Leaf & Letter

O where O where did the summer go?

2011-08-31T09:49:00.000-07:00

I began the summer with a list of things I wanted to do. Practicing letterforms was on the list, playing with backgrounds and materials and getting some broadsides together from the things I learned in the Leterme workshop. Not to be, I just couldn't get inspired.

I did seal the concrete floor on my studio which was NOT on my list. Here you see everything piled up on one side of the room and half the floor painted. I had to do it in three moves. The room is bright and doesn't "shed" dust anymore. However the beige is not that practical.

I did start to fill in a small "journal" that was lying around still empty. I couldn't get myself energized to do anything that took thinking so I filled this little book with collages, usually in the morning when I was in the studio. This is the first inside sheet.

Here is a small watercolor.

I ripped shapes from magazine ads and my lettering practice sheets for some of these.

I love the way gesso covers up flaws.

and more lettering scraps.

These are actually no stress and playful. I think this is good way to hone your design skills and because they are small (6.5 x5.25) you have to keep things simple.

The CCC had a traveling show of 20 artists books that went to the Palatine, Skokie and Oak Lawn Libraries this summer. Each time we took the exhibits down people commented on how interesting, unique, stunning and unusual the books were.

Right now I am working on monoprints for a CCC tiny workshop in September. I am working out techniques that will work for calligraphic backgrounds. I will post these and maybe some work from the class later.

AND LASTLY,
I am hooked, besotted and just plain obsessed with the Urban Sketchers blog site. I had just finished a figure drawing class in May when I came across this site. I think my fingers were still itching drawing class.

Brush,

and fine line markers,

I am starting a printmaking class this week and we are starting with serigraphs. I just finished stretching my screen and am getting excited about adding words and letters. Keep you posted.

Photoshop for Calligraphers

2011-06-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

I have just begun the online classes for Photoshop for Calligraphers given by Harvest Crittenden. I wanted to learn Photoshop and even having been proficient in Microsoft software and architectural and structural engineering software systems, I just could not get myself started on Photoshop.

I even loaded the Photoshop Essentials on my laptop but would only play for a day and leave it. I saw Harvest's class description online and decided to jump in. There are three classes per week for a month and so far I really like them. The instruction is by video and Harvest explains each step, the why and wherefore of what she is doing.

There is much I am familiar with from other programs so it is going well and I really like that I don't have to think up projects to learn the software. Harvest provides files to work on. But I am happy that finally I am on my way. I can't wait to try my own stuff.

Here is one of my files where I learned about moving the graphics into different layers so they can be worked on individually. Each phrase is on its own layer and separated from its master file. So cool......

Monoprints and Romans

2011-05-29T06:46:00.000-07:00

I have just finished a three month workshop with Charles Pearce on Roman brush lettering. It is funny when you begin because you think that you will never use them because it seems so hard and that you will never get proficient in them. But through all the practice they start to grow on you and you actually enjoy making the letters and manipulating the brush.

I had been researching monoprints for a miniworkshop that I will be teaching for the CCC in the fall. I came across a lettering artist/bookmaker using these incredible monoprint backgrounds. The artist's name is Anna Mavromatis. Her blog link is http://booklike.blogspot.com. So I had to play.

I have been expirmenting with Speedball water based ink for ease of use when I give the workshop. I am more familiar with oil based inks for their intensity and longer open time but this is one of the backgrounds that I came up with using the Speedball inks. This is done on best shuen paper from Oriental Art Supply. It is not very strong so I will be trying out mulberry next for its strength.

I added the brush Romans using white gouache. The backgrounds were done on an 8.5x11 piece of plexiglass. I first rolled on black ink with a brayer and textured into the ink. I drew into the ink with water and then rolled the brayer on top of the water. I dissolves the inks and acts like a resist. Then I laid the paper over the wet ink and rubbed with a soft cloth.

The next prints were made by painting on the plexi and placing a dampened piece of text wove on the ink and burnishing it with a soft cloth. We won't be using a printing press so I am testing out different techniques to transfer the ink to the paper.

This is a texture based technique where I use pieces of juniper and spritzed water for the resist technique I described before.

I am really enjoying the play. I will put more samples up as I get them finished.

Tyvek Covers

2011-05-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a new book with Tyvek s0ft covers taught in Sharon Zeugin and Thomas Ingmire workshops. Rita Foltz showed me how to make this book.

The signatures were bound with a four needle stitch,

criss-crossing in the fold of each signature before moving out and up to the next signature.

The front and back covers are made of a tube of painted Tyvek with an extension that folds over the first and last signature about 2" as shown below. The first page is slipped into the Tyvek "tube" like you used to do when you covered your grade school text books.

