“Creativity is a kneaded eraser. The first time you pick it up it’s really hard and stiff. The more you use it, the more flexible and elastic it becomes.”
— Anne Merydith-Wolf (a February 24, 1997, post on a calligraphy list)
Day 19 – DSED
In case you’re wondering, “Couldn’t she do a little better than that?” Well, yesterday the answer was a resounding “No.” A small sample of the evidence is shown below:
Day 18 – DSED
Day 17 – DSED
Block or cursive Q? This straddles the line.
Day 16 – DSED
Day 15 – DSED
“These sudden inspirations never happen except after some days of voluntary effort which have appeared absolutely fruitless and whence nothing good seems to have come, where the way taken seems totally astray. These efforts have not been as sterile as one thinks; they have set agoing the unconscious machine and without them it would not have moved and would have produced nothing. — Jules Henri Poincare, nineteenth-century mathematician, who wrote a descriptive account of his creative processes called “Mathematical Creation” in 1908
↑ Another reminder as to why I’m Designing Something Every Day.
Day 14 – DSED
Here is why I am doing these letters every day:
“I learned … that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.” — Barbara Ueland
Day 13 – DSED
I started with a new Stimudent tool today. Actually, it’s the part of the Stimudent pack left over from the first tool. Both shown below. I’ve wrapped them in brown plastic tape to prevent ink from wicking up to my fingers. The one I’m currently using is stabilized across the width with two scraps of mat board; the Stimudents tend to curve in the hand.
Day 12 – DSED
This is what happens when I think too much. I wanted to make an L whose area = the unused area of the containing square. Didn’t happen. If x=the length of the side of the containing square, and y=the length of the size of the 4 squares which make up the L, then … well, it’s too hard to type. The formula is written in the square. What I didn’t count on was that the 4-square L would break out of the containing square. Perhaps a 6-square L would have worked.
Oh, well.
Day 11 – DSED
… on newsprint, and large enough to require stitches (lol). Have I mentioned that you should click on the image to see the full-sized one?