TOO MUCH OR JUST RIGHT

My favorite new art tool:  Art Graf's Soluble Graphite Tailor Shape.

I have three discs, Ochre, Sepia, and Carbon Black that have been sitting in my collection of Great Art Supplies I Haven't Used. While getting ready for a calligraphy workshop about making an accordion book, I slipped the Sepia disc into my supplies bag.

Julie Wildman, the workshop instructor, came well-prepared with paper and book board cut to the right size for our books. She showed us beautiful samples of her work and asked us to design a book of the alphabet using a hand or font we created during the first day. (Hand is the calligrapher's term for alphabet. Font is the term used by graphic designers.)

One thing I have trouble with at workshops: scaling back my expectations. When I'm presented with an assignment, inevitably I start thinking in new ways and want to create a more elaborate finished piece instead of a practice piece that neatly fits the assignment. Since I still struggle with calligraphy, I knew that my designs would take me a long time to perfect well enough to include in my book. I didn't like the hand I created, so I decide to draw each letter instead of writing it and made each page a practice page of different fonts of the same letter.

How often do our own expectations get in the way of a satisfactory conclusion? I did not complete my book, partly because I gave myself too large of an assignment with the fonts (I only needed to do one sample of each letter, not several) and partly because I added another element, a tinted square, to each page of the book. I needed to complete not only each letter of the alphabet, but I now had added a tinted square to each page. All 26 of them. With only two days to complete the book.

I decided to try the Art Graf Shape as a means to tint each square. The disc can make fine lines or large swathes of color. Water activates the color to create a mottled surface, which reminded me of old walls patinaed with age. I used the Sepia disc to make the square to draw my letters on. Making the squares took up a lot of my time in the workshop. I finished tinting half of the squares.

Oops.

Adding water to the sepia
 colored square

I also worked on each letter, making the group of the same letter fit within a square. At the end of the workshop, I had rough drawings of six letters ready to be transferred to each of the sepia-toned squares. I assembled the front and back covers, but I didn't fold the sheets of paper for the accordion pages inside because I wanted to work on a flat surface later when I drew the letters. I liked what I had accomplished so far.

Rough drafts of each letter

I walked away from the workshop happy with the unfinished work -- hoping in the near future that I would take the time to complete this new project. Too often unfinished workshop projects of mine stay unfinished just because I come home. This time I've decided to do a letter a day. With the project broken down into small pieces, I might just be able to avoid adding this book to my incomplete projects pile that I already have.

Here's the book cover and the first letter square.

Check out Julie Wildman's calligraphy and graphic design:
https://www.wildmandesigns.com