Cover the first and last signature before you bind the book. You can see the Tyvek flap wrapping around the first and last signature.

I inserted a small 1.5" watercolor painting in the front cover, a moon over the lake.

Easter Tulips

2011-05-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

There is beauty in unexpected places. Here is what is left from Easter tulips. What great shapes.

Brush Romans

2011-05-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

I am taking a three month class with Charles Pearce on brush Romans with the CCC. I have reams of practice paper and probably have not practiced something this intensely in so short a time span. It is exciting when it works and frustrating when it doesn't but I really like it. Here are my first weeks practice. I started using brown wrapping paper because it has a nice drag. This upcoming class we will be painting on canvas.

This was our first spacing problem. My second spacing exercise was not much better. The "T/V" letters dictated the spacing on the other letters.

Here is a gift I received from Rita Foltz. This is a piece of her canvas practice work from when she took an earlier workshop from Charles that she turned into .......

a brush roll with my name on it! It is a beauty. And I just had to get a few new brushes for my new brush roll. Look at THOSE Romans.

The Leterme Workshop

2011-03-23T08:20:00.001-07:00

I recently took a four day workshop with Yves Leterme who was teaching his new program called Watchful Experimenting and the Fine Art of Controlled Scribbling.

He began by explaining that "traditional calligraphers are careful planners .... and in executing they pray for a steady hand, obeying tools, trustworthy tools and above all no mistakes whatsoever".
The goal of this workshop, however, is to work without a preconceived idea, learn to fix mistakes and move our work to less obvious, middle of the road, predictable and leave room for happy accidents. This workshop will focus on the process, not the result.

Keeping in mind that this way of working was not a excuse for neglecting basic aesthetic rules, Yves led us through a series of exercises to help us understand what process is. Many of these exercises were done very quickly so we would not have a chance to think too much.

These two samples were from the exercise (1)Thumbnail sketches with speedball in loose grip - 10 sketches on A4 paper, (2) add text to the sketches in the same style as your lines.

These samples were from the unit Thumbnail sketches with one color - 8 rectangles- quickly. Just to let you know his idea of quickly doesn't seem to be my idea of quickly. But it was FUN, EXCITING.

This stuff was like rollerblading without your helmet and knee pads. But it kept you from thinking to much. Later in the week we worked a lettering exercises: on one sheet of paper we made 9 squares with contrasting textures and line qualities. You can see I can't count either.

In the afternoon of the second to the last day we got to work with Yves' technique of working gesso over layers of color and text that we made earlier in the class. He brought with him some of his latest work in this technique and we were really excited to begin.

I brought with me some paste papers that had a lot of background going on and I used these to see how the gesso technique would work. I was really pleased with the result. This first picture is the original paste paper.

We used credit cards, damp paper towels and other tools to spread layers of thin gesso to block out layer shapes over the backgrounds we had done, always keeping in mind the design elements. We layered, scrubbed, added more color and layered some more. You can add scribble texture in the damp gesso. Back and forth, back and forth, creating multiple layers. This is a piece in mid-development.

This is one of the finished pieces. This is a quarter of a 22x30 sheet of Arches text wove.

Here is another piece. It is 1/8 sheet of Arches text worve.

I am working on this piece. It needs a more defined center of interest so I am still playing.

I will post some more samples of the class. This class was fun, scary, frustrating, exciting and powerful. If you get a chance, take this class. It will change the your ideas about the process of working.

The Sequel

2011-01-22T20:23:00.000-08:00

In my last bookmaking class, we had an assignment that involved choosing a book and creating a sequel using a book form that we had learned in class. The sequel had to include a written selection from the original work.

I knew that I did not want to write new text in my book. I really wanted to try making a book that would have a visual response to the original text using images instead of words. About that time we were beginning to get the first snows which were still a novelty and beautiful. In my mailbox came an Writer's Almanac email with the poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson called The Snowstorm. I was struck by the imagery of the poem and decided to use it for my source.

I decided to make a series of collages and enclose them in a box form including phrases from the poem on the collaged "pages". I used mostly Japanese papers adding watercolor, inked line images and bits of calligraphic writing from my stash drawer. I glued all the bits and pieces to a base of gessoed Rives BFK.

As a base on each page, I brushed on white gesso. While it was still wet I laid down plastic wrap and crinkled it, leaving it to dry. After it was dry I removed the plastic and was left with a texture that looked like frost on a glass window.

Here is the cover of the book and below it is the book opened with a selection of pages. You can see the loosely painted paper that I used for the lining of the interior box.

