Uncial at Sinai Temple

click on the pix to enlarge them.

Uncial is an ancient style of calligraphy. The New Testament was written in Greek Uncials. I've seen the Codex Alexandrinus see manuscript at the British Library that dates sometime in the 5th century. It's so exciting to see the original documents that had something to do with Christian traditions and beliefs in the world. The uncial that we are studying begins with the monoline version to familiarize ourselves with the structure and spacing of this alphabet style, in English of course. Then we will tackle the pointed pen version. I'm posting the work that I'd like the students to do this week. Space your own name out in monoline uncial in pencil, then in pen. (Speedball B-1nib in black ink) I've done these both. I didn't use a B-1 nib because I did this assignment while I was watching the Presidential debates and I was sitting on my bed. I did it with a Sharpey medium sized marker. Then I did it again on good paper and used watercolor pencils to color it then a brush to blend the colors. I think this is a fun way to learn spacing and it's really pretty when you're finished. I'll bring some paper to class that you can do your finished watercolor version on. If you have some watercolor paper you can go ahead and do it before you come to class. Bring your watercolors or watercolor pencils to class. You'll need a small brush, such as a #1 synthetic pointed watercolor brush. Many of you have this from the illumination assignments. I will bring some watercolors and pencils to borrow if you don't have any. You'll also need a little water jar to rinse your brush.

I want you to notice on my pencil one, that I erased a lot to get the letters and spacing right. So don't be afraid to "get it right, one way or another". Also, I made a mistake on my colored version and got the second N in DEANN too far from the first. The dark blue makes it not stand out as much, but it's wrong (the space between those two N's should match the IN in SINGH.) Oooops!!! I didn't trace, because I was not at my drafting table, but I think it's a good idea to trace the pencil one for your inked one. Put it up to the window and trace it again in pencil then ink it. The point is to do it! If I can do it while watching the debates that meant it only took (approx.) one hour to do all three versions.