It's Annual Juried edition of Letter Arts Review again. I am so honoured to have work selected - for the 4th consecutive year. My fellow English calligraphers who were selected were: Cherrell Avery, Gaynor Goffe, Celia Lister collaborating with Clare Whittaker, Tom Perkins and Jan Turner. No-one from South Africa this year or last year. Cherrell has been working in etching, but rather than taking prints the copper etched plate is the finished result. I've asked her if she'll send me some more … [Read more...]
Art in Action – Tom Perkins
We saw Gaynor in action yesterday - she had teamed up with her husband Tom Perkins at Art in Action this year and he had a stand next door. They are real heavyweights in the lettering world and if you have not seen Tom's book, even if you won't ever do carving, its a real treat just for the letterforms.Anyway, Tom showed a piece he was working on and if you look next to it, you'll see a beautiful d and an a on the display board. His style is particularly recognisable for his own style of … [Read more...]
A bit more about Drawn letters
Working with an edged pen may not suit everyone who wants to create letterforms, but it certainly explains the historical formation of letter weight. It is assumed that most Roman Inscriptions in the first century began life as brush lettering (hence the serif?). It is for this reason that it is worth studying Foundational and Italic, but at the same time, students would want to begin drawing and copying letters by hand.Capitals letters have many peculiarities not shared by minuscules.i) Easy … [Read more...]
Family Tree of Skills
UNCIALSpenmanship good circles - letter obasics of calligraphyintroduction to layoutintroduction to fine detail paintingintroduction to continuous writingGOTHIC MINUSCULESpractice in verticalsinter-letter spacingrhythmexploring pattern and texture introduction to relaxed penmanship (birds)introduction to continuous writingMONOLINE TRAJAN CAPSfoundation for Roman capitals in Foundationalunderstanding of capitals in Italicappreciation of capitals in designunderstanding of spacing and rhythm in … [Read more...]