Sudoku & Type — A Match Made in Hell?

Objet de Carte has a wide range of interesting greeting cards. But the Sudoku-style cards are the ones that fascinate me. Can you imagine trying to work a Sudoku puzzles composed exclusively of the letter B so that each line and each 3×3 square has one of each typeface? It boggles the mind. (I like Boggle too, by the way.)

P.S. And imagine how long it would take to simply write in the answers, never mind all the hints that get penciled in as you’re solving. Talk about not being able to read your own handwriting 🙂 “Hmm, let’s see, was that a Century B I wrote in there, or a Garamond B?”

Another DaVinci master drawing copy

Copy of Da Vinci’s Study of a Male, at Windsor Castle, Royal Library. I don’t see an image of the drawing online, although the companion frontal drawing is readily available. The original was done in red chalk, pen and ink. I used a sepia Conte stick for the chalk and a light orange chalk pencil for the ink, which was (faded to?) beige in the reproduction I have.

A book in between the drawings

A small commission of a single poem. I love this marbleized paper — I’ve got at least two color schemes of this design, and I hope I’ll be able to get more when I run out. I’ve had it awhile — probably 6 or 7 years. It coordinates beautifully with Schmincke ultramarine blue calligraphy gouache.

With this small commission I started a series of trial papers that I hope to keep together so that I don’t keep reinventing the wheel. I was looking for a text-weight paper that plays nicely with the ultramarine blue. Ultramarine doesn’t play nicely in the pen to begin with, so there’s all the more reason to find that paper that doesn’t add to the general trouble. I thought I was going to have to settle for Crane’s Crest, but I was finally able to make Somerset Book laid work well enough, on one side at least, which is all you need for an accordion book. Which is what this was.

Anyway, now I have similarly sized samples of both sides of Somerset Book Laid, Mohawk Vellum, Lana Laid, Arches Text Wove (which is good if you’re painting but why struggle with it for straight lettering?) and Crane’s Crest. I’ll keep using them as samples until I’ve covered them so completely I’ve got to start another sheet.

More body parts


Only 1-1/2 weeks left in this compressed semester. Figure Drawing has been less painful than I anticipated, although the results have been every bit as lame as I envisioned. The difference, I think, is that I know longer worry about whether I’m going to fail. So when I do fail, it’s not that painful anymore. I’m actually more cheerful about all this than it sounds. Noses will be next.

Figure Drawing assignment — partial

Here are a mere 18 of the 30 drawings of eyes that were assigned, and due last Monday. The assignment due today: 30 mouths.

This semester is a sprint.
Sometime I’ll post some of the mouths, maybe more eyes, and a cover shot of single-poem book I made recently. Sometime when I get a chance to catch my breath …

Work in progress/regress/progress

It’s been very, very hectic here. This semester I’m taking Figure Drawing and LoFi Video. Both fun, but the scheduled is doubled up, so it will be a sprint for the next 5 weeks.

This piece (detail doesn’t include personalization stuff at the bottom) is almost finished. Frustratingly, I discovered that the last name of two of the parents (shown here blurred around the circle) was misspelled as sent to me. Aargh. I’m waiting for an absolutely completely dry correction and the intestinal fortitude to take the knife to it.

Delicious food, scintillating conversation

One of the great things about being a calligrapher is that after you’ve been to someone’s house for an evening which included a really wonderful dinner and great conversation, you can write a thank-you note that at least begins to do justice to the occasion.

Dinner was mostly Romanian, with many, many courses. Appetizers included olives, cheese, trout in pastry cups. Dinner began with crudites and eggplant dip. Then borscht — the vegetarian Romanian version is much lighter than the Russian version. Then three vegetarian dishes featuring mushrooms in phyllo containers, spinach in a crepe type of roll, and a delicious squash dish. Dessert: chestnut creme cake and some kind of raspberry tart thing. Tea, coffee, dessert wine. I probably missed something.

We waddled home late, worn out from eating and talking nonstop. It was lovely.