Category: something else

I am excited to be teaching this 4-week class again. We will explore built-up capitals and some of the many variations. The class begins Tuesday evening, October 29. (The class now in progress sold out and so I’m offering a second chance here.)

Built-up capitals are slow to make, but they allow the maximum control over the letter forms. They also provide a deeper understanding of the shapes and spaces that make up our alphabet. The opportunity for variations is practically unlimited, from Trajan-like elegance to casual flair to playful silliness. And these variations can work together seamlessly.

We will begin with penciled monoline capitals. Then we’ll building on those monoline capitals to built-up capitals, first with pencils and then with broad-edge pens.
Then the fun will continue with variations in letters, layout, and rhythm. We’ll explore how and why these elements are so dramatically different in capitals than in minuscules.

Suitable for beginners and experienced letterers alike.

Register here to sign up for this class, which will be held 6:30-8:30 PM Mountain Time on these Tuesday evenings: Oct 29 and Nov 5, 12, and 19.

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!

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.

Our local guild, Bridger Mountain Scribes, is now 8 months into a year-long project. We are each making a portfolio of 6″ x 9″ pieces featuring a variety of monoline lettering styles and watercolor decorations. My theme is “Questions.” And here’s my piece, which I may re-do, for month 6. (You can see 3 earlier months’ work here.)

A weekly online lettering prompt “Warp & Weft” coincided with work I’ve been doing to develop a workshop on built-up capitals. And this resulted:

Note to self (for the umpteenth time): don’t use crappy paper even for experimentation if there’s any chance at all that something interesting will result.

Our local calligraphy guild, Bridger Mountain Scribes, has embarked on a long-term project. Each month, Diana demonstrates a new layout, monoline lettering style, and/or decorative treatment for our 6″ x 9″ watercolor pages. At the end of the project, we’ll make an enclosure to house our pages. Here are three of the pages I’ve made during recent meetings.

Here’s a perhaps weird mash-up of summer, illumination, pencil, and Ben Shahn’s lettering.

I have an impressive, or perhaps merely excessive, array of flip-flops, all dating from at least 15 years ago, when we moved from Florida to Montana. They were all the footwear I had, besides a pair of sneakers and a pair of dress sandals. My closet looks very different now, but I love hauling out the box of flip-flops every summer for, oh, about 6 weeks each year.

Done in my pencil journal on a plane with a Blackwing pencil (Natural).