I am taking these banners into Luton’s St George’s Square today for the children to colour in. It looks as if a good day is in store. Lots going on, so if you are close enough to Luton, come and support our local groups.
Official Poster
And here are a few pictures taken on that afternoon.
Posted in CALLIGRAPHY,CALLIGRAFFITI,LETTERING,HOW TO, Children
Tagged calligraphy, Luton, St George's Day
This gallery contains 1 photos.
Since completing the series of Workshops at Luton Museum, I have had numerous enquiries about when, or if, they might be repeated. Or, perhaps, if there might be evening sessions somewhere. I have floated a few ideas with Luton Culture and … Continue reading
It was good to see that PPP has obviously been partaken of over the last few days. If letters have not actually been made with pen and ink, or passages planned upon an actual page, then there must have been a great deal of making of letters and planning of pages taking place in the minds of our scribes in the making. Perhaps my theory of “Don’t count sheep. Make letters”, is bearing fruit. The pens are now beginning to work as they should, more ink on the page than on the fingers this week. Some nice work is beginning to emerge.
Due no doubt to my involvement with the Red Dot exhibition some of my plans for this class had to be put on hold, hopefully for another time. I had planned to bring along my collection of home made equipment, cola pens and the like, some vellum scraps and other interesting bits and pieces I have amassed over the years. I stupidly left them at home, along with the camera and lap-top. I did, however, have some hand cut quills, bamboo and reed pens for everyone to try. Everyone was so taken with the bamboo though, that we got no further down this road.
Taken from Getting started in calligraphy.
My take on the Cola pen. The RED STRIPE Pen. To my mind, much more fun emptying the can. A chisel cut pencil to dip. A needlepoint and 6mm with film reservoir, bamboo, and a 2mm Reed.
http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=100000056736005#!/video/video.php?v=303620954270
This one is made from bamboo and a clarinet reed with film reservoir.
We then had an impromptu discussion on the differences in scripts over the years and how, due to the number of books being made, the speed of hand needed to produce them, and the scarcity of animal skins, there was a shift from the rounded forms of Uncial, Carolingian and Humanist, to the much more compressed angular forms of Blackletter or Gothic scripts.
The comparative roundness of Blackletter capitals enough to let in a little light to the page.
And so, we regretfully started to wind up this final session of what to me has been a most rewarding five weeks of calligraphy workshops. I am hoping that from these humble beginnings of Roundhand and Roman scripts, all who have participated will now have the inclination to learn more, to hone their skills by way of practice, practice, practice, and go on to become the scribe that I always wished to be.
We all agreed it is a shame that the group should come to an end. I have written to my contact from “Luton Culture”, with a view to an extension, either at the museum or some other venue. It seems she is on leave until Wednesday May 8th. Once I have word, I shall update this blog and will be in touch.
UPDATE :- A new group has begun at Luton Irish Forum. All Welcome.
Until then, my inky friends, I wish you all a fond farewell. By way of homework I refer you To Mr Reynolds’ little series.
Cheers. Bill.
Keep watching this space.
Posted in CALLIGRAPHY,CALLIGRAFFITI,LETTERING,HOW TO, Workshops
Tagged Art, learn calligraphy, Luton, workshop
Before I begin this week’s write up, I would like to thank Andrew for getting in touch and offering some toughened glass suitable for light-tables, and also for delivering same to the museum. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. They were soon snapped up and are probably in use already.
Here Peter is trying my portable Light-Table and finding it easier to transfer lines from his guideline sheet. For more information on working with Light- Tables, especially layout issues as discussed this week, have a look at this earlier post on hints and tips.
Now, while beginning to get to grips with broad nib and ink, we explored how the balance of the written page is found, bearing in mind that the optical centre, is, as with letter construction, (i.e. the central cross stroke on “E” sits on the centre line rather than straddling or hanging from it), slightly above a measured centre. The hints from “My Cool School”, on putting together a brochure give a very good illustration. As the author writes,
“You can measure all you want, follow all the rules, and do everything you have been taught, but the bottom line is: If it doesn’t Look right – it isn’t!”
Next, how to plan a page of script, perhaps a poem, without having to write out the whole page only to find you haven’t left enough room. It is a good idea to always copy text from a printed page. It saves any ambiguity (specially when dealing with a client), and at a glance you can pick out the longest line. After first working out, with your guide-line sheets, how many lines you can get on your page, write this longest line in the chosen script and size. If it is too long or short for the sheet it is meant for, you can either modify the page size, or the size of script, or use a more compressed script, or opt to write that particular line on two lines. Either way you are now in a position to know that what you have planned for the page will actually fit. Your work will now fail only due to faulty execution rather than bad planning.
Having been asked to PPP with all their might, the slightly bemused, exhausted group, left with these words ringing in their ears, “Heheheh”. “Just wait to see what I have in store for you next week”
Looking forward to the final session, for now, I hope, and to seeing you all next week.
Cheers. Bill.
Posted in Art, Beginners, CALLIGRAPHY,CALLIGRAFFITI,LETTERING,HOW TO, Workshops
Tagged Art, Beginners, learn calligraphy, light table, Luton, workshop
This week we concentrated on the transition from double pencil alphabets
to using dip pens, fountain pens and marker pens, using at first the widest nib in our kit.
If using a dip pen, first we need to remove the thin protective lacquer coating by running the nib through a flame just for a second or two, then a dip in water; or dip in boiling water and then dry with a cloth before applying the reservoir which slides under the nib to within about 1/16″ (2mm) of the tip. I was intrigued to find that the ink converter on the Manuscript cartridge pen does not fit the length of the barrel. I shall be looking into this.
