Our primary goal was to get as many spatters as possible from the pen and to find out what marks are possible with this tool. Using walnut ink and Strathmore Drawing or Sketch paper, this happens fairly easily...
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
In February, our program was to revisit the Ruling Pen. This is the Haff pen mostly used by Thomas Hoyer, Louie Lemoine, Rosemary Buczek and other calligraphy instructors. It is an old drafting or engineering tool used, for ruling lines!! And works very well for that purpose, I might add!
Our primary goal was to get as many spatters as possible from the pen and to find out what marks are possible with this tool. Using walnut ink and Strathmore Drawing or Sketch paper, this happens fairly easily...
Lettering is easily achieved with it as well......
It is a fun tool! play with it! it makes strange and interesting marks!
Our primary goal was to get as many spatters as possible from the pen and to find out what marks are possible with this tool. Using walnut ink and Strathmore Drawing or Sketch paper, this happens fairly easily...
Our January 2014 program saw us exploring the Button Alphabet originally designed by Peter Thornton and now taught by Louis (sometimes Louie) Lemoine. Our members, Violet and Shannon had recently taken a workshop with him in Vancouver and kindly shared what they had learned.
The letters were originally done to use on a conference button for the name of the participants. It works very well for that! Using either the widest Zig marker or the widest Parallel pen, this is an easy hand to learn and add to one's expertise. It looks fun on envelopes - there again - best suited for the name and not the address as they aren't the easiest of letters to read and we do want our mail to get to its destination quickly!
Thank you to Violet and Shannon for sharing!
The letters were originally done to use on a conference button for the name of the participants. It works very well for that! Using either the widest Zig marker or the widest Parallel pen, this is an easy hand to learn and add to one's expertise. It looks fun on envelopes - there again - best suited for the name and not the address as they aren't the easiest of letters to read and we do want our mail to get to its destination quickly!
December saw us gathered for our annual Christmas luncheon and card exchange. Thank you Val for opening her home once again. Looks like a wonderful gathering to celebrate the season!
Not only are we a group of lettering artists, but we have watercolourists in our midst as well..... this is just a sampling of the cards we exchanged in 2013.
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| opening our cards is always the best part! |
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| seeing our friends is always the best part! |
No food photos! that is always the best part too!!
Monday, October 14, 2013
October 2013
The October program was a look at Pointed Pen Mandalas.
This entailed using a pointed nib (not something everyone was comfortable with!) with either ink, gouache, twinkling H20s, mica paints or whatever the participants brought to write with.
We started with a circle and then a smaller one around the centre and marked points on the edges of both at equal intervals. Using those marks as a guideline, we drew lines from the outer circle in towards the centre circle. Once we had established those sections, we had to decide on what to use to complete the decorations.
Although just about any fluid will work to render a mandala, I do find that the Finetec gold pans are absolutely wonderful to use with pointed pen. It is almost time to reorder...
They almost say Christmas card but they are time consuming!! Enjoy!
The October program was a look at Pointed Pen Mandalas.
This entailed using a pointed nib (not something everyone was comfortable with!) with either ink, gouache, twinkling H20s, mica paints or whatever the participants brought to write with.
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| Finetec silver and gold on black Artagain paper |
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| Finetec Gold on Arches Text Wove |
Although just about any fluid will work to render a mandala, I do find that the Finetec gold pans are absolutely wonderful to use with pointed pen. It is almost time to reorder...
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| Finetec on black Artagain paper |
They almost say Christmas card but they are time consuming!! Enjoy!
September 2013
At our regular meeting in September we learned about the summertime IAMPETH convention held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Five days of pointed pen immersion in the comfort of a nice hotel, sounds like heaven!! for more information about the 2014 convention have a look at www.iampeth.com
We explored a couple of exercises at the meeting. One, we were given a small precut matte. Using a parallel pen to lay down some marks and then filling tiny spaces in with coloured pencil, we were then ready to add a quote. It was good to walk away with something that could be looked at as a 'finished piece', simple but an idea that one could work on and expand.
The second project was to learn the method of painting a Versal letter with a ribbon wrapped around it. There were varying degrees of success! but a jumping off point to explore on an exhibition piece perhaps.
At our regular meeting in September we learned about the summertime IAMPETH convention held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Five days of pointed pen immersion in the comfort of a nice hotel, sounds like heaven!! for more information about the 2014 convention have a look at www.iampeth.com
We explored a couple of exercises at the meeting. One, we were given a small precut matte. Using a parallel pen to lay down some marks and then filling tiny spaces in with coloured pencil, we were then ready to add a quote. It was good to walk away with something that could be looked at as a 'finished piece', simple but an idea that one could work on and expand.
The second project was to learn the method of painting a Versal letter with a ribbon wrapped around it. There were varying degrees of success! but a jumping off point to explore on an exhibition piece perhaps.
Friday, June 7, 2013
So much for that New Year's Resolution!
Our May meeting featured one of our members, Rita, showing us how she approaches Pointillism. Rita has done some wonderful watercolour work and I am the proud owner of one of her lovely pointillism paintings.
Rita gave us pieces of watercolour paper cut to the size of bookmarks and had us design a letter to which we added colour, either watercolour with a brush or fine monoline pens.
The exercise gave us all a much better understanding and respect for the amount of work that goes in to a whole landscape!
Our April meeting was presented by Anita. She was sharing something she learned with Ewan Clyaton - "Push - Dab - Flick". We used Automatic Pens or something similar and worked through several exercises to get the feeling of the movement in calligraphy.
At the March meeting saw members led by Nan who shared some quick layout exercises learned from Thomas Hoyer. Participants worked with monoline tools on pre-cut 4"X6" practice paper.
Our February meeting had us all exploring Ruling Pens with Nan, Eileen and Bev demonstrating different ideas and techniques with different ruling and folded pens and walnut ink. We worked on practice paper and text wove with walnut ink. I aspire to be able to do this alphabet.....I wish I knew where I found this exemplar floating around on the internet. Does anyone know who did this so I can give them recognition?
At the January meeting, we worked on a monoline alphabet Bev found in a recent Letter Arts Review. It was done by Thomas Ingmire and caught her eye as something we might like to play with and add to our repertoire. We worked with monoline tools or soft pencils - 2B or 3B adding some pressure and release on practice paper.
Rita gave us pieces of watercolour paper cut to the size of bookmarks and had us design a letter to which we added colour, either watercolour with a brush or fine monoline pens.
The exercise gave us all a much better understanding and respect for the amount of work that goes in to a whole landscape!
Our April meeting was presented by Anita. She was sharing something she learned with Ewan Clyaton - "Push - Dab - Flick". We used Automatic Pens or something similar and worked through several exercises to get the feeling of the movement in calligraphy.
At the March meeting saw members led by Nan who shared some quick layout exercises learned from Thomas Hoyer. Participants worked with monoline tools on pre-cut 4"X6" practice paper.
Our February meeting had us all exploring Ruling Pens with Nan, Eileen and Bev demonstrating different ideas and techniques with different ruling and folded pens and walnut ink. We worked on practice paper and text wove with walnut ink. I aspire to be able to do this alphabet.....I wish I knew where I found this exemplar floating around on the internet. Does anyone know who did this so I can give them recognition?
At the January meeting, we worked on a monoline alphabet Bev found in a recent Letter Arts Review. It was done by Thomas Ingmire and caught her eye as something we might like to play with and add to our repertoire. We worked with monoline tools or soft pencils - 2B or 3B adding some pressure and release on practice paper.
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| example from Letter Arts Review |
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| Bev's attempt at an pressure and release exemplar |
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| using the lettering in a quote |
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