The next step was to decide what letter forms would I use to write out the text. I played around with foundational but I could not find something I was satisfied with. What I finally ended up with was the letters you see below. I wanted the forms to mimic the casual black line drawings I was using on some of my pages. I wrote these out with bamboo skewers to keep the lettering from getting too formal.

This is a close-up of the page "rounded every windward stake, tree or door".

Here is another page.

This book was accepted in the Chicago Calligraphy Collective 2011 Explorations show at the Newberry Library.

Abstract Designs

2010-11-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our vacation on the edge of the ocean in the Bahamas. We have been going for over 20 years to the same place. It is like visiting your old neighborhood.

First thing in the morning before the sun comes up over the island, I take my camera and head for the beach. This year I would see this woman standing at the waters edge every morning watching the ocean until the sun broke through the clouds and cast long shadows on the beach.

There is something about the sound of the waves that slows you down. It becomes really peaceful. Here is a picture of the beach before the sun breaks through the clouds.

Here is the sun just breaking through the clouds. When it starts it BLASTS through clouds and the beach is transformed into long shadows.

Once the sun comes up the shadows get very long. Here I am taking a picture of my shadow.

Here is a bit of silliness. A gull stepped in its own track. Don't know whether he was going back wards or forwards.

Every ear I take pictures of the seawall in the empty lot next door.

The combination of the saltwater and the iron in the cement produce these abstract designs on the seawall. I love the rust colors. Each year the designs and colors change.

The next picture is a closeup of previous picture that I turned upside down.

I will post more pics of the patterns of stones and pebbles and sand that I found on my beach walks.

Summer Letters

2010-10-19T06:18:00.001-07:00

Here are some of my letter practice work from this summer. Lettering along an upper line with watercolors and a cola pen.

In this next series, I am trying to work out some lettering to use with watercolor flower gardens that I posted earlier. They are fun to do but I haven't found a suitable letter form yet. I was inspired by Thomas Ingmire forms.

I cut some new cola pens and started playing.

These letters were done with a ruling pen. In this case I need to work for a more interesting pattern .... it looks like I am talking in a monotone.

Boy, Oh, Boy

2010-10-19T05:09:00.000-07:00

I have been working this summer despite not keeping up with my posts to the blog. I had wanted to concentrate on working on letterforms to polish up my letters. But my practice was less than organized and of course many other things caught my fancy on the way. So I am going to try and post the results of what could be called My Summer Scurry.

I came across the 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland, Oregon which led me to a list of artists and their books. So off I went on another tangent. See Kevin Steele's pop-up book. Yikes!!! Type in this link and look at the article called Assignments at http://www.23sandy.com/assignment/artists.

I also ran into a book artist called Sas Colby along the way. Here is a small article at on the pochoir technique which I had seen used by Sondra Freckleton at a watercolor workshop many, many years ago. So I am hooked on another technique and can't wait to try it out. This might work into a studio playday.

That led me to the journal called Ampersand, more fun stuff.

The Pam Sussman Workshop

2010-07-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Pam Sussman's bookmaking workshop, the 2010 Book Arts Coterie, where we made books, and more books. It was a great experience to show up every day and have the book materials already laid out and prepared for the day's instruction. Each day Pam demonstrated that day's sample. Some days we made more than one book.

In addition to the daily plan, we were encouraged to select other book structures from her samples. For these books, Pam gave us the instruction booklet and let us prepare the materials ourselves from her huge collection of bookmaking supplies. We worked on these books between class time and in the evening. If you go to her blog site and look for the ladder bookshelf you will see for yourself all these beautiful models.

Here is one of the books we made. The Marbling Sample Book made up of single board signatures.

Each of us got a selection of precut marbled paper to cover our boards. We learned how to cover the board edges that resulted in carefully mitered corners using a variety of striped papers.

We then bound the single signatures in technique developed by Keith Smith. Here is the view from the top of the book.

Here is the back of my book showing the bound single boards.

I added my own marbled papers to the backside of the boards, a beautiful play between traditional and non-traditional patterns. This is a peacock pattern on the right and my marbling on the left.

On the right is a chevron pattern across from one of my marbled samples. The finished book is a beautiful palm-sized book with all these luscious marbled papers.

Here is information about Pam. She is the author of Fabric Art Journals from Quarry Publishers. Her beautiful art studio is shown in Art Making and Studio Spaces by Lynne Perrilla and she blogs at http://bookartsstudio.blogspot.com. I will show you more of the books that we made. It was a spectacular time.

Oooooh, Cool Stuff

2010-07-05T05:57:00.000-07:00

For all of us who given paper, a pencil and a bit of time we can lose ourselves in play, who envision blank pages as an opportunity to create and a book to store them in as a netherworld playground.

http://www.notebookism.com

Go there to check out Michael's free E-book "Start to Draw Your Life".

