Over on my Patreon page I’ve started a project to create stylised animal graphics inspired by the insular art of illuminated manuscripts, Pictish stones, and metalwork. Most of it is zoomorphic, some of it is interlace, some both, a few neither. But I’ll refer to them as zoomorphs for convenience.

I’ve set myself several rules: black and white only, with no shading or cross-hatching; all lines are to be actual lines or negative space; everything to fit inside a circle; all lines and curves to be hand drawn and unrationalised/straightened/perfected by graphical software.

Obviously I create in Photoshop, but I don’t let it automate the curves, arcs, circles and lines. Why? Well, because this is less an exercise in perfection than a pleasing, meditative hobby (my version of knitting?) that leaves me with something I made and can keep at the end.

Early medieval manuscripts are not something I’ve paid much attention to so far—probably because so few are relevant to my area of interest, that is, Hild’s lifetime (bookended well inside the seventh-century at both ends) and, to a lesser degree, the early sixth century (the timeframe of Spear). I’ve discovered that there seems to be remarkably little in terms of digital resources available. Obviously I’ve found Trinity College Dublin’s wonderful digital version of the Book of Kells, all 800+ folios—it’s marvellous, such a gift. But I long to see the equivalent of the Durham, Durrow, Lichfield, Echternach, and—most especially—Lindisfarne Gospels.

So my request: does anyone out there have a link/access to or other information on such a resource? Thanks to a wonderful user on Bluesky, I’ve got the link to the Wikimedia Commons file, but it’s so very clunky—really hard to find specific folios. And I’ve encountered titles of a couple of books that might be useful but they cost obscene amounts of money and I’ve no way to tell if they’d be worth it—so much depends on the image quality, and I can’t see those until I buy… (EDITED TO ADD: Never mind. The British Museum just made their copy available again. Yay!)

If you’re curious about what I’m making, here are some examples.

The first is taken from a silver plate with large, animal-motif roundels around the rim (though sadly I archived the image a long time ago, without metadata, and a reverse-image search brings me nothing). I’m pretty sure this one is a couple of centuries after Hild’s floruit—at least, judging by the design style—but I honestly can’t remember. It’s a bit frustrating not knowing where it came from. (If anyone knows, please share!). Some of these beasties are difficult to identify, but I decided this one was a horse, and so changed and/or exaggerated the mane and tail to fit that idea.

This one of course is taken from the great gold buckle found at Sutton Hoo: it’s two serpents interlaced. (Though my nickname for it is The Great Belt, Ouroboros…)

And here we have two dogs from the Book of Kells. There’s one particular scribe who worked on that manuscript who just loved sticking paws and feet in the mouths of their (the names of both women and men are associated with its production) beasties.

For more detail about sources, techniques, and trails-and-errors, plus many other images, go visit my Patreon page. There’s a free as a well as various paid tiers, and free membership gives you access to several posts, just not all of them. I’m using the page to raise money for publicists on both sides ofo the Atlantic because I have books coming out both this summer (reissues) and early next spring (brand new), and given the world-on-fire political situation it will take more effort than usual to break through the noise to reach the attention of potential readers. So if you feel inclined to help, I’d be grateful. But if you’d like to try before you buy, join for free and see…