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Celtic Art Sourcebooks

Even if you weren't cognicent of the panoply of Celtic gods before visiting this site, you must have seen Celtic artworks: most notably illuminated manuscripts like the Book of Kells and Celtic knotwork like the separators on this page. This kind of artwork, as demonstrated in various images on this page, is what everyone thinks of as being quintissentially 'Celtic'. I've spent many years learning how to create and re-create these patterns and I'm a fair (but not brilliant by any means) artist.

But the truth is that many of these Celtic designs are based on 'patterns' that you can learn and employ yourself. Indeed, I learnt my Celtic design abilities from sourcebooks. On this page I'll show you the books that I used to learn the techniques that I've employed to decorate this website. With these you too can become a competent Celtic artist. I've split the books into educational volumes that teach you the art of illumination and sourcebooks that give you an idea of the kinds of patterns, zoomorphic (animal forms) and spherical forms or even entire layouts that you can design and implement for yourselves.

It is also true that many of the Celtic design patterns are based on originals scattered throughout the 2700 years of Celtic history and to ignore the Celtic art of the distant past is to ignore the true source and inspiration of the expanding world of Celtic Art.

Training Books

I have to admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for these books by Aidan Meehan in the 'Celtic Design' series published by Thames and Hudson. It was these books that first introduced me to Celtic Design and it is through Aidan Meehan's teachings and lessons in these books that I learnt the techniques of Celtic Art. He actually follows the methods of the original Celtic scribes in the books and as a result the techniques you will learn are authentic and actually put you in touch with those ancient scribes. The books also start with an introduction volume and they go through almost the entire gamut of the various forms in Celtic art. Everything from knotwork to illuminated letters to zoomorphic forms and 'tree of life' patterns.

I can't reccomend these books highly enough and I urge you to take a look at them for yourselves.

Celtic Art Sourcebooks

Here is a smaller number of Celtic Art sourcebooks that I simply cannot do without. They are generally found at the side of my desk and I refer to them whenever I need some inspiration.

Historical Celtic Art

These next two books are very different, but no less important (to me at least). Rather than being training or source books in the modern vein they are Art and Historical books that look at the native art of the Celts from the beginning of the Celtic peoples circa 700 BCE to the Celtic revival of the first part of the 20th Century. Again, I use both books ceaselessly as sources of inspiration for my works and they are constantly by my side.

The books above are the essential 'core' of my Celtic Art collection and personally I cannot do without them. This is why I am more than willing to recommend these books to you (and don't worry if you're interested in them you'll be buying the book from Amazon. However, newer and different Celtic Art books are continually being published and I am not a reviewer of such books.

To help you, threfore, here are some further volumes in Amazon's catalogue that might also be of interest to you:

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Copyright © 2005, Dyfed Lloyd Evans

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