Here is another of what I call my “digital knotwork” pieces for you to print and color. I always find it very meditative to work on these pieces and I hope you enjoy them as well.
Category: Artwork
Knotwork Dragon
One of my goals for the year is to bring a more organic feel to my art. That’s not the easiest thing to do considering most of my art is created in vector programs. So I have been lugging a sketchbook around with me and trying to draw more during my lunch breaks. I have been drawing a lot of dragons lately and trying to model them after some of the animals in old Norse knotwork. (I can also see some Aztec/Mayan influence in there as well.) I did a quick color and ink job on one of the sketches and wanted to share it with you all. It is rough but I think I am heading in the right direction.
Viking Valentines
Alright, this is not accurate, let’s just get that out of the way from the start. Vikings didn’t go in for the whole winged helmet thing. I know that but the artist in me keeps pushing the researcher out of the way. However, this was a lot of fun to make and I wanted to share it with you all because of that.
Click on the image to the left for a larger version. If you scroll down you’ll find a black & white version in case you prefer to color it yourself. There is also one pre- sized for printing and folding so you can make your own card and give it to someone you love.
If you are looking for something a little more historical I would suggest reading this post about a 900 year old runic inscription that translates to “kiss me.” It is pretty cool and the pdf article that explains how they decoded the runes is fascinating as well. You could also check out the Valentine’s post I did in 2013.
Have a fun holiday. I hope everyone is keeping warm and safe as yet another winter storm stomps through the Eastern US. We got about 8 inches of snow with a nice layer of ice to top it off. Luckily we still have power, though. I really feel for the thousands of people having to face this in the dark and cold.
Art for Sale
I’m trying something new and posting some stuff up on Society6.com. I have a few things up so far and you can get everything from arts prints to tees to laptop and phone skins. Pretty cool and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with this.
I am slowing adding more pieces to that site but if there is a particular piece of my work that you like, drop me a line and I’ll get it up on the site quicker. If I have different stuff ranging from arts through
Digital Knot-work
I’ve always found it very relaxing to create knot-work on the computer. I just get lost in the act of creating the intricate over and under weaves. One of the best parts of doing this digitally is the ever-so-sueful undo button. You better believe I get a lot of use out of that when I am creating some of these more complex pieces.
When I woke up this morning the full moon was shining brightly in a clear, cold sky and that Wolf Moon put me in a mood to make some art. I found this particular piece already started in one of my computer folders. I had laid out the basics of it years ago but for some reason never went ahead and finished it off. So I finished it up, redoing the very center but keeping the rest of it the same.
Instead of coloring this one right away I wanted to share it as a black and white image so those of you who wanted to could color it yourselves. Enjoy!
Happy Winter Solstice
Hi folks, it is that time of year again when the days reach their shortest length and the wheel starts turning again to bring us back towards the light of summer. Winter has been cold this year but I haven’t had to deal with anything as brutal as the 15 degrees below zero F that my friend John woke up to in Maine.
I did a piece of art for the Norse Mythology blog’s Midwinter Art Contest. Now that the contest is over and Yule is actually here I wanted to share the piece with you all. I can see my work and my style as an artist developing. I once had a producer friend of mine comment that what she liked about my work was that it morphed to fit whatever style was needed for the project. That’s good for a graphic designer but not so good for an artist who wants to develop their own visual voice and style.
I chose Skadi as my subject matter. Being the goddess of winter she was the first thing that popped into my mind. I have her wearing something a little dressier than her usual hunting attire since I imagined her heading out to a Yule feast. The Yule Goat that she is examining is similar to the ones I have made for some of my friends this year. The knot work in the background expresses the idea of Midwinter for me: the icy snowflake dominates the scene but at the heart of it the sun, representing Summer, is ready to begin the yearly cycle once again.
Happy holidays, everyone!
Sauron Claus
I started a tradition of putting a Santa hat on incongruous images a couple of years ago. There was this one. And even this one. Heck, I even got an idea for another one while I was typing this post. But today’s post started out when I was walking around the other day and singing Santa Claus Is Coming To Town* inside my head. The lyrics just popped out and I thought how “he sees you when you’re sleeping” could be a bad thing in the hands of the wrong person.
Click the thumbnail for a bigger version. Feel free to share this with your friends. Enjoy the artwork and enjoy your holidays everyone!
*BTW, Bruce Springsteen’s version of this is the absolute best one.
Yule is coming
Hi folks, It is December and the holiday season is gearing up. I have been crazy busy since in addition to helping homeschool my son and writing and doing graphic design work I also work part-time unloading trucks for a big-box store. As you might imagine, we have been moving literal tons of stuff. While I do buy people things I also try to make a little something for my friends and family. It really helps me get into the spirit of the season to put something of myself into what I give.
My spirits have also been helped by a little extra project I took on – I entered Norse Myth’s Midwinter Art Contest. I’ll share the artwork I did for that on December 21 but in the meantime I wanted to share a tiny part of it with my readers. I worked up a snowflake knot work design that was incorporated into the background of my contest entry and I went ahead and worked it a little more to create a new coloring page. Like most of my knot work, it leans a little more towards Celtic influence than any of the Norse styles as far as the design goes. The elaborate crystalline snowflake has a small sun element at the center of it to remind all of us of the cycle of things. Print it out and share it with your kids (or just color it in yourself.)
Another View of Valda
Every now and then I run across an artist doing commissions and I have them draw up their version of what a Dwarven Valkyrie would look like. Here is the latest one from Stephanie Soderberg, LuLuLunaBuna on DeviantArt. I love the attitude in the facial expression and in the stance of the character.
For me, one of the cool things about being an artist is seeing how other people take such different approaches to the same subject. I really noticed the striking differences the most when I was teaching my Computer Art course way back when and could see side by side the different graphic solutions my students would create for their projects.
If you’d care to take a stab at illustrating your own version of a Dwarven Valkyrie I’d love to see what you create.
Cute Pirate Stationary
Hi folks. Here is a little something different from my usual offerings – some cute pirate stationary. The image is sized to print nicely on a page of 8.5×11 paper. Just slice it down the dotted line to get two 5×7 5.5×8.5 note-sized sheets. You can print it and share it as much as you’d like, just don’t sell it.
Mark Neumayer 
