Spheres of Knowledge

3in x 9in dip pen and india ink on paper.

In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, I spent much of time in quarantine experimenting with new illustration techniques and media. It is in those experiments that I found my love for working with dip pens, aiming to incorporate this new skill into my illustration work. Spheres of Knowledge is the first complete dip pen piece I have made.

While staying at home, I had found myself reconnecting with old passions of mine from my childhood. Of these, astronomy stuck out and impassioned me the most, and so I dove in, learning and relearning all I could find on the known universe and humankind’s interpretation of it throughout recorded human history.

Much of the inspiration for this piece comes from the intricate engravings of Gustave Doré, a French artist known for pushing the boundaries of realism in line drawing and engraving. Additionally, I looked at much of the old ink illustrations of astronomers, philosophers, and theologists, each aiming to explain the known universe, bound by religious doctrine and limited knowledge