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After the Roman Holiday, the daily Trajan Romans practice

Our week-long class at the international calligraphy conference at St. Ambrose University with John Stevens was simply wonderful. My main frustration was that there was so much else to do at the conference that I didn’t get enough time to work in the classroom. Every full day that I’ve been home since then, I’ve been doing three pages of brush Romans. That’s two pages of Trajans and one page of whatever else I want to do. Even though the letters aren’t improving much, I think that my eye is seeing more.

Practice sheets 18″ x 30″ (mostly) July 1-21.

One of the really valuable lessons from John was about how to condition our flat brushes to get them to work at their optimum level. Between July 1 and 21, I was interested to see that, after daily brush conditioning at the end of each session, my Winsor & Newton 995 is now substantially wider than when I started.

All these 18″ x 30″ (mostly) sheets cuts from a roll of butcher paper have reached a certain critical mass: they no longer can be contained by the three binder clips I’ve been using to hang them. So I’ve rolled them up and put them in the corner, but I don’t have a lot of extra space for these. They’ll be seeing the recycling bin before long.

I’m looking forward to creating a new batch of higher-class recycling 🙂

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The amazing exhibit @ Roman Holiday: “artplay: A Rosie Retrospective”

I’ve just returned from the most wonderful week at St. Ambrose University with hundreds of lettering artists and faculty. The first international calligraphy conference in five years was a roaring success. The exhibit of Rosie Kelly’s work was a jewel among the many week-long offerings. Imaginatively and beautifully curated by Pamela Paulsrud (and maybe another person?), it was a delight. Here are some photos from the exhibit.

  • The text from one of Rosie’s artist books was transferred to a decal for the wall.
  • Rosie’s hanging pieces depending from branches mounted to the wall.
  • In a corner of the room, one could sit and browse through this delightful collection of books.

There were a couple of tables in the corners with a chair which encouraged gallery visitors to sit with some of Rosie’s books. And two larger tables in the center of the gallery held several chairs each, with Plexiglas cases containing 15 or 20 more books that could be held and read and delighted in.

I didn’t get a photo of the entrance, a curtain of strings that held printed images of some of her work. It was a magical start to a magical experience.

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Roman Holiday — the calligraphy conference, not the movie

Roman Holiday, the annual calligraphy conference, commences this Saturday, June 22!

At Market Night I’ll have for sale copies of my pencil portfolio, How To Be In The World, now in its 2nd printing.

I’ll also be selling a few small originals. Here’s a preview.

If you’re at the conference, stop by my table and say hello!

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In calligraphy, practice approaches perfection, right?

This week I had occasion to write out a poem in letters of nearly 1/2″ x-height. It had been a long time since I had written anything of any length with a 3mm-wide nib, so I began with my go-to practice page, the alphabetical list of related terms. The first page was of upright italic, and then I tried something with a good slanted. The final piece had a slant that was somewhere between these two, but these two sheets were a good starting point and a great warm-up.

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Lots of fun with Big Sky Scribes and Suzie Beringer

I had a thoroughly good time at our state guild’s spring workshop last weekend. Suzie Beringer taught her “Once Upon A Circle” and was a fantastic experience. Helena’s local guild were wonderful hosts. Deb brought a slice of her store, Queen City Framing & Art Supplies, for our shopping pleasure and also hosted a dinner Saturday night. All in all, a beautiful weekend, and I’m grateful to have had to opportunity to be there.

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My work is in the Letter Arts Review juried annual issue!

26+ Alphabets in 4.
Gouache and metal pens on paper. 4 x 4 in.

I’m so pleased to have my work included in this year’s juried annual issue of the Letter Arts Review! My copies arrived in the mail today.

In making this piece I found myself exploring many of the same design elements that quilters contend with: proportion, color, texture, direction. At just four inches square, this was an exercise in small writing. Each 1-inch quadrant contains a large letter made of white space, the remainder of the alphabet in medium-sized capitals, and a lot of smaller complete alphabets. 

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More Akim lettering for our guild project

Gouache, Zig Cocoiro brush pen, ZIG Mangaka 01 pen on Canson XL watercolor paper. 6 x 9 in.

I’m continuing to enjoy Akim lettering. I made these in preparation for next month’s local guild meeting. Even though I switched to a brush pen for the main lettering, I tried for a fairly monoline effect. I love doing Akim lettering with a brush pen.

Gouache, ZIG Mangaka 01 pen on Canson XL watercolor paper. 6 x 9 in.

Here I used the same palette as for the first one, but mixed neutrals. After I penciled in the box and did the main lettering, I went over the lettering inside the box with Pebeo masking fluid and a bowl-pointed pen (didn’t want to ruin my tiny brushes). Then I painted in the box. When the paint was dry, I removed the masking fluid with a rubber cement eraser. I had done a pretty bad job of tracing the lettering, but that was all right. And where it was just too egregiously out of whack I painted some neutral back in and blended it with the rest of the painting.