Illuminated Manuscript Assignment 1

During the Dark Ages much of our artistic history has been lost, due to pillaging and wars. Much of what we have and know today, artisticly and of the written language, was preserved in Scottland by monks during these dark times. The Scottish monks sought to create a version of their Bible that their times had never known. They feverishly worked on it in exquisit detail for 4 years. Unfortunately, before its completion they were raided by Vikings from the North. The monks gathered what they could and fled.
This piece is a depiction of those dark times, as if saved from the raiding Viking's destroying fire.
To create this image I traced it by hand, then had it scanned and traced into Illustrator, and next printed it onto resume paper. I crumpled it to get the right aging effect and then systematiclly burned the edges for that 'lost in time' appeal.