This week the latest issue of Letter Arts Review arrived in my mailbox. (I was on my way to the gym when I got the mail, so those 45 minutes on the elliptical machine just flew by.) I was especially interested in the new series article, “Scribbler to Scribe”. In this first article, Glen Epstein and Gwen Weaver remembered the beginning impulses that led to their years of calligraphy. There were three images for each of them: a recent piece of calligraphy, a beginning piece of calligraphy, and a picture of the scribbler about the time the early calligraphy was done.
So I got to thinking. And yesterday I started a new version of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, the text of one of the first finished pieces I ever did, back in 1983. I’ll be interested to see the 1983 version next to the 2006 version. Here’s the 1983 version.
I look at this piece and think – hey, not too bad for a beginner. But it’s clear that even as a beginner I was willing to go through some torture to get the results I want: the copy fitting for this piece had to have been really time-consuming. By contrast, this time around I used the computer to help with the layout. I wrote out the main text in a regular block of text, then scanned it in. Then in Photoshop Elements I created a circle shape and cut and pasted the bits of text until the circle worked. (I’m leaving out those lovely wooden swashes this time around.)
This will be interesting to see the diference. I just may have to find something and redu it also.
You would laugh your head off at my beginner stuff.
I remember us talking about manuscript books but I don’t recall starting a new one. I did post the book with my son’s story about a squirrel. could you be thinking of that one? I did that one in the spring.
Who knows I’m just getting old and forgetful 😉
I’d love to see a something yours early and later. I’ll have to put up some of my more garish (read: embarassing) pieces. They’re very amusing.