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!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

"N" Roman Cap



This scan is a tad hard to see, but it is due to what was used to make this "N."

While in the workshop yesterday on Roman Capitals, at one point we used "dirty water," which is the water that's kept after you clean your brush. So my dirty water wasn't so very dirty! Thus the faint image. Nevertheless, you can get the idea of how this letterform was made. There is a lot of manipulation of the brush in order to get the slight variations of thicknesses of the strokes. The diagonal stroke is the thickest. The right vertical starts off thick and gets continuously thinner as it goes down. You have to keep turning your brush to get a smaller area touching the paper.

How much time do you think I'll need to get really, really good at this? LOL. Do you reckon there will be a pill coming out soon that prolongs one's life into their late 100's? I better get started learning.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)