Well, yes, rather fuzzy. The sketch was larger than the scanner bed, and I had to finagle a bit.

The decorative spirals forming the “splash” of water are adaptations of very early Celtic La Tene designs. The La Tene style of Celtic art is named after the first location that the distinctive style was observed, in an archaeological site at La Tene, near Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland. The site was first excavated in 1857.

Dating artistic styles is a complex issue, but the La Tene style is generally accepted to be dated from 450BC to the first century BC, in an area stretching from what today is France, east to Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The outer framework of the piece (not visible in the scan), is based on an even older Hallstatt pattern, adapted from artifacts dated from the early Iron Age in Europe, 8th-6th centuries BC.

fuzzy and crooked, but visible

Well, the scanner isn’t cooperating. Future pictures will be taken with a digital camera, but for now, we have fuzzy scans.

Note the second “layer” of distance within the portal formed by the moon.

The interlacing of the birch branches is somewhat visible. I worked some of the lines with ink, which may make it easier to see.

The guidelines visible on the sketch represent a development of classical proportion in the design. I work frequently with the “Golden Section” and other proportions documented in Medieval manuscripts.