next grid-line).

Here is an illustration:

If you think about it you will see that these half-squares are necessary so that there is always a
space for the cords to manoeuvre around in. That way they can join up and keep flowing along the
pattern.

Of course if you draw a break-line from top to bottom of your knot space, you will separate entire
sections from each other. Then you will end up with a series of separate knots sitting next to each
other – if that's what you want.

All the above breaks and anything similar will work in a pattern – so long as too many breaks
aren't used and they aren't too randomly placed. (Even then, you'll get some interesting effects.)

Below are examples of wrongly positioned breaks which won't work to produce good Celtic
knotwork design. They all disobey the above rules:

By the way, if you want two break-lines to meet, then one must be on a grid-line (edge of a
square) and the other in between.
Here’s another useful tip: use a repeating pattern of breaks and don’t crowd too many in, or else
you will lose the regular ‘woven knots’ effect.

Let’s turn to the example knot and see how a simple break pattern works there to give it that
'croissant' shape, like a fancy belt-buckle:

(By the way, the above knot is found in the Book of Kells and other traditional Celtic knotwork
designs on stone monuments, etc.)

See how there seems to be just one central knot there, a rounded shape with two little 'horns' to it
at the bottom? But that apparently single central section is actually made up of parts of all six of
the basic units of interlace in the layout. By introducing three breaks, you will give it the two
'horns' and separate it from neighbouring units.

It will all make sense!

Here’s the basic interlace layout we’ll start with, in pencil:

You may recognise it as the same structure you drew earlier for the interlace page: three squares
by two, starting with right-handed crossed-cords-in-squares, then with the rest of the crossed
cords filled in.

I’ve shown all the edge-curves joined up so you can see what’s going on, but you’ll probably be
better off eventually just working with the central section of the interlace filled in and the edges
unfinished.

The basic interlace must be correct (over-and-under) before you start. You'll need an eraser, too.

Let's introduce three breaks into the pattern – nothing too fancy:

(Note that the breaks to left and right are on a grid-line, so they end halfway into a square; and
the break in the middle bisects a square, so it ends on the next grid-line.)
Now, rub out the pencil lines which show cords crossing immediately under the breaks. These
cords, instead of crossing, are going to turn and join each other.

Finally, re-shape the lines carefully round the breaks, keeping the curves smooth and sweet, and
tucking the cords in as close to the corners as possible:

Voilà! By looking at your new Celtic knotwork design, I hope you can see how that round,
complete-looking central knot is a kind of illusion. It's actually six units of interlace, massaged into
a Celtic croissant.

At the ends of the knot, you now have a plain cord running top to bottom where the break
prevents the cords from weaving in. This adds to the illusion that the central knot 'happened' as a
complete single unit rather than as a compound weave.

If you wanted a repeating Celtic knotwork design from this, you'd simply take off the half-squares
on either side and repeat the central 3X2 block, with one of the 'tall' end-breaks between each
block.
Celtic knotwork art techniques: INKING IN
(If you haven't yet seen the first Celtic knotwork art techniques page in this series, you might like
to start there.)

O.K. – remember where we'd got to on the last page?

Your design is laid out; now it’s a question of using some simple but precise techniques for inking
in the background.

Knotwork art is both strong and delicate. You’ll probably need a thick pen for filling in and a thin
one for outlining.

Precision of line is important. It helps to pay attention to the edges of the shapes you’re filling in
and how they relate to the cords. These negative 'cut-outs' in the background define the overall
look and feel of the knotwork, so they should be exact and regular:

At the same time, if you pay too much attention to the negative spaces alone, it’s easy to for the
cord thickness to wander and the curves to start kinking. Celtic knotwork art is about balancing
opposites. Try to stay evenly focused between the black background shapes and the white cords to
keep them smooth. Watch out at the crossing points in particular. Things can skew easily there.

At the same time that you’re filling your Celtic knotwork art with ink or colour, why not put a thin
border all the way round to link up the edge pieces? This helps to make the knotwork look whole
and complete.

Once you’ve inked in all the way round, you should have something like this:
Now, ink carefully along all the lines marking the crossing-points of the cords. Be careful not to
let these outlines intrude on the width of the upper cord. Any Celtic art technique must first of all
preserve cord smoothness and cord width.

So the black line showing where cords cross should run along the outeredge of the cord that
appears to be on top. In other words, this cord-edge-line intrudes, if at all, into the space of
the lower cord – the one that appears to go underneath:

You’ve now created an example of Celtic knotwork art.

For a final finishing touch, give the piece an illusion of three-dimensionality. This is not really so
much about how to draw Celtic knots as how to decorate them ... still, it’s worth that bit of extra
time.

Go round each crossing point and add a little shading at the edge of the cord which goes under.
I've used ink wash, but you could also use hatching or dot shading (with the thin pen):

It’s fiddly and it’s very easy to miss an edge. It may help to remember that there are
always two edges to shade at every crossing-point. (Even on some of the original Celtic knotwork
art, you can find places where a monk forgot some detail on a couple of lines, so don’t worry too
much.)

Once the shading's done, re-emphasise the shape of the cords. You can do this by drawing a thin
line just inside each edge of the cord all the way round (see below). In the old manuscripts, the
resulting central stripe is usually coloured in. The interruption of the coloured stripe by the white
edge of the next overlapping cord makes the eye believe even more in the illusion of the over-and-
under knot structure.

Also, if you like, add another thin line around the frame

Rub out any remaining pencil lines ...

And here’s your finished result!

Congratulations! You now know the essentials of one method of constructing Celtic knotwork, and
you should be able to look at any Celtic knot with a fair understanding of how it might have been
put together.

I invite you to play with different widths of panel, numbers of units and positions of breaks so you
get a feel for how to manipulate the rules to create your own Celtic knotwork art.

Most importantly, as always ... have fun :-)