25th Anniversary Lunch

Dear Members and Followers,

Calligraphy Southscribes, Inc. turned 25 in March this year but we had to delay our celebration to this month because of our full calendar.

To celebrate the event we had a lunch with past and present members, distributed a calligraphic place-mat created from past members' work and the produced a lovely banner to celebrate the event.

Another exciting event was to welcome a new life member to our ranks. Gloria Scott was officially made a life member on the day. Congratulations Gloria.

Batarde

Dear Members and Followers,

Our last Lettering Course for 2016 is Batarde.

The Batarde script is a generic term for a cursive writing of mixed Gothic parentage, used as a parallel script for less prestigious works, which developed into a variety of scripts in their own right. Speed was important but had to be impressive so developed many loops and linking letters. They covered the Gothic era from 12th to 16th Century. We will work with Batarde, Bastard Secretary and Schwabacher as these cover the French, English and German versions and which are similar but different, giving you some exciting and quite modern styles for your portfolio of scripts.

Requirements.  General Calligraphic gear of chisel pens, A3 pad, ruler etc.

Dates for this course are 29 October and 26 November 2016   This is now just a one day workshop!

Working with Vellum

Dear Members and Followers,

Our next workshop is Working with Vellum.

The workshop on Vellum will encourage more people to use the traditional
skills of working correctly with skin. We will discuss how to treat skin for
calligraphy and paintwork in the time honoured way concentrating on
completing a letterform in gold and using diapering as a background to
enhance the letter.
The usual calligraphic gear if you want to add some words, a fine brush for
paintwork, gouache or watercolour paints, a Micron or fine liner, ruler,
water jar, couple of small containers with lids, small palette, transfer
gold.
Small vellum pieces will be supplied at $15 or bring your own.  Gold, size
and other items needed will be supplied if needed at a small charge.

Out and About

Dear Members and Followers,

Every now and again I receive some news that is not strictly calligraphy related but may prove interesting. Here are two of those items. Enjoy

ART DECO WORKSHOP – August 2016. Tutor: Glenis Sheather

Dear Members and Followers,

A small group of enthusiasts spent the day experimenting with ART DECO style capitals and patterns.  Glenis, as usual, gave a very inspired demonstration of techniques to master this striking letter form, encouraging us to try different applications and materials.    Many rewarding and colourful results were produced with this versatile script.  Thank you Glenis for an enjoyable and challenging day.

Report:  Meril

ART DECO STYLE LETTERS WORKSHOP

Dear Members and Followers,

August gets arty with our workshop this month:

ART DECO STYLE LETTERS WORKSHOP

20 August 2016

Tutor:  Glenis Sheather

The Art Deco period was one of style and elegance, emphasising sleek lines and geometrical shapes and patterns.  This workshop provides an opportunity to step back into that stylish era by working on some Art Deco style capital letters that work well with monoline scripts.  Two pens are used to create the letters and it is suggested you use a 5.0 mm pigmented marker and a 0.50 mm pigmented fine-line marker of the same colour in the first instance.  A 5 mm broad-edged nib and a rigid pointed nib, such as a Post Office nib, could also be used with ink or gouache once you have mastered the letters.   A materials list will be circulated closer to the workshop.

MATERIALS LIST

·         Pens

                These letters are formed using a combination of a broad-edged felt tip pen and a fine liner pigment pen in the same colour.  I used the 5mm end of a Zig Duo Calligraphy pen (available at Riot, Miranda Fair) and a 0.5mm fine liner for my exemplar.  You could also use the 3.5mm end of a Staedtler Duo pen (available at Eckersley’s) with a 0.4mm fine liner.*

·         1 x A4 sheet of tracing paper.

·         Layout Pad

·         Plastic rulers:  a regular sized one for ruling guide lines and a short one (only if you have one) to use for the letters.

·         HB or 2B pencil

·         A couple of A5 or A4 sheets of better quality paper if you wish to do a piece of work using the Art Deco lettering.

*It is best to start off using felt tip pens for these letters.  However, if you want to experiment with pen and ink, bring along a broad-edged nib measuring 3.5-5mm wide and either a Speedball B6 monoline nib or a rigid pointed nib such as a Post Office Nib and ink of your choice.

August Calliarts - Gestural Writing - Tutor: Gloria Scott.

Dear Members and Followers,

Many calligraphers develop their own particular rhythm when executing a favourite letterform, and this rhythm gives a 'flow' to their work. 

It seems to come more easily, so the results are often recognised as the work of that writer.  Everyone develops a personal distinctive 'hand' and quite a lot of longhand lettering is already gestural in a loosely

open, sometimes disconnected way.  In calligraphic terms Gestural writing stems from a recognised letterform in a freely moving open style with a rhythm extending from wrist, arm, shoulder movements.

There are no strict pen widths, pen angles or slope rules.  Generally the x height is one of individual choice and is shorter than the majuscules.

Gestural writing involves adaptations of an alphabet with extension of strokes, variable letter strokes, sweeping ascenders and descenders, space and rhythm.  There are some cursive letterforms that lend

themselves very easily to Gestural writing: Italic, Akim, Bookhand and Uncial.

G.Scott

Saturday 13 August - 1pm to 4pm. $10.00 - Sylvania Community Hall

Materials required, The usual calligraphy gear A3 layout, slope board, ink or gouache (please have the gouache mixed, ready to use) Writing tools soft graphite pencil, 2B or B biro fine liner 0.2 or 0.4 or both post office nib Optional nibs To give more emphasis on some strokes you could use an Elbow nib/holder Speedball C3 Mitchell 203