Painting Speech

A small Christmas commission

2010-12-19T10:00:00.001-05:00

Just a little thing, but fun to do. It's a private little song the client sings to her grandchildren, so I haven't reproduced that here, but I can show the little pink and purple flowers I added in the left margin.

Meanwhile, I've begun working on a much bigger, very exciting commission that I expect will take a good while to complete. I'll be sharing bits and pieces, although not the commission itself, in future posts.

Envelopes

2010-12-18T16:34:00.006-05:00

Using Adirondack alcohol inks and Martha's blog posts as inspiration, I've just completed the last of the addresses in the annual envelope exchange ... with a few extra envelopes for future purposes.

The 2nd photo shows the envelopes before they were addresses, and the stencil I used. Actually, I hated the addressing job I did on the bottom envelope, so I trashed it, made another round of stenciled envelopes and started again.

Fun!

A Tale of Two Books

2010-11-21T13:04:00.006-05:00

Just finished a commission for an accordion book. I thought I understood what the client wanted, but you know, every once in a while I just get it wrong.

I heard:

Stained glass but not religious (which I suggested would be difficult).
Masculine.
Traditional.
Muted colors.

Well, I'm not good with muted colors; this first attempt is muted colors ... for me.

What I didn't understand was the particular meaning of traditional. Looking at this first attempt I now realize that this looks like a particular style of my Presbyterian youth. My mother had jewelry that looks like this, and I was clueless about that connection while designing the book.

So I started over again with a style that the client

had liked in the past. And I realize that even though it doesn't have muted colors and it doesn't seem very masculine to me, it is more traditional — in both a catholic and Catholic sense.

The cover is a green silk bookcloth shot through with gold. I think it works. I made a wrapper from handmade paper with leaf inclusions, using a strip of book cloth as the ribbon holding the bone clasp.

Commissions are always a learning experience.

Bookbinding Tutorials

2010-11-15T18:04:00.002-05:00

Today I went looking for a simple multi-signature book binding tutorial for a friend. En route I found all these interesting binding tutorials:

Make your own Moleskin-like notebook — This tutorial looks to be thorough and accurate, with good photos accompanying the steps.
Making a case-bound book -- Very thorough and well illustrated. This tutorial is geared toward making a blank book from large parent sheets of paper. If you've already got your signatures cut, you can jump in at step 2, about 13 screens down the road.
Multiple signatures sewn onto board covers and covered with a dust jacket. Looks interesting.
Case-bound book tutorial -- Informative, with rounded spine.

Makes me want to make a book.

Origami + Calligraphy

2010-11-07T12:30:00.003-05:00

Last month I did some table cards to identify the food at a reception featuring Japanese and Chinese cuisine. I meant to take some photos before I let them go, but, as often happens, I forgot. So I was cleaning up the studio today and came across the remains of the project. These rejects show the Japanese and Chinese cards, respectively.

Wicked's Wizard on History

2010-10-22T14:03:00.004-04:00

Dinesen on the salt water

2010-10-10T22:30:00.003-04:00

Faulkner on GTD

2010-10-04T21:28:00.005-04:00

Watercolor detail from a handmade book I'm working on. Quote done with leftover watercolor from the book. The lettering lost a lot in the tweaking process, but I don't have time to go back and fix it.

Oscar Wilde on Art

2010-10-02T11:16:00.006-04:00

This quotations was inspired by the image displayed with Alex Savakis' interview with Martha Ericson.

The lettering looked like such fun, I channeled my inner 8-year-old and used a multi-colored gel pen. Halfway through I wished was writing on black paper, and later — voila! through the miracle of Photoshop — I had been.

From this weekend's Big Sky Scribes workshop

2010-09-27T14:37:00.004-04:00

A page this weekend's workshop -- Montana Prairie Journaling -- in Billings, Montana, taught by Jocelyn Curry. The workshop was a lot of fun. I hadn't done any sketching in quite some time. I bought a Winsor-Newton Cotman watercolor kit for the occasion, and enjoyed using it.
In workshops, I'm a slow worker (but not so in my own studio, for some reason), so my case was completely undecorated at the end of the workshop, but I did get all the sheets inside done.