Marbling

2010-06-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

While I was experimenting with the techniques of marbling, I began to create pages of these organic images. I loved the results and it was fun and surprising.

I have use the full pages for book covers, endpapers, calligraphy backgrounds and small cutoffs for collages and additives to paper designs.

Here are some of the pages that look like caladiums.

... a detail.
This one looks like poppies.

... a detail,

another detail.

For this technique, I dilute a good brand of oil paint with mineral spirits in small shotglasses (plastic eventually dissolves) and use spoons, brushes, forks, anything to drop colors on a thickened base. The base is made from methyl cellulose and diluted until the pigments float on the surface. I use newspaper strips for skimming the colors between each color change.

I usually can get a second print from each color application and I use these for endpapers, small cards, because the colors and shapes are smaller and less distinct.

Painted Garden

2010-06-09T22:22:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, you get inspired by something, in this case a catalog of Gudrun Sjoden clothing, and you just have to play. This is a flower border I painted with watercolors. I loved painting in the small designs, although the border is 5" x 18". I am thinking that it would look good with some brightly colored lettering below it.

Here is a close up of another design that I started. This is only about 4" high. It is interesting that as you work you create a "library" of designs and you start repeating your favorites. I want to keep working on them and get some lettering worked in.

Annie Cicale Workshop

2010-05-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

I recently attended the Annie Cicale workshop "Word Meets Image" offered by the CCC. Annie is a great instructor and I got excited about drawing, ink, colored pencils and graphite.

Our first assignment was to start with an apple. After Annie described different techniques, we were instructed to draw our apple in as many media as we wanted. After we finished exploring different techniques, we settled in to choose a view and technique and work on a piece that would include text. Here is the start of my apple after I cut it in half. I worked with caran d' arche watercolor crayons. I was happy with the result because this was the first time that I got them to flow more like tube colors. It was near the end of the day so I don't have the lettering on yet.

On Sunday we worked on another piece from an object we brought to class. We were to include text in the finished design. I brought a welk shell with me and I wanted to use a poem excerpt from the poet Mary Oliver. We worked on image and text layouts using tracing paper. The text on the right is one of my tracing paper layouts.

Here is a closeup of the drawing I started on the left side of the paper. I think the drawing exercises we did on Saturday helped me get this down on paper without too many erasures. I was working one handed because I was afraid to let go of the shell. You can see the edge of the tracing paper with some of the lettering.

I did take a picture of the shell in my hand just in case I might need a reference to finish the drawing, but the orientation changed a bit. In the finished drawing I am thinking of coloring in the shell with colored pencils while leaving the hand in black graphite and maybe doing the lettering in the same colors.

Julie Wildman has some great photos of the work we did on her blog. Check out this drawing of her son. Great isn't it! Read about the artist book she is planning using this as one of the drawings.

Claudio Gill and Gabriela Irigoyen

2010-05-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

I recently bought the book "1000 Journal Pages" and on the first few pages there was work by the Brazilian calligrapher Claudio Gill. I looked him up on the web and found great stuff. You have to look at his site on flicker . Here is his blog link.

His wife is Gabriela Irigoyen and this is her blog link with books, journal pages and drawings. She uses some of his practice sheet for her book covers, look at her very small books too.

The Denis Brown Workshop

2010-05-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

I recently took the Capital Expressions workshop with Denis Brown. On our trip to Dublin last fall we explored this work for a half day but now had the chance to do a 3 day workshop with him. Part of the course description included:

"Exercises with writing as texture will be included and we will look at the expressive potential in composition of: line, form, space, negative shapes, scale, position, tone and colour."

What I realized during some discussions is that I was reacting to the line, form, etc. in a subconscious way and not as analytical as I could be. I had forgotten to consciously review my work using the design elements.

So I picked up a book on the design elements and am refreshing my memory on how to use those elements effectively.

Here are some of my final projects.

This piece does not have enough contrast between letters and background. The second layer doesn't show up in the photo.

I have put some pieces from other participants on the flickr site. Everyone worked hard and did great things.

Places to Go, Things to Look At

2010-04-28T02:52:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a 3 day workshop with Denis Brown so I am exhausted and wound-up .......

so while I was doing some early morning web surfing I found a link on Brody's web site to Alessandro Segalini who has an interesting list of .pdf files that you can download about calligraphy topics. I downloaded some stuff on Roman letters which are currently in my head from the workshop.

I will be posting pics of the work that we did in the workshop as soon as I dig out my camera from the pile of supplies.