Kilian’s work is epitomized by classical simplicity with an underlying tension within every letter. Beginning with classical forms then moving on to modernising these using ligatures, reversals and other capital forms we will create a piece of work in graphite or coloured pencil.
This was our final one-day workshop in Johannesburg.
We began with working with looking at entasis in versals to work out where to use more or less pressure in letterforms and then copied a piece of work by Herman Kilian in pencil. This was followed by a study of Kilian ‘s ligatures and letterforms. Everyone also created their own ligatures and shared them with one another.
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| Studies of ligatures |
The next project was to do a composition in a circle of a name – this is quite challenging to make it legible from left to right and fill the design space well. After that some people worked with more complex designs using a phrase, while others did variations on the name design. I hope to be able to show some of the finished pieces at some stage!
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| Some of the name designs
After this workshop we chatted about the workshops in general and as so many of the people had been on a number of workshops – 5 of the Johannesburg calligraphers had flown to Cape Town for gilding – it was interesting to find out which workshops had been the most worthwhile. There was a complete mixture of responses so it seemed that the workshops had met many different needs. For me it had been a very intensive two weeks with ten days of teaching. I found the participants had a high standard of calligraphy and design; especially in a mixed-ability group and were very diligent and enthusiastic. As a visiting tutor I was made to feel extremely welcome and was thoroughly spoilt! Just look at my parting gift! A signed calligraphic clock, which now has pride of place in my studio. Thank you Johannesburg & Calligraphers of South Africa.
 Crucial Timing: Everyone had started this workshop an hour early to enable me to be on the road by 3.00pm with Karel and Heleen de Haas and my husband who had by now joined me for the next leg of the South African trip – a Kalahari Safari. What a wonderful ending to a fantastic teaching holiday.
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