Tolkien on Love of Learning

2010-09-23T11:45:00.003-04:00

In honor of Tolkien Week.

Baudelaire on Design

2010-09-22T14:42:00.006-04:00

This is a typeface I designed a couple of years ago. It was designed very badly, I might add — so badly, in fact, that I pretty much had to kern every single pair of letters to get it to look halfway decent. And I missed kerning the BJE in "subject", evidently.

Here is a scan of the Zig-markered original lettering that I used to make the typeface. Here's the typographic poster I blogged originally, using this typeface when it was just completed.

I don't think Baudelaire would approve this interpretation of his words :)

Santayana on Life

2010-09-12T11:22:00.000-04:00

Arthur Balfour on Religion

2010-09-11T12:33:00.003-04:00

click the image to get a closer view

Herman Hesse on Beginnings

2010-09-07T21:43:00.003-04:00

For my Jewish friends in honor of Rosh Hoshanah, which begins this evening.

I'm experimenting with square pastels as a broad-edge writing instrument.

Book arts in Eugene, Oregon

2010-09-06T11:22:00.003-04:00

Lee Kirk of The Prints & The Paper recently posted on the Book-Arts-L a Flickr set of photos of the annual exhibition of work by members of the North Redwoods Book Arts Guild, shown at Eureka Books in California. I recognize two book artists from book swaps I hosted in the late '90s: Margaret Beech (her book is shown here) and Peggy Marrs. To paraphrase Reggie Ezell, haven't they grown!

Elbert Hubbard on Discourse

2010-09-06T10:47:00.002-04:00

Imagination is more important than knowledge ... the rest of the quotation

2010-09-04T10:27:00.002-04:00

Francis Bacon (the Sir) quotation

2010-09-03T12:46:00.001-04:00

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

2010-09-02T21:34:00.004-04:00

A little experimentation with scanning and layering. The jury's out.

Luca Barcellona & DEM

2010-07-29T13:03:00.003-04:00

Gavinana Reloaded from GoLd on Vimeo.

I'm a huge fan of Luca Barcellona, the images are compelling, and I like the idea of combining this text and these images into a performance piece. But there's not much visual relationship between the text and image -- not in layout, not in color, and most certainly not in mark-making. The flat blue line of the left mask strings makes one kind of statement, but it seems to jar against the gorgeously stapered black stem of the initial "P", for instance. It's de Stijl (which I love) vs. baroque (which I also love).

It seems as though Luca is incapable of making something that doesn't hang together beautifully: the initial "P" fills the space beautifully and draws the eye down the quote, the smaller text capitals add interest to the texture of the whole, and the attribution flows from the flourished "y" so satisfactorily.

Color study

2010-07-14T00:10:00.003-04:00

I've been gone much more than I've been here. And when I've been here, I haven't been doing much in the way of calligraphy. But I had to match a brownish-gray color today, and it got a little out of hand ... and so much fun. To paraphrase George Costanza, if it was socially acceptable, I'd wrap myself in color studies.

Calligraphy + animation

2010-07-02T10:28:00.004-04:00

Wow! Beautiful. The website is here.

Day 80 - DSED

2010-05-28T11:27:00.002-04:00

... and finally, after lo these many days ...

I had lost this letter, and then the backlog began, because I couldn't possibly post out of sequence.

I'll catch up on the scanning and posting sometime. Meanwhile, I've graduated from FSU with a BFA in Graphic Design -- yay! -- and taken a week-long workshop/retreat with Laurie Doctor and just finished a 7-day rafting trip through the Grand Canyon.

There's a lot to catch up on.

