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Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Beginning a commission

 I have been asked to think about designing a Title for the cover of a book of poetry. I have done calligraphic work for this series of works before, but there are three books to come and I am trying to settle into the rhythm again after quite a big break.

The Title is "Rough Sleepers" and I have been thinking about styles in those wide-awake-at-night moments. So on Friday aI sat down, gathered my thoughts, some paper, some ink and some pens and took the first steps. Oh, and a cup of tea too!

I wanted to test and trial some of my ruling pens; some moth pens and anything else that might look scratchy. There were 7 tools in the end that I thought would be worth a go.


So I used each of them to write the title out and it came down to two that had possibilities.



So I played around with them for a bit - changing the style of E; doing the words in lower case; then upper case; and combinations.


And ended up with 5 options to send to the client to check if I am anywhere close to being on track!

 

To take my mind off the serious work of commissions, I set about to make a few more 'congratulations on your new home' cards for a friend who is a real estate agent.

I used some handmade paper made approximately 15 years ago or more (trying hard to use up stocks in the studio) and glued the test and trial prints I did over here on the front after trimming them down a bit. Then I cut a piece of inner paper and stitched it through the soft handmade paper and wrote a few words inside. 



As ever, a bit of mix and match at play in the studio!

4 comments:

  1. i can see so clearly your thought process on playing with the text. got me thinking thank you for all your posts. Irene in N Ireland

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    1. Thanks Irene. Yes, I was trying to get that rough and scratchy look, without overdoing it....go well.

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  2. a lovely new home card ... but I confess to being perplexed by "rough sleepers" ... hmmmm

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    1. I wonder if it's lost in transaction? Often times people who are experiencing homelessness here can be called rough sleepers? So I was trying to look for something that matched the toughness of those times and experiences and didn't look comfortable, refined or resolved. Not sure if that helps at all! The card recipient really loved her cards so that was good. Go well.

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