I’m still having a good time with the flat brush and Romans. This was a response to an online prompt – Postive:Negative. I was going to do it in black and white, but I had a leftover palette of gouache. (I always have a leftover palette, and I hate to wash color down the sink.) Kaerell #4 flat brush on some white butcher paper.
Lao-Tse’s quotation seemed appropriate for the prompt as well: “We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel, but it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the wheel depends. Therefore, just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not.”
“To Every Thing There Is A Season” – gouache on paper, 24 in x 24 in
This is one of my pieces no hanging at The Artists Shop all month long in downtown Missoula, Montana. I’ll be there September 20 & 21. I’d love to see you there!
I have done this basic layout several times since the first time I tried it in 1983. It’s a kind of capstone piece, I guess.
In 1983, I was a rank beginner, and completely self-taught at that point, and I believe it is the first “finished” piece I ever did. Just for, I don’t know, entertainment, here’s an image of that first piece. I’m pretty sure it’s a scan of a photocopy of the original, which I gave to my mother way back then. So young and ignorant I was! But so enthusiastic, and I remain so after all these years.
I believe I did the original with a Schaeffer fountain pen (ack!) on the then-current version of Paper for Pens by Pentalic. The pad of paper was 11 in x 14 in, so this was about 10 in square in the original.
Have I mentioned how much I’m enjoying Elizabeth McKee’s brush lettering class? Well, it bears repeating. Here are just a few pages of the homework I did in November, the 3rd month of classes.
A low-tech word cloud of favorite authors
Lizette Woodworth Reese – WN Series 7 + gouaches
Improvisational sentences in alphabetical order
Copying Carl Rohrs for the kinetic knowledge
Studying Villu Toots’s capitals
Hot Fuzz and Pentel Color Brush, suki tip
Going for longer ascenders and descenders
Fun ligatures
Very little line leading
Importing some things I learned in John Stevens’ italics class
Writing on acrylic ground
The text says it all
More capitals practice
WN Series 7 + Nicker paints
Gold gouache on acrylic-painted ground
I’ve mostly been writing with Pentel Color Brushes (all four tips), Winsor & Newton Series 7 pointed brushes (1, 2, 2 mini), and the Pentel Pocket Brush. I’ve mostly been using fountain pen ink, Schmincke gouaches, Winsor & Newton watercolors, Dr. Martin’s Pro White, and FineTec metallic watercolors.
I’m happily balancing this kind of work with the formal, slower work of study in Elmo van Slingerland’s Roman minuscules class through the Society of Scribes … and the geometry and paper handling of folding portfolio folders and fulfilling orders for my ABC portfolios. I’ll post some of my work in the Roman minuscules class next time.
I enjoyed this past weekend’s workshop hosted by Chicago Calligraphy Collective. Taught by Mike Gold, the workshop was entitled “Over and Over”. All weekend we focused on taking one text and lettering it over and over, using different approaches.
One of several initial layouts. Pentel Color Brushes on Strathmore 80# Drawing.
Weighted handwriting. Fine-Tec metallic watercolor and Winsor & Newton Series 7 brush.
Handwriting + weight on Strathmore Artagain black.
Walking a line. Ball-nib pen (like Speedball Series B) and Quink ink.
The walking line with walnut ink on watercolor background.
Structure and lettering. Watercolors and walnut ink, brush and 1/2mm Brause nib.
Two elements. Red Pentel Color Brush, ruling writer, walnut ink, water-soluble colored pencil.
My quotation for the workshop was this: “Stare, pray, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.” – Walker Evans. (But if an exercise didn’t lend itself to the quotation, I chose something else.)
In this workshop with Mike Gold, it was instructive to see the work of my fellow workshop students, a gathering of accomplished calligraphers. The work was so widely varied! You can see some of this work on instagram here. The Chicago Calligraphy Collective has really got it going on, especially as an online presence for those of us members who are not local.
Mike Gold is teaching this class to other guilds via Zoom. For instance, the Columbus guild is hosting this workshop October 24 & 25. If you’re interested, sign up!
Pentel Color Brushes and Artist Brush Sign Pens on Kraft paper. Stamps added before and/or after.
I am so enjoying a brush lettering class with Elizabeth McKee. She was my very first serious calligraphy teacher, way back in 1988-1989. The homework assignments have included making weathergrams, and this has been perfectly consonant with what I want to do. These past few weeks here in Montana, our dog Zeke and I have simply wallowed in the beautiful autumn. And we’ve enjoyed long walks among the brilliant trees and blessedly clean air and gorgeous sunlight.
Given all this, it’s no wonder that I can’t seem to stop making these weathergrams! I’m addicted to that slightly rough drag of the brush on Kraft paper, the daylight within the strokes as the ink feathers on the paper. And I have been hanging them around the walking trails in Bozeman. (I’m not sure whether to replace the ones that have disappeared, or find another place to put them. If people are taking them as souvenirs, that’s okay. But perhaps they’re simply taking out the trash. Or maybe the deer like them. How to tell?)
Weathergrams were developed by Lloyd J. Reynolds, a calligrapher who had a profound influence in the western US in the 70s and 80s. The form is a sort of Western melange of Japanese tanzaku, haiku, wabi sabi, and more. Weathergrams are not sold but given as gifts or hung from trees and allowed to weather. If you want to know about weathergrams, read Reynolds’ booklet on the subject. And that booklet has been digitized here by The Haiku Digital Foundation Library.
Read more about Lloyd Reynolds at the website of Reed College, where he was a professor for 40 years.
