This class was exceptional. Each week, we were asked to create an art piece that used a new alphabet for lettering and added increasingly complex design and graphic elements. I'm horrible at italic scripts, though do well with those that are straight up and down. So the only pieces I'm showing here are the non-italic styles... we did several typefaces in various italic styles - I never could get them to look any good! The first piece shown above was my monogram using an alphabet whose making was literally carved in stone. It gave the letters their varied width of line and was also used for large pieces all done in capitals.



Created in Roman Uncials, this favorite saying was fun, but difficult to do. As you can see, I struggled with getting the height of the letters to work well together in a single line. This piece also began skills in developing good round letters - like the O, G, and D. You create these by looking at the edge of the space you want to have show up, letting the pen nib vary the line widths as you curve around the figure. The O in Gold is particularly well done. Notice the thinness of the top and bottom edges where the two halves are connected.



This piece introduced the use of color, mixed lettering styles within a single presentation, and a colophon (ending - or in this case, the name of the piece and the author). The Roman uncials of the last piece are used with a capital from the lettering style in the first piece. Illuminated letters are very popular, both in wall pieces, such as the enlarged L here, but also in texts. I found my favorite type in this piece - Carolingian - the open, spacious text in the middle with long stems. 

Mistakes help us learn creative problem-solving techniques. For example, Professor Geoffrey Burnham immediately noticed the missing "the" in the first line! He illustrated how such an error could be repaired by adding it in a different orientation at the end.



I love the distinction in this quote between the value of weeding or just letting a garden do what it might "naturally" want to... With another alphabet, this piece was also an exercise to start adding color images and text to our work. Framed and here shown on a backdrop of a living room carpet, it's quite possible this project was completed before the Shakespeare one.



The class evolved into creating a book page, spacing and measurement of how many words per line becomes important. Room for simple drawings at the end and enlarged lettering at the start help fill the space in a balanced look. I think this letter style is half-uncial for the main text; my memory is lax in informing me of the title style.  

There are two other images I'll add to my website in the future from this class: a piece from the Rubayait of Omar K. and  a book I completed for the final project...
Stay tuned...

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Page last updated: February 27, 2007