Invitation To Show Off Your Stuff...

[MusinkMan]

So we're "all good" again, right Stompie? LOL!!!!!!

Edited March 4, 2013 by MusinkMan

[Stompie]

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj229/Popsjill/pens/DSCN1259_zpsb53477a7.jpg

[Stompie]

So we're "all good" again, right Stompie? LOL!!!!!!

 

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj229/Popsjill/pens/DSCN1260_zpsd829e7ad.jpg

[medicalcpa]

To keep this thread humming along, here's something in Blackletter. I wrote this for someone who was about to take her PhD qualifying exam. I used vertical guidelines, seeing how disastrously my previous attempt turned out.

 

[cindycoo]

Here is something I knocked out on my lunch break...it's really not very good and a rush job.

 

I used food coloring and water to make the swirly background colors. I didn't have time to let it dry because I was on my lunch break, so I think that's why the writing tended to bleed. I have been wanting to try experimenting with abstract random background colors as a way of adding color, and making unique little things. I placed a piece of "textured" glass on top of it for the photo.

 

Not too good...but here it is anyway....

 

 

 

I like you background!! so beautiful!!

[MusinkMan]

 

 

I like you background!! so beautiful!!

 

Awww, thank you! I kind of "borrowed" the idea from some youtube videos that Leigh Reines has, but I'm not in her league of course. She used ink to "paint" into her water. I used food coloring because I had more colors. Just experimentation and trying to find a way to incorporate some pretty colors. Thanks for the comments, cindycoo!

[MusinkMan]

To keep this thread humming along, here's something in Blackletter. I wrote this for someone who was about to take her PhD qualifying exam. I used vertical guidelines, seeing how disastrously my previous attempt turned out.

 

 

 

DUDE!!! Are you absolutely certain you've only been doing this 4 months? How are you advancing so quickly? Are you being coached by a pro or taking lessons or something? Your broad pen stuff is like...wow!

[Stompie]

Musinkman, your food colouring reminds me of some friends in South Africa. THey wood panelled the inside of the house but she felt bored with plain wood look so she took food colouring and did the walls. Came out great as you still see the wood grain but you also have some colour! :roflmho: hippy friends you understand!

[Stompie]

double post

Edited March 5, 2013 by Stompie

[mboschm]

http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o565/mboschm/DSC_0318_zpsa8ec33d8.jpg

 

A beautiful poem for a beautiful song. Look for "Leonardo dreams of his flying machine". Imagine Leonardo da Vinci dreaming about flying. That's what it is about. I only copied the first part. The italic thing is (I guess) original writings of Da Vinci included in the poem, that's why the italic scribble.

[thang1thang2]

Your lower case 'd' is one of my favorite characters that you write. It has a lot of character in that beginning upper stroke, and it's an almost perfect 30º every time. Just fabulous to look at. I really like your 'r's too, I wish mine looked like those.

 

Thoughts on my random flourishing practice? I've just been mucking around after reading a bit of the wonderful book "Calligraphy flourishing: a new approach" by Bill Hildebrandt

[MusinkMan]

Musinkman, your food colouring reminds me of some friends in South Africa. THey wood panelled the inside of the house but she felt bored with plain wood look so she took food colouring and did the walls. Came out great as you still see the wood grain but you also have some colour! :roflmho: hippy friends you understand!

 

 

Heh heh! Yeah, I'm quite an old hippy/hippie I'm from the Psychadelic age, daddy-o...do you see it in the food coloring scheme? Like wow, man. You dig the groove, man? Groovy, g-roooooovy...beautiful, everybody's beautiful, man. hahahaha.

 

No, seriously that is all nonsense, I'm nothing like that. hahaha! This was totally a spontaneous experiement that I tried on my lunch break that day. I wanted to try something creative for the background instead of just white or that fake-vellum looking paper that bleeds like a stuck pig. We all love that cheapo craft-store parchment/vellum/sponge paper so much don't we. LOL! (I know there are some really good 'vellums' that work great, but I bought some awful stuff. It's still in my closet because it's not worth the work for me to carry it to the trash can).

 

OK...enough stale humor from yours truly...back to being serious. I had seen some youtube vids by a watercolor artist that I like, named Cathy Johnson. She was demonstrating different watercolor techniques resulting in random colors that magically gradated into each other. Just beautiful the way the colors naturally swirled and migled. She would crumple waxed paper or shrink wrap and press it into the watercolor before it dried, which caused all kinds of unpredictable and interesting shapes and textures. I thought that look was so interesting and spontaneous that it would make nice backgrounds for calligraphy letters. Made a mental note that I'd have to try that, but never got around to it.

 

Then I saw this youtube vid by Leigh Reyes, and THAT WAS IT...I could not wait to try it or something similar. So, this food coloring thing is kind of a fool's take on Ms. Reyes' very cool work. I don't have many colors of inks yet, so I decided to try it with my wife's food coloring. (My wife of course thought I had lost the plot when she came home and witnessed me playing with water, toothpicks, and her little bottles of food coloring) LOL! Anyway, if you watch this video, you will see why I was so inspired, and I betcha you will want to try it too! It's fun, it's creative, it's full of "suprpises", and it's what we all love to do...apply ink to paper in ways that are beautiful and astounding. Now check this out, and see if you can discipline yourself to NOT try it at one time or another! I betcha can't help yourself...you'll have to try it before you go to sleep or it will drive you nutz! heh heh.

