Beverly Hills October 19, 2009

October 19, 2009

Beverly Hills Adult School Class #5: Today DeAnn covered capitals. The handout was an exemplar of Roman (simple serif) capitals.

For warm-up, we continued working with the 2 1/2 mm Brause nib on the text (if chosen already) that will be used for the manuscript project.

TIP: Use a post-it note to keep your place in the text that you’re practicing. Place the post-it underneath the line you’re working on and move it along as you progress. This saves you time and also helps you from mistakenly writing a sentence over again.

DeAnn stressed setting up your work area & your board correctly. Tape down the inkwell to your right, place the board in your lap so that you’ll right at table level, and clip down a few clean sheets of grid paper for padding, but don’t clip down the sheet you’re writing on. You should be able to move this sheet as you write.

Capitals are 7 1/2 – 8 pen widths in general (DeAnn had us write this on the exemplar). For today, we used the lines for the 2 1/2 mm nib that we were already practicing on, which makes the capitals barely 7 pen widths tall. So today, the capitals will go from the base-line to the ascender, but this isn’t always the case (e.g. Italic capitals are shorter than the ascender).

For these Roman capitals, the pen angle is about 30-degrees, steeper than the 22-degree angle for the Carolingian lowercase letters. These capitals have simple serifs.

Individual letters:

I – for better flow, write the stem stroke, then the lower serif, then the top serif last.

O – note the oval counter space (inner space); the outside is round like an orange. Keep your eye on the right side of the nib when making the first stroke, then on the left side of the nib when making the second curved stroke (i.e. watch the counter space you’re making).

H – the crossbar is slightly higher than the waist.

A – think “teepee” for the shape; the crossbar is slightly lower than that of the H.

T – cross the top so that the top side of the pen nib is on the ascender line.

N – steepen the pen angle to 45 – 55 degrees for the stem strokes; pen angle returns to 30-degrees for the diagonal. Be careful to overlap the ends of the diagonal stroke with the stem strokes.

V – for now, write the diagonal strokes first to get a more symmetrical letter before putting on the serifs.

Y – think “martini glass” for the shape. You can write the v-shape first, then the stem, if that’s easier for you to create a symmetrical “martini glass” right now.

Z – if you feel that the diagonal stroke of the Z is too narrow, try flattening the pen angle to thicken that stroke.

K – notice where the lower branch of the K touches the top branch. Don’t curve the lower branch stroke.

E – the middle cross stroke is slightly above the halfway mark.

F – the lower stroke is slightly below the halfway mark. If you were to imagine the stem stroke with a line at the halfway point, the lower side of the nib would be on the line for the E; the top side of the nib would be at the line for the F.

L – the lower stroke has a very tiny exit stroke (don’t curve up).

B – start like an L. After the top curve, start the lower curve and look at the left side of the nib to meet the slight exit stroke of the base.

R – start like a P. Look carefully at the exemplar for the placement of the leg – it shouldn’t curve.

G – pull the first stroke (lower curve) a tiny bit straight, keeping it close to the base line. From the halfway point, make a sturdy connection for the vertical stroke.

D – start like an L. Keep an eye on the left side of the nib so the curve of the D will meet the base stroke smoothly.

M – think of its shape like a V with slightly splayed legs attached. All the strokes can be written as down strokes or as down-down-up-down.

W – Think of the shape as 2 sets of diagonal strokes. All strokes can be written as down strokes or as down-up-down-up.

U – once you make the first stroke, look at where the curve ends & go up. The left side of the nib should meet the curved line as you write the stroke.

DeAnn’s TIP: When making the connections for the capitals: Look where you’re going, not where you’ve been. Also study the counter space (white space) of the letters.

DeAnn will e-mail us the stroke sequence (= ductus) for the capitals.

HOMEWORK: Practice writing your text with the capitals. If you haven’t decided on one piece yet, try different ones you’re interested in.

Illuminated manuscript project: dimensions are 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet with generous margins. Text written with 1 1/2 mm Brause nib. Decorative capital to start. Text should be 50 – 100 words.

Dot flowers, graphite romans, copperplate capital as Illustration

Copperplate Flourishing & design

Today at Westchester we learned how to design a piece of calligraphy. It is called a "broadside". These are the steps that you would take to develope a page of calligraphy.

1. Thumbnail sketch. Vertical or horizontal format of your paper.
2. Comp., Dummy or Model. This is where you write the text out on the good paper, good ink or paint and cut it up and tape it to a page the correct size. This way you can write it many times and pick the best parts and combine them on a page. You can tape up the illustrations or large illuminated letter or other elements to the page. Make all the measurements and note them onto the page. Get all the details worked out on this step.
3. Finished piece. When you line up the paper, line at least 2. This way if you make a mistake you can easily move on to the next sheet without breaking your rhythm. 

REMEMBER THE PRACTICE YOU DO IS THE "REHEARSAL" FOR THE PERFORMANCE. So rehearse with the same materials and paints and determination. This will determine how the performance will be.

The finished page will be in paint; gouache, watercolor, or ink. The initial capital will be much bigger and decorated with a choice of  techniques to embellish the letter. You will most likely need to line the paper. We are going to use  140 lb. hot pressed watercolor paper. This paper is easy to work with and you can correct mistakes, or write on the other side if needed. 

We learned how to flourish within the text itself and around the text. We will be working on this project for a couple of weeks. I suggested that you use song lyrics for text because it's easier to get a rhythm with words that you already know and don't have to look back and forth to a book with words. 

Margorie brought some samples of books and decorated papers to share with us. Metallics and rubberstamped images inspired many students to make a completed piece. 

The Roman people are working on pencil capitals. Margorie made 2 very nice pieces on black paper with color pencils. She wrote first with white then went over it with color pencil.  and added a little color to the text. She drew a little illustration in white that enhanced the design.

Francine has a piece that she's been working on that she xeroxed and played with placement on the page and background enhancement. She found that just having more white space around the words made it look better all the way around. She added illustration to her original and didn't like it as well as the mock up. We suggested that she smooth out the watercolor so it didn't have the "straw-ation" that she had as yet. Also, she needed to darken the lettering that has the illustration behind it. 

Gail has a piece that is nearly done with the name in large writing stacked on the left with text on the right. The author is set on the left, letter-spaced, oriented from bottom to top and she has added gold dots between letters. Nice touch. I'll learn how to upload pics and post them.