Pages

Sunday, January 8, 2023

Still exercising

 Time is getting cramped again and I am yet to begin my assignment for this online course; but I have kept on practising and testing ideas which is part of the deal right?

One of the styles that Brody references is the work of Nancy Bell Scott.

Apologies again for the clarity of these photos - something is definitely 'up' with the transfer of images  and I don't know why they are so fuzzy...

Its kind of like a single line, all connected, varying heights and sizes, yet with some common elements across the lettering. Very upright, here with a few loops.


The next step was to add a couple of design elements - I added 'squares' onto some of the straight lines; and dotted coloured in triangles into some of the gaps. Definitely made it more interesting.

 
And then I started to colour in a bit.

 
And decided it needed more colour.


And a tiny bit more...


And then I began again, looking for other ways to add interest. Starting with highlighting the dots on the 'i'


Then adding some thicks on both horizontal and vertical lines


To contrast I checked how things looked if I coloured in the counters.

 
And decided it needed a lit bit more, so some triangles along a few straight lines was the next test. And I think I decided I didn't really like the spiky look!


I then went and tried to write a few more lines, to see how a piece of work might look if it was a full page of text like this. I found it really interesting how as I wrote, the new line took the shape of the spaces left by the line above; design-wise I was always trying to get spaces filled and balanced. Which was good in a way as it took my mind off forming perfect letters.

I did it on nice olive green-grey paper, but it doesn't show up as well here.



I think this could go somewhere...

4 comments:

  1. my mind boggled at first, trying to decipher the words ... but once found, they felt very much as they should be ... and it was a delight to see additional elements layered on ... likewise each new iteration (although I quite agree that the spiky version was a least favorite)

    for what it's worth, the image quality seems to be coming through reasonably well on my PC laptop (15" monitor running on Foxfire)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for letting me know re the photo quality your way Liz, over here it still looks bit fuzzy but not too bad. This lettering feels like a foreign accent. Once you can tune your eye (or ear) into the lilts and emphasis and rhythms you can understand quite well. I am having fun with this and it really suits a piece I am working on so I am not sure which came first, but bingo!

      Delete
  2. This is all so fascinating - I am enjoying this foray into expressive calligraphy, never realizing just how expressive it could be. Thank you so much for sharing your work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for your kind words. It is a bit of a challenge for me to get this loopy and lively; but I love the words being there, but not easy to read; making folk work to participate and understand. Then again, I also just really like the patterns the words make when the lettering takes on these shapes! So interesting...go well.

      Delete

I appreciate your thoughts and comments; thanks for taking the time.