A.R. Danziger, Art & Design

I intend this to be the first in a series of early Scottish saints: Saint Ninian, the first Apostle of Christianity in Scotland  St. Ninian, Bishop of Whithorn, first missionary to Scotland, and Apostle to the Picts (d. 432 A.D.) He is shown here carrying a Gospel book, bishop's crozier, and his bell (the Clogrinny) used for summoning monks to pra y the divine office. His vestments are modelled on the clothes in the Book of Kells, and the geometric lettering is based on the incipit from the Lindisfarne Gospels. Some of the details are a bit anachronistic, but tie him to the town of Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway where he founded the first church in Scotland, Candida Casa (the White House). The Whithorn crozier is a historic artifact owned by one of Ninian's successors in the 12th century. He stands in the doorway of Whithorn priory's ruins. The cross on his Gospel book is from the Peter Stone at Whithorn. Available on Zazzle

This is still a work in progress, but I completed the inking stage of my latest work. it's a crucifixion scene which incorporates symbolic Medieval conventions, flanked by 6 scenes from the Old Testament that the Early Church Fathers and Medieval theologians viewed as "types" of Christ or of His sacrifice. I worked on this all during Lent and took a short break to work on the "Man of Sorrows" drawing from my last post to test out my new Pigma Micron pens.  I was sad to say goodbye to my faithful Rapidograph drafting pens but they were getting too old and clogged. Now I'm taking another detour and working on a small watercolor piece to prepare to paint this! When it's finally finished, I'll create a small guide with references to all of the passages of Scripture contained in this image.

I finished this drawing of “The Man of Sorrows” in time for Passion Sunday.  This is one of those rare subjects that is traditionally represented the same way in both Eastern icons and Western paintings/ woodcuts.  It was possibly inspired by the Shroud of Turin (previously known as the Image of Edessa before it was taken from Constantinople by Crusaders.)

It's that time of year again when my dear husband carefully prepares home-brewed beer in our garage in anticipation of the parish Oktoberfest.  I've designed a couple of new labels for the occasion, and he has high hopes for these two new batches: For the first I re-did the old label and made it specifically for the Dunkelweizen which he's been refining for the past couple of years: The second is for a roggenbier -  a medieval style of rye beer, which is much like a hefeweizen but using rye grain instead of wheat.  I thought to myself, what could be more suitably medieval than the Harvest of the Earth from Revelation 14 found in 12th century illuminated manuscripts? Here's the one from Paris MS 403 which was my primary inspiration: Here is my version, using Daniel Smith walnut ink:

Here is a craft you can make, maybe as an Easter present or as a way to teach kids about the Mass. It folds out into a tiny high altar with a little priest and altar boys. This started out as a gift idea for my children, but I decided to make it in a format that could be reproduced and write instructions for how to construct it.  Free PDF file here:  Pop-Up High Mass Card Materials recommended: card stock or some kind of sturdy 8.5" x 11" paper for printing X-acto knife and/or scissors cutting surface ruler glue stick Instructions: 1. Download PDF file and print out. 2. Separate pop-up card side from priest side. 3. Cut sides of altar and stairs along dashed line. Start below top dotted line.  If you are using scissors, fold the card in half and snip a slot for the scissors to get started. 4. Score along dotted lines to make folding easier. Use dull side of x-acto blade or a single scissors blade. Make alternating f...

This is my latest work, "Christ in Majesty" based on the illumination of the same title from the Westminster Psalter. The original artwork was created using pen, brush, and ink, and embellished with metal leaf. I'm selling it as a high quality photo print on real Kodak photo paper. Christ in Majesty Photo Print by IonaScribe Print photos online at zazzle

Hello again! I recently had the chance to make good scans of some pen and ink projects I completed over the past few months. Here's a "master copy" of El Greco's St. Francis Recieving the Stigmata. I used pen and ink plus ink wash: Here is the completed St. Patrick drawing. I used cotton vellum paper to trace up the celtic knot border, pencil drawing of St. Pat, and text and make them one finished image:   And finally, here is St. Thomas Aquinas, the same as before, but a better quality scan: They are all formatted to the same size so that I can add them easily to my portfolio website the next time I make updates.