DSED - Day 78

2010-03-19T16:08:00.001-04:00

DSED - Day 77

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DSED - Day 76

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DSED - Day 75

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DSED - Day 74

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DSED - Day 73

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DSED - Day 72

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DSED - Day 71

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DSED - Day 70

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DSED - Day 69

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DSED - Day 68

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DSED - Day 67

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DSED - Day 66

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DSED - Day 65

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DSED - Day 64

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DSED - Day 63

2010-03-06T16:31:00.000-05:00

DSED - Day 62

2010-03-06T16:30:00.002-05:00

DSED - Day 61

2010-03-05T09:31:00.002-05:00

DSED - Day 60

2010-03-01T19:08:00.000-05:00

DSED - Day 59

2010-03-01T18:58:00.002-05:00

DSED - Day 58

2010-03-01T12:02:00.002-05:00

DSED - 57

2010-02-28T23:22:00.002-05:00

DSED - Day 56

2010-02-27T04:18:00.001-05:00

Origami + stop-motion animation

2010-02-24T21:07:00.002-05:00

Tony Williams: DREAMING OF YOUR LOVE (KOFT video contest WINNER!!!) from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.

How does he do that?? 'S way cool.

DSED - Day 55

2010-02-24T19:59:00.003-05:00

DSED - Day 54

2010-02-24T13:31:00.001-05:00

DSED - Day 53

2010-02-23T19:09:00.000-05:00

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Day 52 - DSED

2010-02-21T05:51:00.004-05:00

Almost home.

Day 51 - DSED

2010-02-21T05:45:00.003-05:00

Day 50 - DSED

2010-02-21T05:44:00.002-05:00

Day 49 - DSED

2010-02-19T12:57:00.003-05:00

Day 48 - DSED

2010-02-19T12:49:00.002-05:00

Day 47 - DSED

2010-02-19T12:48:00.002-05:00

Day 46 - DSED

2010-02-15T12:19:00.002-05:00

no nature .. and no vacation -- in the airports

Day 45 - DSED

2010-02-15T12:17:00.002-05:00

Day 44 - DSED

2010-02-13T15:02:00.001-05:00

Day 43 - DSED

2010-02-13T00:29:00.002-05:00

Still on vacation. Seeing letters everywhere.

Day 42 - DSED

2010-02-13T00:27:00.003-05:00

..using the materials around me. This could have been a Q, but I'm calling it an O.

P.S. Where do you think I am?

Day 41 - DSED

2010-02-13T00:26:00.002-05:00

Day 40 - DSED

2010-02-12T13:33:00.001-05:00

Materials are limited in the hotel room.

Day 39 - DSED

2010-02-12T13:31:00.003-05:00

These are posted behind schedule. I'm traveling, and my card reader died. I finally found a store ,,,
This one done on the airplane.

Day 38 - DSED

2010-02-08T02:03:00.002-05:00

Day 37 - DSED

2010-02-06T14:42:00.002-05:00

Day 36 - DSED

2010-02-05T22:59:00.004-05:00

On the back of a program with a Manuscript cartridge pen. Busy day today.

Day 35 - DSED

2010-02-05T13:53:00.003-05:00

Day 34 - DSED

2010-02-03T21:22:00.002-05:00

CoolIris: very cool

2010-02-03T18:39:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure how I got there (I hate that!), but this CoolIris rendering of my blog pics is very cool. As I'm dragging the cursor around, my efforts look quite monumental :) I'm inspired to continue on.

edited to add: requires a CoolIris plugin to Firefox; evidently that had already been done on the MacBook Pro I inherited from my son, but when I got home and looked at the link on my PC, I had to download the plugin. It's still inspiring.

Day 33 - DSED

2010-02-02T17:45:00.004-05:00

A little Russian constructivism, anyone? but without the precision.

Day 32 - DSED

2010-02-02T03:26:00.004-05:00

Day 31 - DSED

2010-02-02T02:46:00.005-05:00

My computer is balking.

Day 30 - DSED

2010-01-30T17:43:00.002-05:00

Day 29 - DSED

2010-01-29T23:03:00.002-05:00

Day 28 - DSED

2010-01-28T20:42:00.003-05:00

... or is this Day 1B? White acrylic ink on lokta (which doesn't play well with the Principality pointed nib).

