Celtic Knots

Intro and History

I've always been fascinated by Celtic knots. I love their complex geometry, the 3D woven feel, and the way they draw you into tracing their lines with your eyes.  You've probably seen these sorts of knots on things like jewelry and tattoos. 

Recently, my aunt loaned me a book called Designa, which had a wonderfully comprehensive section on Celtic knots. This inspired me to finally dabble in learning to draw them for myself. 

All Celtic knots follow one very basic rule: if you follow any line with your eyes, at each intersection, it will alternate going over with going under each successive line it crosses. This creates the classic three-dimensional woven look we are familiar with. 

The three projects below progress from very easy to quite complex, so do them in order and decide which technique you like best! 

I've also included two videos to help you: one covers projects 1 and 2, while the second goes into some more complex techniques.

Project 1: Scribble Knots

(paper,  pencil, eraser,  marker/pen)
The basic concept of having one or more lines weave through each other in an over-under pattern is surprisingly easy to achieve. To try it out, we're going to make some scribble knots. No matter how many lines or loops, what shapes we draw or how they overlap, we can make our scribble weave regularly over and under as long as we follow one guideline: keep any loose ends on the outside of the knot.

Draw your scribble:
On a blank page, with a pencil, lightly draw some loose scribbles. You want lines to cross in multiple places, but it will be easier if your lines are not too cramped on the page. Finish your scribble by joining the end of your line to the beginning, or by making sure both ends are outside of the scribble.

Create the weaving effect:

There are two common ways to do this. The first (and easiest) is to use a single thick line such as a marker to represent your line. In this case going 'over' at an intersection involves drawing your line straight through, while going 'under' means stopping short of the intersection and leaving a gap for the 'over' line.
The second way, more often seen in fancier Celtic knots, is to use two parallel lines to draw your line as a tube. In this case, going 'over' at an intersection also involves drawing both edges straight through the intersection, while going under involves drawing both edges until they touch the 'over' edge closest to them.

Decide which way you want to draw your lines, and grab a pen or marker. Start on an end of your scribble (or anywhere if you have drawn a loop) and follow a line in one direction. As you reach each intersection, alternate drawing the over and under versions. Continue until you reach the end of your line, or you are back where you've started. If you have drawn multiple lines, do one at a time, starting on later ones at a place where they already go over under a line you have finished, until every intersection is complete. Erase any messy pencil lines, and you're done!

Try some variations
Make a more complex scribble! Try using multiple lines or loops! See what happens if you draw a scribble with a loose end inside the knot (hint: it often breaks the over-under pattern). Do all your scribbles in the shape of a picture frame, or a triangle! The more you play with this, the better you'll get at drawing the lines and understanding the pattern. Have fun!

Project 2: A basic knot framework

(paper, pencil, eraser, marker/pen, ruler)

Now that we know how to weave our lines, I'll show you how to use some basic shapes as frameworks to make knots that look organised or symmetrical. 

Start by drawing a square and a triangle on a page in pencil. Draw lightly so it's easy to erase later. Now in the center of each line or side of a shape draw an 'X'. 

Next we'll use the lines of the X's to guide how we draw our pencil line for our knot. start drawing a line following one of the lines from one of the X's. If you are heading towards a line from another X, connect them up and keep going. If you are heading away from your shape, curve your line around the outside of the shape until you are approaching another X.  If you end up back where you started but there are still unused lines in some of the X's, start at one of those and keep drawing until you have lines going both ways through all your X's.

From this point onwards, you can proceed as in project 1. Pick a line, and draw it in pen or marker, making sure to alternate 'over-under' as you follow the line. The advantage of using a shape as a framework is that it helps you end up with knots that also look geometric. 

Try some variations

If you are going around a sharp corner of a shape, try adding a point to your line, like in the triangle above! You can put together as many shapes as you want, but it helps if all the line segments are about the same length. If you have a longer line, you can draw multiple X's on it as if it were several shorter lines. If you put together a framework that you like the shape of, you'll probably like the shape of the knot it creates. Go crazy!

Project 3: A grid for complex knots

This part is easier shown than written about, so please enjoy this video explainer I made.