Copperplate at Emerson Adult Center April 28, 2009

Today we learned how to add flourishing to letters and capitals. If you think about it,  the capitals are a big flourish made up of the Elements of Flourishing; oval, figure 8 and circle. With direction changes; full stop, turn about and small loop, you can make the flourishes a little more interesting and contemporary. I suggested writing out a body of text and keep the letters very simple, not finishing the ascends and descenders and leaving them a "stub". Then come back and create flourishing with a pencil around and through out. I recommend that you "over do it" learn to take a risk. It's not brain surgery, nobody will die if you get it wrong, so, GO FOR IT!  This will teach you to go forward with a hunch and see if you can make it work. If it doesn't work, "Oh Well." This is how you will learn when to flourish and when not to. Don't make a Thick over a Thick. So if you are going down and you are about to cross over a thick, then let up the pressure and keep it thin. You really want to avoid "dark spots". A thick over thick creates a dark spot. Too many lines, too close together create a dark spot. So stand a little distance away from the work and squint your eyes at it to see if it has a nice texture and rhythm to it. (And no dark spots!)

Write with all the nibs, all the sizes if you feel comfortable writing the smaller sizes. Not all nibs flourish well. Some of the nibs are too sharp to move freely. You can change nibs to do some of the more difficult flourishes. If you like writing with a Gillot #303 you can always change to a different nib to complete the flourishes, one that won't stick into the paper as much. You will need to practice a lot with a lot of nibs to find what works for you. "Be the Master or your Tools, don't let the Tools Master you!"

Class of Copperplate for April 27 at Beverly Hills.

Today we learned how to connect letters into words and sentences. As you write each letter you begin with the #7 as an entrance stroke. When you connect letter to letter the last part of the previous letter creates the entrance stroke to the new letter. Take an l, it's made from; #7,#5, #3. The right side of the #3 becomes the entrance stroke to the next letter. Look at the Alphabet Sentences that were written by Satomi Wada. These will help you see the connections of each letter to the next. The homework is to write the alphabet sentences using the vermillion ink, Gillot 404, 1/4" guidelines. Then use all the other nibs, be sure to make notes on your nib identification chart, and make notes on your homework so you can remember which nib you wrote with each time. You will learn which nib writes best on this paper for this ink and this size. Then try all the other sizes of guidelines, 3/16" (medium) and 1/8" (small). Some of the nibs aren't the best for smaller writing. These are things that you need to learn to be successful at copperplate. 

Today at Westchester we learned flourishing to go with our copperplate. My method of teaching flourishing comes from my inability to memorize flourishing that others have done. I found that most flourishing is based on 3 elements: Oval, Figure 8, and Circle.  Practice these elements till your hand and muscle memory are very comfortable doing them in every direction, axis and width. Practice them in a vertical, horizontal and diagonal axis. After practicing these 3 elements we practiced combining elements. First 2 elements such as; one oval and one fig. 8. Do a number of attempts to create a harmonious shape. I think they are best if you contrast size and direction. Then we combined 3 elements. These can be the same element repeated or 2 of the same then another. For instance; figure 8, oval, figure 8. I know it's hard to understand if you can't see it. I'll try to post pictures. But the idea is to create your own flourishing and not just copy someone else's.  There's nothing like letting them "flow" out of your own creativity. It's worth it!  After practicing this we added "A Direction Change". This is 1. full stop 2. small loop 3. turn around. The direction change creates a more contemporary flourish.

By the way, I found out that I have the opportunity to do Fee Based Classes. This means I'll offer classes and set a smaller number of students with a fee that will pay the teacher and a small amount for the rental of the room. This is a fair way to take classes in the financial climate of today. I will probably make the classes 6-8 weeks in length. I think we will be able to keep the Tuesday slot. I'm so pleased that we will be able to continue at Emerson Adult Learning Center.

Assignments for classes week of April 20, 2009

Hi Folks,

I want to try and blog the assignments that took place this week so you can get the homework for next week. Today in Beverly Hills we went over the strokes of copperplate again. Remember to memorize the strokes according to the exemplar. Make all the white space of the strokes the same.

* Check the white space of #2, #3, #4, #8. They should all be similar.

 *Make all the down strokes the same widths. 

*I tested everyone to see if they had the strokes memorized.

We then combined the strokes into letters. Look at the exemplar that says, "Stroke Sequence"

This will show you letter by letter how to combine the strokes to create each letter. Also the Exemplar that is in color has a different color for each stroke. This will help you see each part separately. There are a few letters that don't fit into the regular strokes, these are; k, r, s, x, z. We learned each letter and compared to the size and spacing of each letter before it. The k is a #7, 5, upstroke for next part and down for the last stroke. Remember, if it's thin, it's an up stroke, if it's thick, it's an down stroke. Look at the other letters and do them the best you can. ****The homework for this week is to use all the different nibs to write letters. Don't skip ahead, just write the letters. When you write with different nibs, be sure to label on your paper which nib that your using. This is how you will learn how each nib performs. It's as important to know how the nibs work as it is to be able to write each letter. Write with Vermillion ink. It works the best so you won't have to struggle with that aspect. Look to see if you are holding the nib correctly. In future I'll be able to add pics to this information. I will post more if I get the chance. so check from time to time.