Day 27 - DSED

2010-01-28T01:50:00.002-05:00

Out with bit of a whimper ... and 10 minutes to spare.

Day 26 - DSED

2010-01-26T23:47:00.003-05:00

Check out this blog, which features a different typeface ampersand each day.

Day 25 - DSED

2010-01-26T02:40:00.008-05:00

I was thinking the Stimudents were all played out, and then ...

Day 24 - DSED

2010-01-24T15:57:00.002-05:00

The other day I broke out a new pack of Stimudent toothpicks -- the 3rd tool of its kind for this alphabet. The mingled smells of peppermint and sumi ink: mmm.

Day 23 - DSED

2010-01-24T12:46:00.002-05:00

... 'tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free ...

Day 22 - DSED

2010-01-23T12:21:00.003-05:00

... done late last night on "vellum" -- left overnight to dry

Day 21 - DSED

2010-01-21T23:42:00.001-05:00

Day 20 - DSED

2010-01-20T15:36:00.003-05:00

"Creativity is a kneaded eraser. The first time you pick it up it's really hard and stiff. The more you use it, the more flexible and elastic it becomes."
— Anne Merydith-Wolf (a February 24, 1997, post on a calligraphy list)

Day 19 - DSED

2010-01-20T11:31:00.008-05:00

In case you're wondering, "Couldn't she do a little better than that?" Well, yesterday the answer was a resounding "No." A small sample of the evidence is shown below:

Day 18 - DSED

2010-01-18T19:16:00.003-05:00

Day 17 - DSED

2010-01-18T09:58:00.003-05:00

Block or cursive Q? This straddles the line.

Stop-motion animation + books = OMG

2010-01-17T14:08:00.004-05:00

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

I love it!

via Charley Parker's blog Lines and Colors.

Day 16 - DSED

2010-01-16T16:11:00.002-05:00

Day 15 - DSED

2010-01-15T12:04:00.004-05:00

"These sudden inspirations never happen except after some days of voluntary effort which have appeared absolutely fruitless and whence nothing good seems to have come, where the way taken seems totally astray. These efforts have not been as sterile as one thinks; they have set agoing the unconscious machine and without them it would not have moved and would have produced nothing. -- Jules Henri Poincare, nineteenth-century mathematician, who wrote a descriptive account of his creative processes called "Mathematical Creation" in 1908

↑ Another reminder as to why I'm Designing Something Every Day.

Day 14 - DSED

2010-01-14T10:07:00.002-05:00

Here is why I am doing these letters every day:
"I learned ... that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness." — Barbara Ueland

Day 13 - DSED

2010-01-13T14:11:00.004-05:00

I started with a new Stimudent tool today. Actually, it's the part of the Stimudent pack left over from the first tool. Both shown below. I've wrapped them in brown plastic tape to prevent ink from wicking up to my fingers. The one I'm currently using is stabilized across the width with two scraps of mat board; the Stimudents tend to curve in the hand.

Day 12 - DSED

2010-01-12T21:40:00.004-05:00

This is what happens when I think too much. I wanted to make an L whose area = the unused area of the containing square. Didn't happen. If x=the length of the side of the containing square, and y=the length of the size of the 4 squares which make up the L, then ... well, it's too hard to type. The formula is written in the square. What I didn't count on was that the 4-square L would break out of the containing square. Perhaps a 6-square L would have worked.

Oh, well.

Day 11 - DSED

2010-01-11T11:26:00.006-05:00

... on newsprint, and large enough to require stitches (lol). Have I mentioned that you should click on the image to see the full-sized one?

Day 10 - DSED

2010-01-10T11:50:00.002-05:00

On tracing paper. Very different feel. And I'm noticing a tendency to work larger. This one barely fit on the scanner bed.

Day 9 - DSED

2010-01-09T17:02:00.002-05:00

Still Stimudents, but different paper.

Day 8 - DSED

2010-01-08T19:09:00.002-05:00

Still with the Stimudents.

Day 7 - DSED

2010-01-07T20:33:00.002-05:00

Day 6 - DSED

2010-01-06T17:07:00.002-05:00