Friday, December 4, 2015

Latest ATC

 This ATC is adapted from one of my journal pages.
  •  Background created by collaging torn pieces from security envelope liners.
  • Gesso is unevenly applied to mute. 
  • Floral contour drawn with Micron brush pen, then scanned and reduced. 
  • Brush lettered verse--my words--was lettered with a Pitt brush pen, scanned and reduced. 
  • Contour and words were layered in Photoshop, then printed on the background. 
  • Golden watercolor ground was applied in the upper-right corner area and allowed to dry completely, then a watercolor wash applied.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Menu for San Francisco Wedding

Menu designed and created for San Francisco wedding. The tags and cards arrived very late, so my friend, Debbie, helped with the place cards. I did create the cards for the people I knew, such as Michele, to my right.













For the escort tags, I printed the table names (S.F. streets), then hand-lettered the guest names. These were attached to lanterns, which illuminated the glasswear--beautiful!

The wedding was held in a Victorian-era mansion. We chose traditional copperplate to go with the Victorian theme.

Friday, August 28, 2015

Free Program at the Riverside Main Library

The Society for Calligraphy serves sprawling southern California. To that aim, we have re-started the Inland Empire Regional Group. This is our second program and our aim is to introduce a variety of calligraphy styles, tools, and techniques, as well as complement the classes available through UC Riverside extension.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Letterpress Collaborative Book

I have so many projects that I haven't posted here--I'l try to catch up a little at a time. Life's been busier than ever.
   In late July, Marjorie and I had the last-minute opportunity to participate in a letterpress workshop at the San Francisco Center for the Book. Since our friend, Debbie, had the car, we walked miles each way to attend. I had blisters on my toes, after all those inclines, but it was well worth it. Now, I'm much more familiar with the process.
   There were six in the class and each of us was assigned to design and print two pages. Theresa, vacationing from northern England, and I, designed the title and half-title pages, which aren't visible in the photo of Marjorie and I. I think Marjorie was on the team for the colophon and maybe for the cover. Mary Laird was the enthusiastic instructor. We would highly recommend a class with her.
    Marjorie, Debbie, and I would like to arrange a trip with all three of us taking another L.P. class.
    This was just one of several heavenly activities over a 15-day road trip.  I'll post more soon!


Wednesday, May 27, 2015

May's Artist Trading Card: Three Pears

This month's ATC is devoted to Annie Lawrence, the Society for Calligraphy's retreat director, who is moving to Paradise, California. I painted the pears several years ago. They're from Billy Showell's book, Watercolor Fruit and Vegetable Portraits. I discovered the book, in Dutch, in an art supply store in Bruges. I couldn't really read the technical writing, so the text was no help. I later found the book written in English.
   I'm just back from our six-day retreat trip, where I incorporated the lettering with the painted pears. I gave an ATC to each of the 31 retreat attendees. In return, several others decided to make cards to share--lots of fun.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Hedgehog Silhouette ATC




Our little Fuzzy passed away after a long bout with cancer. She was with us a little over four years. During the first three, she was very prickly and not overly friendly. After we discovered she was sick and took her to the vet, who helped her feel better, she suddenly became a very loving animal, pressing up against us (ouch!) and wanting to come out of her terrarium to spend time with us at all hours of the day and night.

Over the years, Dennis took very good care of her, building her a large wheel, on which she ran for hours each night; as well as a little house, which she loved; a bracket for an overhead heater that kept her warm in cooler weather (she used to lay directly under it on winter afternoons); and other little accessories for her yard. A favorite memory of ours was after we fed her and put her back for the night, she would ecstatically bounce and flip in her sand--reminded me of a jumping bean--gaining some real lift. This was always in the darkened room--she was nocturnal, after all, so, unfortunately, we never filmed it. She also purred--she loved other food treats, but only worms provoked that enthusiastic sound. Gobbling her favorite scrambled eggs did generate some squeaking sounds--sounded like a tribble, as featured on one Star Trek episode.

Dennis says "No more pets!"--he gets too attached. We both miss spending afternoon naps and evening TV time with her. I created this past month's Artist Trading Card in her memory.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Save-the-Dates for niece, Lauren


I never planned to do calligraphy for this wedding suite using a Sharpie! The layout inspiration came from a card we saw in a magazine. Lauren decided she wanted a kraft background and the lettering uses Lauren's colors. It took me a lot of experimentation to decide to use the Sharpie for the lettering--Lauren wanted a bold, contemporary look.
   The invitations will be a modern floral. I'll carrying the Sharpie lettering throughout her suite.


Simple Script - introduction to Modern Script Lettering

I usually don't post my envelopes because they have personal addresses on them. Those I create as "gifts" for others are always my best effort. For my teaching samples, I've just started started using a fake name and address. These samples are for a short, introductory class that I'll be teaching in Redlands and Scottdale. The class will be based on copperplate, but with less structure and lots of leeway for personalization. With only three hours, we'll cover lower-case, only, as well as variations.

We'll start with a mono-line pen to draw the letters, as in the first example, then we'll move to a dip pen. We'll only have time for very simple decoration. I think this class will be a fun one and, hopefully, the students will be inspired to take more serious classes. I need to come up with more samples, as these were done quickly and sloppily, and especially because, later, I will be teaching another version of this class in Riverside which includes watercolor flowers.


Thursday, January 22, 2015

Happy Accident - ATC alternate version.

 
 While printing the backgrounds, I ran out of red ink. I liked the color combination. This scan is rather grainy--it looks better "in person".


Red Sunflower Artist Trading Card


  January's ATC. I played with Photoshop for this one--a great exercise for improving those skills. At the bottom is the original photo, taken while driving through the Loire Valley in France, during September 2011. This was the only field of sunflowers in bloom that we passed during our entire three-week trip. All the other fields were brown and gone to seed. The photo was quickly snapped, without much effort to compose, thus, not too thrilling a picture.
   A design class project had these requirements: 1) Choose a photo; 2) Artistically crop it; 3) Change the colors. I chose to use Photoshop, as I'd like to improve my  competentency.  In the process of fulfilling the requirements, I also significantly altered the photo to change the shaded flower face into one which was light-filled. I finished that project in early December and was thrilled with what I had learned. The more I use Photoshop, the more I enjoy it.
   For this ATC, I have further cropped the project picture and I think I now like it even more.

California Holly design for late-November ATC

 
It appears I forgot to post my last ATC design. Although I was generally happy with the design--California Holly to reflect the then-upcoming season, I wasn't thrilled with the end result. I used fairly cheap watercolor paper and the painting didn't go well. I promised new versions to the exchange participants, and I hope to get to that fairly soon.