Ancient Parchment Riddle

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A traditional yet contemporary rendering of extracts from medieval riddle songs about the making of manuscripts from ox-hide. The presentation has a Celtic feel without becoming a pastiche. I used a "hybrid" script derived from combining characteristics of Celtic half-uncial with a sympathetic form of italic. The illustrations feature an ox and the book that it becomes. The book displays a "carpet page" (it's practically a flying carpet in itself!), which is actually painted up of multiple details of the cows face from the other illustration. The detail reveals this- click in the picture to see it.

There's a lot of detail in subtle colors relating to the natural tones of the vellum pages- complex Celtic spiral patterns were constructed geometrically with compasses, in contrast to the multitude of freehand flourishes, drawn with fast pen strokes, many of which terminate small drawn animal heads.