Monday, September 29, 2014

Typeface



Typeface on T Tuesday
I learned lettering and calligraphy
in high school, using a 'dip' pen with a
wide nib and India ink.  We practiced and 
practiced the Old English style, until I was
very tired of it.  It was the most complicated
and had the most strokes to each letter.
Now that we use computers for lettering
fonts, it might seem unnecessary to know
hand-lettering styles, but I do enjoy being
able to draw or write almost any style
that I desire in my art journals.




Mixing up the letter styles is fun...and inventing
your own design is too!




Above, lettering 'borrowed' from the Harry Potter
movie series.  I see a resemblance to the 
Old English letters in the lower case lettering...




Above, an example of some lettering done
with a felt-tip calligraphy pen.  Basically that
just means the pen tip is a 'chisel-shape, '
rather than a thin point on the end.
When holding the pen at an angle as you write,
on the down-stroke of each letter you get a
wider stroke than on a horizontal or diagonal.




If you've ever examined the instructions for
calligraphy, some of the diagrams show tiny
arrows instructing the calligrapher in which 
direction to make the strokes for each letter.
It sounds complicated, but once you've 
learned the basics, it's similar for all styles
of lettering.  Above, Speedball textbook, 20th edition, 
copyright 1972. I probably bought this book in
1973, and have used it off and on ever since.

 These days, styles can be much
freer and you can get creative with spacing
and size of letters to suit yourself.  Well, I'm 
not doing a formal document or award, so
I pretty much suit myself!







When I make letters with shadows, I always put
the shadow on the right, as though the 'light source'
is coming from the upper left.  A habit formed during
 that practice in high-school.  When you are focusing
on the lettering, however, it is rather easy to
spell something incorrectly!  I try to double-check
before I ink it.  But the beauty of collage and
art journal pages, is that I can paste something
right over top of a mistake!




 I will be linking up with Elizabeth for her weekly
T Tuesday link party.  




and showing a beverage container...
do you ever have soda for breakfast?
just wondering...











15 comments:

  1. I admire all your lettering. I really need to get more creative with letters. Practice, practice, practice.

    Darla

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  2. These letters look awesome. The Harry Potter style is my favorite.
    Have a lovely week
    Susan

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  3. Hi Dianne, you are so talented. Calligraphy is truly an art, and I agree that with all these computer fonts and graphics now, it will perhaps become a lost art. But, yours is fabulous. The "old English" was my favorite. Happy T-day!

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  4. I love using calligraphy pens...the felt tip type...to address envelopes and write letters. They make my writing appear better than it actually is. :)
    Happy Tuesday!

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  5. I have always been enthralled by calligraphy! Well, anything with pens, inks, paper will suck me right in for as long as I can remember. I still have all my speedball nibs from high school in the 60s.

    I took a calligraphy class in the early 90s from a professional calligrapher. She only taught us italic script because she said once you had that down you could transfer the knowledge to just about any script. (Easy for her to say--LOL!) She worked for card companies all her life and was being made obsolete by computers. She was an exacting taskmaster. We were only allowed to write using table easels, couldn't touch our skin to the paper, had to use a brush to fill the dip pen...was fascinating!! I even bought a handmade table easel with a plexiglass base for tracing that I still treasure. It was a writing-fanatic's dream--LOL!

    LOVE your various fonts!! This was a treat! Happy T-Day! :)

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  6. Your lettering skills are just as excellent as your drawing and painting skills! I never had soda for breakfast and stopped drinking it altogether probably about 10 years ago!

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  7. I did a bit of calligraphy long ago, and it was fun. :) It turns every letter into a work of art.

    I never have soft drinks for breakfast. Too sweet for me, I guess.

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  8. I think writing of any kind, by hand, is a dying art. Thanks for showing how beautiful it can be :)
    Happy T day :)
    PS. I enjoy some ginger ale to settle the stomach or with juice...on a hot sunny day :)

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  9. Back in the day, when HGTV had a lot of craft shows, I saw a person create several calligraphy letters using one of the felt tipped pens you can buy at the craft store. We were shown how holding the pen one way created the thin lines, while the other way created the fat lines. I tried it several times, and although I understood the concept and have felt marker like that, I simply can't get the hang of it.

    Once again, I was impressed with the depth of your artistic knowledge and ability. Stunning as usual, and quite colorful, too.

    Thanks for sharing these calligraphy fonts and styles with us for T this Tuesday. Since I only have soda/pop about once every six or more months, it's a good bet I'll never have any for breakfast.

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  10. A woman after my own heart! I love lettering , particularly brush, and this weekend I am taking a pointed pen class- my first lettering class ever!
    thanks for the kind words.
    I don't drink soda, so no , not for breakfast- I do like fizzy water, and that could be any time of day!

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  11. Oh very cool lettering. I learned the same way, with the same type of dipping pen.....I hated those things....LOL

    I agree about practicing and creating with letters. You seem to have a better grip on how to do them correctly than I have, but it's still fun just the same.

    Had to chuckle about the spelling mistakes.....so easy to do when your concentrating on each letter.

    I so admire your work!
    Happy T-day

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  12. Gorgeous lettering, Dianne. You have an amazing talent at it!

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  13. Oh gosh! Love all this .. great calligraphy!

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  14. Golly, Dianne. I was laughing when I saw your comment about the bionic experiment. The words BIONIC EXPERIMENT were written using a pastel. I first wrote the words with one flat end of the pastel, then smeared the words/letters using my finger. I smeared the letters a bit because I used a finger on my left hand and I'm right handed. The arm was drawn with an ink pen, then the pastel colored it in (I used my finger for that, also). I created the knees by twisting the pastel , then smudging them a bit with my finger. Hope that helps.

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  15. Hello Dianne, so glad I stopped by to see this post! WOW, these are just wonderful samples of text and your talent at them. Blown away and wish I had that talent but especially your patience for this. LOVE THEM!!

    What school did you go to? We didn't learn anything like this and even by middle school we barely had to cursive except for reports. Even in our art classes we didn't have this.
    How awesome that you've kept it up all these years too. I think it's great for anyone of us to have different fun styles for writing in our art projects. Mixes it up very nicely.

    Oh and I don't drink soda at breakfast but it's the first thing my hubby does when he gets to work everyday. I like my warm tea first thing.

    See you tomorrow for T time, I'm already posted and hoping to link up if computer still working.

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