Friday, May 28, 2021

A SPARK OF INTEREST


Practice sheet of broad-edged pen lettering


You never know where an experience, object, or person will lead you.

An old bottle of Higgins India ink props up books on a shelf in my workroom. I haven't opened the bottle since I retrieved it from my parents' home. My dad used India ink daily for his work and this bottle belonged to him. 


   

My sister and I would often sit in his studio and draw with ink and ink pens. We practiced with the penholders and nibs from the Speedball Artist set we had.




We used the Speedball Textbook, a small booklet that showed how to hold a pen, how to draw different alphabet styles, and where to start each letter.



Sample page from the 20th edition of the Speedball Textbook


I thought of those earlier times while attending Letters of Joy, the calligraphy conference I Zoomed recently. Randall M. Hasson, the guest speaker, talked about his experience as the 24th co-editor of the Speedball Textbook. Hasson was a fountain of information about the invention in the early twentieth century of the Speedball nib by Ross F. George and William H. Gordan, both Sho-card artists. Their patented tool changed the world for artists who drew the advertising posters that hung in store windows all over the world. These artists also hand-lettered the dialogue cards in silent movies. They were an important part of commerce.

Because the signs changed daily, the Sho-card artists needed to be fast. Many artists used either brushes or broad-edged pens. These tools weren't quick enough. George and Gordan developed the Speedball nib as a way to speed up their work. They bent the end of the nib so that drawing monoline lettering became very quick. They attached a piece of metal to their nibs that created a small reservoir that could be filled with ink. Once they figured out the new pen nib, they designed different types of nibs for different types of alphabets.



A, B & D Speedball pen nibs for Monoline lettering




Silent Movie Dialogue Card hand-lettered
courtesy of pinterest (stayonfountain.com)



 Gordan and George created a book filled with tips to help artists learn to draw each letter or alphabet. Every ten years or so, the small book is updated with modern examples. Speedball is now on its 25th edition. Carl Rohrs, Sachin Shah, and Suzanne Cunningham, the latest co-editors, changed the look of the book from the 24th edition designed by Angela Vangalis and Randall W. Hasson. Both are brimming with good information. Which cover do you like better?

The 25th and 24th editions


The speedball Artist Set was my first tool for learning hand-lettering. I still have my copy of the textbook. I learned letter spacing, pen slant, and the difference between monoline lettering, Broad-edge pen lettering, and pointed pen calligraphy. I discovered as a left-hander that pointed pen and broad-edged pen styles with their thick and thin lines are more difficult for me than monoline, whose letters are the same width throughout.


Monoline lettering


Thick and thin letters that could be done with a broad-edged pen.
I did this with colored pencils instead.


Listening to Randall Hasson speak of his experiences with the Speedball company made me reflect on my own interest in graphic design and lettering and how much I was influenced by the pages of a simple booklet about lettering.



Check out the Speedball website. You can arrange a tour of their factory where they still make pen nibs by hand:




2 comments:

  1. Thank you for posting information on this book. I’ve always been interested in lettering and this one looks quite interesting. As far as book covers go, I’m partial to the black and red.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your comments, Carolyn. Yes, the Speedball book is a gem to learn and increase your knowledge about lettering. The 24th and 25th editions are like night and day. The 25th cover, the one you preferred, is an indication of the content inside. Many wonderful examples of calligraphy by various artists. The 24th was filled with lots of historical info about Speedball. Both have the same fundamental instructions.

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