Hope

My latest work-in-progress... another Versals lettering with Celtic knots.  The letters are bigger this time, which allows me to paint the inside spaces with watercolor.  I'm trying to decide if I want all the letters blue or not.  I'm thinking an alternative could be to fade to magenta with a pretty purple in the middle.  What do you think?

Majestic Redwood Tree

During the last camping trip in my camper, I painted a majestic Redwood tree that was on the camp site.  I had forgotten about this watercolor until recently when I was going through all my sketchbooks. Unfortunately, my scanner is not big enough to capture the entire work, but most of it is in the scan.

I really miss my camper.

Painted October 24, 2009.

"Transformed" - The Finished Work

For Cathy... 8-)

Starting the Final Ink

As I work on inking the final work for "Transformed", I am reminded of two things:

1.  Art is about expression, not perfection... and
2.  I am WAY overdue for an eye exam!

I feel blind as a bat, but I love how this is turning out....  8-)

Practice Makes Perfect

My pencil sketch of the word "Transformed" is complete and ready for ink.  However, before I take permanent black ink to my final work, I need to practice.  I created another version of the pencil sketch with only a few of the letters to work with first.  This enables me to practice my knots and to get control of my pen.  It also allows me to experiment with the placement of the ink in each letter. 

I tried both interior black with white ribbons and interior white with black ribbons.  The interior black with white ribbons shows the lacing of the knots, which I think I like better.

When making the Celtic knots, it's important to get the lines perfect so that the knot is clearly visible and the lines begin and end exactly where they should.  You can see in this practice sketch that my lines are not quite perfect yet, thus more practice is needed before I tackle the final work in ink.  Practice makes perfect!

Transformed - Initial Sketch

I'm working on a calligraph of the word "Transformed" for my church back in California and wanted to capture the different stages of the work.  Unfortunately, my scanner is not long enough to capture the entire work in one scan, so two scans it is.

This is the initial sketch in pencil, which ensures my spacing is sufficient for the entire word and also sets up the initial design for each letter.  This is Versals lettering with Celtic Knots.  The pencil sketch is very light... hopefully you can see it.

Versals with Celtic Knot

My first attempt at Versals lettering with a Celtic Knot.  Created today for my step-father's birthday... can you guess his name?  8-)