A few tries to get the ink flowing, adjustments to reservoirs, inky fingers and smudged paper, then using the more closely lined guideline sheet to gauge the x height needed for the size of nib chosen and that is the next stage of the journey started. All that is needed now, as before, is Practice, Practice, Practice, on which subject I shall point you to one of my earlier posts, Positive Practice.
We did not delve too deeply into layout this week but in the next session we shall be looking at the easiest ways of judging how to fit the printed copy onto our shiny new page at the first attempt, after writing out just one line on a piece of scrap paper.
Looking forward to seeing you all again next week.
’til then PPP.
Keep watching this space.
Posted in Art, Beginners, CALLIGRAPHY,CALLIGRAFFITI,LETTERING,HOW TO
Tagged arts, Beginners, Bill's Space, calligraphy, learn calligraphy, Luton, workshop
Link to WEEK 1
Sorry to see a few people missing from the last session due to holidays, work commitments, illness etc. Hope to see you all again soon. Some new faces though, made the mix of abilities even more interesting and everyone had the chance to recap as the roundhand alphabet was demonstrated once more with the double pencils and then later with a broad nib.
Then, a look around the room to find that most had been doing their homework “PPP” and had even made a start on the Roman Capitals. Some though were a bit confused by my notations on the sample. I apologise for not pointing out the formula for letter proportion which can be found on Lesson 2 Roman Capitals.
Monumental capitals might be 8 to 10 nib-widths high. These on the example are 7. Pen angle should be 30 degrees except for diagonals -AWXYZ- 45 degrees, and legs of N, written with an almost upright pen. Capitals in body text are better kept to perhaps half again as high as the minuscules. Widths of Roman capitals vary from 1 nib width – ”I”, to half a square – “E”, 3/4 – ”G”, 1 square – ”O”, to one and a half squares -”W”.
We have one left handed scribe among us and it might be worth mentioning that he took calligraphy classes while on a graphic design course but was never asked to try to write from below the line rather than over the top, which is more natural for a “leftie” when writing with a pencil or ballpoint, but not as efficient when using a broad nibbed pen. I must say I am impressed with his progress so far with the double pencils, I am hoping the transition to pen and ink will be as painless.
Just a couple of comments in passing, this week, on spacing, make sure to use the balloon example, even when practising, to give your eye, brain, hand and arm, plenty of exercise and to build up coordination.
On layout. You will notice that all your guideline sheets have borders. Not very big ones so far as we need to conserve paper while practising. Later on in the course we will be looking into the correlation of white and black space but it is a good idea to bear in mind that a page with half the amount of black space to white, if nicely balanced, is easier to read and much more restful to the eye than a page crammed from corner to corner.
To make it easier to work out what this is all about. The x’s to the left of the page have the space of two x’s between them, making room for ascender and descender . The x’s to the right of the page have only one x between them, useful for a page of capitals or uncials, or, short or intermingling ascenders and descenders. So if we always work in multiples of 1/8 of an inch, one guide line sheet will suffice for any number of layouts. More on this later.
Hoping you are able to make the next session where we will be putting the above into action.
It was good to see so many people showing an interest and turning out on such a freezing cold day. I know that some had some experience, but most had no idea what they were letting themselves in for. They each received a starter pack with the instructions, “On pain of death, do not write on these guideline sheets”. “Why not?” you may ask. Well, with care these sheets will last a lifetime. Once written on, unless you have unlimited access to a copier or PC with a printer, they are gone.
In the pack were …. A3, Roundhand and Roman alphabets. 1 inch lines, a double page spread of 1/8 inch lines. A4, a sheet of 1/8 inch lines with various combinations of letter sizes that can be used using the same guideline sheet, and a simple spacing guide, “the balloon is going up”.
…….. and a set of double pencils.
First, with a sheet of decorators lining paper spread across two tables, a very brief (we are here to learn how to do, rather than why) history of the scripts we were going to be using in this session, from Greek, to Roman Capitals, Roman Cursive, leaving Uncials for another day, through Alcuin’s involvement with the Carolingian and Humanist scripts, to Edward Johnston’s study of his foundational hand with which we begin today. Incidentally, Johnston’s book, Writing & Illuminating & Lettering is available, free, to download or read online.
Perhaps I should have used Jeffrey’s video to illustrate.
Or
From Alpha to Omega, and A to Z and then a 30 foot roll of humanist minuscules with an x height of 12 inches spread before them the participants were invited to join in with their double pencils. Then, when I thought I had them on the ropes, I allowed a weary but cheery group to take a seat and with their 1 inch guidelines, begin the first lesson in earnest.
Update. This video was filmed at Luton Irish Forum Calligraphy Group on 1st October 2013 by Peter Moss.
First tracing from the guide sheet and then freehand using the 1 inch lines and referring to Calligradoodles 0002, cups of tea and lots of chat, time was flying and skills increasing. Roman Capitals (Lesson Two) will have to wait ’til next time but has been set as “gentle” homework as our next meeting is two weeks from now.
A very quick look at what we shall be playing with over the next four sessions,
plus, at some point we are hoping to do a live filming of Old English Blackletter Caps and minuscules as they are demonstrated. It looks as if we are going to be kept very busy indeed.
I know that some of the class are unable, due to previous engagements, work etc to attend each session, but if you follow the blog and practise whenever you can, you should be able to keep up with events.
With Thanks to Luton Culture and the Museum staff for putting up with us, and JEWELS for their generously discounted materials.
Don’t forget. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to use the comments box.
More help and support at Calligraphy at Bill’s Space Mk II on Facebook.
Looking forward to next time.
Link to WEEK 2
Keep watching this space, and P,P,P.
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