Tag Archives: Namedoodles

Luton art ’12 Exhibition entries. (No1 Gilldoodle)

Posted on December 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

Last year my entries for this exhibition were ready-made pieces, and all I needed to do was mount, frame, and submit. I was pleased and not a little surprised when two of these were chosen to hang. Unsold at the time, but subsequently two of the three entries have found new homes.

This year, for Luton art ’12, I started from scratch. Each piece being specially made with the exhibition in mind.

First, a sketch I started around about the time of Gill’s birthday was crying out to be completed.

Gillian first written with double pencil in an Uncial script half way down a sheet of A3 copy paper. The long drawn out strokes becoming branches and shoots growing organically as if in a hedgerow. Then traced as if mirrored. The “G” then becomes a bowl for the Gilldoodle tree to live in.

I had an unused frame in mind and some Canford? card I had purchased from Jewels Arts and Crafts Centre specially for this piece.

The next job was to coat the back of the piece with chalk, centre it on the card, attach with masking tape and trace off the whole image. Then things began to get really interesting. I realised that I had used a more grippy tape than usual and could not detach the one from the other without removing some of the surface of the card. I decided to carry on though, and think of a way round the problem while working. Next mixed up some gold acrylic and with a pointed pen drew over the tracing. Filled in the letters with white, changed my mind, then crosshatched with gold. Each leaf was then “stabbed” in with the same pen using a bronze acrylic, once again bearing in mind the nature of a growing tree. Next, the flowers, simply sketched with silver acrylic, and petals touched in with white.

Then to the small problem with the background. The position of the blemishes was not conducive to hiding them in a border, so I accented them with sandpaper which made a very interesting raised nap surface that was continued over the whole of the unused card, and then with white pastel covered the piece and slowly but surely worked it into this.

Then tried with the frame

Yes. That is more or less what I had in mind.

I hope Gill likes it!

Now on to the next piece.

The Making of the Winner’s Namedoodle

Posted on June 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

The winner of the Competition, Fernando Lembo di Pino , himself a very gifted and accomplished scribe has asked that the doodle should consist simply of his name Fernando. So, hoping I can make something worthy of his skill, here we go.

It has been a long time since the competition and due to much busy-ness and business I have only now been able to bend my mind to what should really be a mindless excercise, ie a doodle, though I must say I have been giving it quite a bit of thought lately.

As promised, I have tried to document the making of a Namedoodle and the thought processes that make it what it is.

So a sheet of A4 scrap paper first with some double pencils and doodle doodle doo, we begin.

Then having started with OE Black-letter and a bit of italic, I can see some of the ideas coming through. The extended cross stroke on the F and the enclosure of the whole, enclosed within a cartouche composed of the tail of the same letter.

More mindless doodling. Fernando, Fernando, etc.

This is more or less the layout I had in mind, so, time to stop playing and put it into practice.

Usually my Namedoodles are completed on size A4. Here, I must admit, I cheated a little bit and switched to a sheet of A3 paper. Having decided that I should change the script to an uncial type rather than Black-letter and to keep it all within the cartouche, I felt I needed a bit more room to swing around the curves. It seemed only natural to break up the flow of the line to correspond to that of the ascenders, and to continue the line of the cross stroke round to join with the closure of the cartouche. At this point I found it helpful to use a set-square to make sure the horizontals were in fact horizontal. I was not too sure what to do with the tail of the R. Do I finish the stroke at the upturn, join it to the cartouche, or bend it round to become part of the closure? By the way, the x height of the letters is 1″, about 3 1/2 nibwidths.

At this point I have not made my mind up about the R, but have decided to change the Ns and the A. Don’t ask me why. I suppose you could say it makes it look a bit more grown up.

Now traced off onto a fresh sheet of A3 with the R problem resolved, (still not sure about this), then printed onto A4 and traced onto a nice piece of matte board, it is time to put this working drawing into action.

Using a pretty firm pointed nib and Schminke gold gouache, first making sure that the nib is capable of holding enough of the medium to draw a line without having to stop too often for replenishment, and checking that the heel of my hand is able to actually slide around the curves, a deep breath and off we go. Something less than an hour later, having added a silver star and my wbg chop, I sit and pull it all to pieces in my mind. This is not quite right, should I not have done so and so? Should I, in fact, tear it up and do it again? Heheh! Experience has taught me though, that no matter how many times I start all over again, I shall never be completely satisfied. Even now I am thinking, perhaps a wash of white or pale-ish blue within the lines. Why not add a border………………………..?

It is on that note that I shall once again thank all my readers and visitors for coming to see what is happening at Bill’s Space. Thanks again to those of you who entered this competition, I am sure there will be more to come. And three cheers for the winner. Fernando, you are indeed, a star.

Keep watching this space.

WIN YOUR OWN NAMEDOODLE. And the winner is……………

Posted on April 19, 2012 | 24 comments

At the time of writing, according to the stats available to me, there have been 19,901 views all-time at Bill’s Space since we moved to WordPress from Spaces Live in September 2010.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have looked in to see what we are doing, especially our followers and those who drop in regularly, whether to check out the new links, follow the lessons, hints and tips, or to read the latest blog. Oh and, of course, to Gill, who proofreads my work and frequently has cause to look upon herself as a computer widow.

To show my appreciation I would love to offer to write a Namedoodle for everyone, but time and energy just will not permit. So, for the one person who leaves a request in the comments box of this article during the two weeks after the 20,000 mark is reached, and whose name is drawn from the hat. I will make and publish your Namedoodle, incorporate it into a “how to” blog and send you the original. You will be consulted as to the style of N/d you require, name to be written, a short quote to be incorporated or birth details etc.

UPDATE :-

The 20,000 mark was reached on 20th April at about 0900 hrs BST.

The competition will end and name picked on Friday 4th May.

GOOD LUCK!

Thanks again to everyone for your support. I shall look forward to seeing your response.

Cheers. Bill.

UPDATE 4th May 2012

The winner has been drawn from the hat by my Facebook friend, Nongluk Lak Pituktammanat. Thanks Lak.

Thanks to all who entered. Who knows, you might be next.

I am pleased to announce that fernando lembo di Pino has won this Namedoodle. I shall be blogging all through the process to give an idea of my working methods etc.

Keep watching this space.