A Thank You

 

 

Here's a piece I created for our real estate agent whom went out of her way to ensure we had a good experience with our first home purchase.  We had a number of hiccups that slowed things down.  She had ability get it done timely and professionally.  Visit her here if your purchasing a home near me.

 

Each of the elements in this piece were inpired by researching many manuscripts.   There's a number of different digital scriptoriums that have these documents online for you to view.  Check the highlights on this digital scriptorium.

 

I'll be doing a manuscript reproduction for someone coming up that will be displayed at an exhibit in April which is exciting for me.  Thank you all for viewing my blog.

 

- Stephen

A farewell retirement card for a friend

This was a fun project I did for friend at work whom retired recently.  Her name started with S and I while haven't perfected humanistic hand lettering I enjoy writing in it very much.  So as much as I butchered the hand lettering the surrounding art work compensated for it. The person whom received the card absolutely loved it. 

The front of the card is three shades of brown that I splattered on using an old tooth brush.  The centered S on the front is actually cut out and elevated on the card.  I used foamy two sided adhesive squares to give it an elevated effect. A while back someone told me to stay away from black and the background of the S is the closest to black I could get by mixing violet and brown. 

Not having done anything Victorian I'd thought I'd dive in and enjoyed the drafting of the card very much.  It was a real challenged getting the spacing right.  Hope you all enjoy this as much as the recipient did.  It may be another two months before I get a chance to post something.

If you enjoy calligraphy as much as I do.  Consider joining a Guild, I'm part of the Nashville Calligraphy Guild and they have been an excellent group of people to meet with.  They offer classes monthly and have activities at each meeting.  Try googling for the one near you or send me an email and I'll attempt to help you locate one near you.

A few neat name plates

Here are two different name plates, the larger L and T were done a number of months back before I had my monogram brush so the white lines came out thicker than I would have liked.  Now I know better and the next ones I did on the M and M show the difference.  You can really see how light reflects off raised gold gilding on the finished pieces.

I did the following before I knew how to do raised gilding or I would have done it that way.  You'll notice the white lines are thicker then the above photo's as I didn't have a good pointed brushed back then.

It may be a few months before I post another blog due to being very busy for a two or three months.  Do check out this manuscript http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/dlo?obj=ds.Columbia-NY.NNC-RBML.4885&size=medium It was likely created between 1455-1464.  If you follow the link it will bring you to the full record about it. 

So I've discovered fiverr.com

Here's a neat venue to provide affordable calligraphy from me.  Visit my gigs at fiverr.com send a post card on your behalf in gothic italicized hand lettering. Click the link to see how to I've set my gigs up.   Watch for updates for new idea's and gig's I'll be posting.

Here's the photo's I listed for my gig;

Wish me luck with my new venture so I can earn enough money to purchase books and advanced classes in calligraphy.

Here's a video I made and uploaded to youtube.  I'm no marketing guru, but it's a start.  The first third is an ad, the last 2/3rd's is a sped up video of the hand lettering in action.

Also, this past month I did a card for our secretary at work.  I got carried away with the gilding I learned last month and the boarder design so it's harder to see the "Z".    She loved it anyway!

A class with Rosemary Buzcek

Recently I took a class with renowned Lettering Artist Rosemary Buczek. Please visit her website The Gilded Quill which is professional and well done. She has two instructional videos, that are well worth the investment and you can find them here or at John Neal Bookseller. Her work is master level and she is a Master Penman Engrosser.

She taught the group this past weekend the technique of applying gold to the paper(gilding), how to create decorated letters and acanthus leaves using water colors. This instructor has the heart of a teacher and communicated her abilities to each of us effectively. This is clearly seen in each person’s work. All the students had the same print that was pre written and outlined. All of ours is slightly different as we mixed our own colors and added our own decorations.

I recommend her class for anyone looking to improve their decorated lettering ability and look forward to taking her other class; A Master Class in Illumination.

A Celtic Design with Christian Prayer



I took inspiration from Celtic designs for this piece.  Used sepia ink for the lettering and a size 3 nib for the Uncial handlettering.  The letter "B" I  created from a design you can find in "Designs from the Book of Kells" which is altered to work in the piece. Her books are very useful as she has a couple books I have learned from.  The boarder was inspired by multiple designs I found using "55 Classic Celtic Boarders"  There are many good Celtic books to learn from about this and a search on amazon.com will show you many. 

If you interested in calligraphy, my supplies and instructional books come from John Neal Books as you won't be able to get your techinal tools from places like hobby lobby.

Please visit this professional calligraphers webiste Hollymonroe.com.  She is an active leader of the Cincinnati calligraphy guild and has many products that are far better then what you find in any mainstream store with comparable prices. 

Consider supporting your local calligrapher and artist in your hometown.  You may be suprised at what you can get.

Mark 1:1-5 Gothic theme boarder

Click on a picture if you would like to zoom in for greater detail.

A Gothic themed manuscript; this was my first attempt at a piece that was 11" x 14".  Turns out the matt frames aren't framed for 11"x 14" the actual working area is 10 1/2 "  x 13 1/2".  The hand lettering was completed with a size 3 nib and H Graham gouache.  Drew the white lines using a Haff Ruling Pen by taking a small amount of white gouache and watering it down to get a just the right consistency.  I found using a ruling pen had more control than a paint brush and it kept the line thickness more consistent for the white lines.

Here's a link to research some Gothic themed Manuscripts:

14th to 15th Century; calender of January

Dominus illumination, a 14th to 15th Century;  Full page of manuscript with historiated initial 'D': David kneels on one knee pointing to a cloud above.