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!

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Recipe for Love - From Sketch to Good Paper



The last post you saw was the rough-out sketch on graph paper for this piece. As you can now see, the design was transferred to watercolor paper. I managed this with a light table, placing the watercolor paper on top of the sketch and tracing the boxes onto the watercolor paper. Then I drew and lettered in the boxes. Next, I added watercolor to the piece, making sure I first brushed my choices of color as I progressed on to a swatch to assure compatibility of colors. Once this stage was completed, I let it set overnight to come back at it with New Eyes in the morning.

You might notice some tape around the edges of this piece. It is Scotch Removable Tape and it comes in handy. I just learned about this little trick. You'll see how this comes into play in my next post.
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