Welcome!

I grew up in Raleigh at a time when the nuns taught at Our Lady Of Lourdes. They lived out back of the school and wore those imposing yet Holy Habits that commanded your adoration, attention, and, quite frankly, your fear. So, when they asked you to "sit up straight" with your "feet flat on the floor" and compose your letters properly according to the Palmer Method of Handwriting, you did just that! I believe it was at that impressionable age that I became infatuated with the formation of letters. When I was introduced to calligraphy in 1978, it was no wonder I fell in love with this beautiful art form. My first taste of the calligraphic world lasted no longer than one hour. The instructor turned a piece of chalk on its edge to form calligraphic works of art from A to Z on the chalkboard. That was that! But it was all I needed to fire the embers that had been sparked in elementary school. Watching the slow, rhythmical shaping of those letters was like listening to classical music. It was not until 1997 that I enrolled in my first formal calligraphy class. Boy, were my eyes opened! I knew I had a lifelong road of learning ahead of me. It's been 38 years since that white piece of chalk was laid on its side. I am still learning. Come learn with me!

Monday, July 19, 2010

More Journal Pages





I took yet another class today. Are you surprised? Well, get used to it! I am trying my hand at anything that could relate to calligraphy.

The techniques that were taught today are to be used in a daily journal - on EVERY page, front and back. These can be used for an individual lettering piece as well.

Above are three pages that I did while in class. Even though they are in a journal, I could easily detach them and use them for a piece.

What was great about this class was that all of the mediums, journals, tools, etc. were supplied. So you could play with all sorts of things without having to pay for it first and then realize you did not like it.

We used gesso on the pages first, as a primer, so that the paints applied would not bleed through to the backside of the sheet. On top of that we used Pan Pastels, MUNGYO soft pastels, Neocolor water color crayons, and Derivan Matisse Acrylic paints.

Between layering, a hair dryer was used to dry the layer.

Layer upon layer was applied, and then tools were also used to manipulate the paints. Pieces of paper were glued down with Liquitex Matte Medium and could then be layered upon as well.

This little journal, full of pages, will be a Diary of Techniques that I have tried. It will show me what I like, what I don't like, what mediums I used, etc. so that I can either copy it again or shelve it.

It's all experimentation and putting it to use at some point with calligraphy!

As you can see in the first piece, I lettered in the wet paint/gesso with a tool before I dried it...it's a start!

Here's a link to the instructor's blog: http://opheliasart.blogspot.com/
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