 

[MusinkMan]

http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o565/mboschm/DSC_0318_zpsa8ec33d8.jpg

 

A beautiful poem for a beautiful song. Look for "Leonardo dreams of his flying machine". Imagine Leonardo da Vinci dreaming about flying. That's what it is about. I only copied the first part. The italic thing is (I guess) original writings of Da Vinci included in the poem, that's why the italic scribble.

 

Very nice. Nice little homage to Leonardo, and cool writing.

 

I was looking for a da Vinci quote or maxim just the other day. I've been on a bit of a quest to find something suitable for a frame-able calligraphy piece. I want something a bit unusual, yet by someone famous and mysterious (as da Vinci). Yet something obscure, and not too long. I've also considered Poe's Annabel Lee. But it's too long. LOL!

[MusinkMan]

Your lower case 'd' is one of my favorite characters that you write. It has a lot of character in that beginning upper stroke, and it's an almost perfect 30º every time. Just fabulous to look at. I really like your 'r's too, I wish mine looked like those.

 

Thoughts on my random flourishing practice? I've just been mucking around after reading a bit of the wonderful book "Calligraphy flourishing: a new approach" by Bill Hildebrandt

 

Nice flourish designs, Thang. Methinks you should invest in an oblique holder and a pointed nib. And some Higgins Eternal or a jar of McCaffery's. Would be amazing to see those ideas executed in thick and thin variations. Web on over to John Neal Bookseller and take the plunge. It feels great to make that purchase! heh heh

[mboschm]

@Musinkman, thanks a lot! I still have got lots to learn.

By the way...

 

http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o565/mboschm/DSC_0319_zpsc0ea6d77.jpg

 

 

http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o565/mboschm/DSC_0320_zps01d9bd8d.jpg

[caliken]

Here are some 1)Copperplate and 2)Spencerian Majuscules

 

Ken

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/copperplate800.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/specerian800.jpg

Edited March 6, 2013 by caliken

[thang1thang2]

 

Nice flourish designs, Thang. Methinks you should invest in an oblique holder and a pointed nib. And some Higgins Eternal or a jar of McCaffery's. Would be amazing to see those ideas executed in thick and thin variations. Web on over to John Neal Bookseller and take the plunge. It feels great to make that purchase! heh heh

 

I have an oblique holder and a couple pointed nibs (my favorite is the principality so far), and I have some sumi ink. But I don't quite have the time to practice with the nib as it takes almost 5 minutes to set up and tear down the set, and if I only have maybe 15 minutes to practice? Also, one can't quite do those things during school, either, which is where i get most of my practice done (while "listening" to lectures).

 

I'd love to use it more, though, but I'll try and pick it up again seriously in a month when I have way more free time.

[MusinkMan]

 

Nice flourish designs, Thang. Methinks you should invest in an oblique holder and a pointed nib. And some Higgins Eternal or a jar of McCaffery's. Would be amazing to see those ideas executed in thick and thin variations. Web on over to John Neal Bookseller and take the plunge. It feels great to make that purchase! heh heh

 

I have an oblique holder and a couple pointed nibs (my favorite is the principality so far), and I have some sumi ink. But I don't quite have the time to practice with the nib as it takes almost 5 minutes to set up and tear down the set, and if I only have maybe 15 minutes to practice? Also, one can't quite do those things during school, either, which is where i get most of my practice done (while "listening" to lectures).

 

I'd love to use it more, though, but I'll try and pick it up again seriously in a month when I have way more free time.

 

Arrrrghhhh...that must really be a frustration for you. Well, when you get time, let something rip with the Leonardt and post it up! I know what you mean about time pressures...with work and a wife, it's hard for me to squeeze in practice time too. That's why I love the FP so much...no muss, no fuss. But as far as pure writing pleasure and excellent lines, the dip pen is hard to beat.

[MusinkMan]

Here are some 1)Copperplate and 2)Spencerian Majuscules

 

Ken

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/copperplate800.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/specerian800.jpg

 

Ken, I got to see this right before I left for work. I was so inspired...I want you to know that my whole desk was covered with copy paper with flourish experiments. One of my employees walked in and said, "Oh Lord, what's going on"?

 

I guess it just takes time and experimentation with flourishy scrolls, because mine just don't look good. I don't have the "eye" for it...or else the basic understanding of it. A big goof-up for me is when I try to write something (my name for example), and then try to flourish around it, things just look terrible. You know, the way that calligraphers make these little offhand swirly "cloud-like" flourishes. They look so easy, but mine are awful. The lines aren't so bad...the "design" is bad. I don't understand the placement of them to make things look nice and even. I don't understand how to "close up" the flourish to make it surround the word. I don't understand where to use large swirls or where to use smaller one...which really makes my things look foolish. Is there a basic principle or guideline for this or is it basically learned by trial and error, and developing the "eye"?

 

I sure wish I could do it...I've seen your vids, it just seems to roll off your pen and as the letters form, everything just looks soooo right. It's really a wonder to behold.

[schin]

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/specerian800.jpg

 

Ken, may I ask how can one achieve the beautiful down strokes as the one you did (particularly the B (joining the H) in this second example)? I read somewhere that says to shade it slowly and then quickly twist and flick it upwards with the thumb to achieve the brushlike tail. But try as I might, I couldn't get the stroke to flick properly (it just looks like an upwards curve when I do, I want it to end horizontally) or I could do the flick but couldn't get the swell to be large enough (in which case it looks weak, or cause splatters).

 

Do you do the twist with the thumb (particularly difficult I feel) or is there another trick to it? It looks so beautiful and resembles a brush!