a messy sketch

Yesterday’s sketch turned out to be very messy . . . . I temporarily forgot that I drew this with a water-soluble ink, which got away from me when watercolor was added. It is meant to be a sketch of the Cross of the Scriptures in Clonmacnoise cemetery, County Offaly, Ireland — or rather, a sketch of its replica. The original cross is housed inside a visitors center to protect it from the elements.

I was wearing a silver cross made to look like one of these stone crosses so I looked them up on Google, curious about the real thing. (What did we ever do without the internet?). Ireland’s high crosses were sometimes left plain and sometimes sculpted like this one, with intricate panels illustrating Bible stories. This particular cross stands just over 13 feet tall and was carved from sandstone around 900 AD.