Friday, September 26, 2008

Practice, Practice, Practice


Confession - I love doing calligraphy. I took numerous classes from the fabulous Carol Du Bosch while living in Portland, OR. Whenever I practice or do a calligraphy project, I can hear her words about how to form the letters, picture her demonstrating in class and warning us that not practicing religiously was simply unacceptable. What an outstanding teacher she was, I miss her!
So, I set up the writing table, opened my ink and got to practicing. Right now I'm reviewing pointed italic. I'm hoping to make a few Christmas gifts (books) and maybe even do a Christmas card and print it on the Gocco printer. (that is if I can produce some decent lettering - it really takes a commitment to get back up to par!)

4 comments:

Paula Villanova said...

Wow! I took a class in this when I was in art school and I know that practice does indeed make perfect, especially when it comes to calligraphy. Your work looks great; it looks like you have a great hand for this. Nice work!

artslice said...

Thank you Paula! It really is one of my favorite mediums... if only I could think of more ways to 'marry' it with other work.

martha miller said...

I took a Chinese Calligraphy class at MECA that was sheer torture!! The professor is Chinese and has been doing calligraphy since childhood. He told us of how his strict father would rip up his practice sheets and make him stay up all night practicing to get ready for exams! So he tolerated no whining from us when we had to sit from 6-9pm making the same figure over and over and over and over...
"Too Fast! Slow down! Sit up straight!"
TORTURE.

I like your idea of gocco-ing some of this stuff! It is strong and beautiful to look at! You could always make an illuminated manuscript! :^)

artslice said...

Blah! Sounds pretty brutal. I would love to do an illuminated manuscript kind of thing... I've never done it before but I did buy some of that gold leaf stuff. We'll see what happens1