My Next Calligraphy

I've been feeling a calligraphy for a while now, but was unsure of the words it would entail. When I'm feeling a piece of artwork bubbling up, I truly enjoy the anticipation of what will emerge and capture my desire to create. I rarely sit at the table wondering what to create. Rather I am urged to my table, no longer able to contain whatever has taken hold of my creative spirit.

It is with this wonderment that the past few days have passed, until yesterday a quick peruse of my Facebook page showed me the words of my next calligraphy.

Before I share them, let me say this: the past couple months have been a deeply introspective time where I have not only looked inside myself, but also outwardly to the world as I consider how I will again rebuild my life after a time of difficult changes.

I'll thank my Facebook friend, Ajay, for the inspiration:

‎"Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens."

                                                                         - Carl Jung

This quote perfectly captures my current experience as I both dream about my future and further awaken to myself and I knew the moment I read it I would calligraph it. The bubbling inside is now at full boil and my art table beckons... my pens and brushes yearn for my touch.

Stay tuned... I'll share pics as this one comes to life!

"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-)

Patience

Many years ago, I did calligraphy on a regular basis, but then for some unknown reason, I stopped.  I'm trying to get back into calligraphy now, but with a new twist - adding watercolor!  This is a small (and quick) experiment I did on December 25, 2009, in my sketchbook and I'm so happy with it, I'm going to do a larger work of the same.