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May 1st-6th, 2011 | Sheila & Julian Waters
Julian: Writing on the Edge
Modern Calligraphy Techniques
Expanding your range of calligraphic techniques with both the broad edged pen and the ruling pen, with emphasis on manipulating those two tools in creative ways for special kinds of shapes, vitality in writing and subtle details, working on touch and technique with letterform, space, texture, unity and spark. Starting with traditional techniques, we will look for more and more modulation in our calligraphy with greater degrees of touch, especially exploring the amount of the tool's "contact" with the paper, from attacking the stroke with the full width or the pen to barely kissing and skimming with the corner. We will work for more awareness of the shapes between the strokes, of both edges of the tool and how to create both rough and smooth contours within the same writing and even in the same strokes. This is not just about making different kinds of marks. Julian hopes his exercises and techniques will influence how your calligraphy feels and looks, and then new personal styles can organically emerge. Class time will include specific exercises, technical practice, small and large writing, using different kinds of letterforms, and plenty of time for personal experimentation. You should end up with fresh confidence with expressive textural writing as well as consistent and refined lettering in book pages or larger broadsides.
Sheila: Planning a Manuscript Book
From Traditional to Practical
Sheila will address how to set about traditional manuscript planning and produce a single section book with a simple cover. For several decades there has been a movement away from traditional formats of handmade manuscript books to freer, more expressionistic ones, without the old rules of planning, though still needing a coherent flow from page to page, with interesting balance of elements and space. Sometimes a longer text is needed, intended to be read, which asks for a more traditional format. We admire the beauty of historical illuminated manuscripts and their formal organization into double or single columns of text, page after rhythmical page, punctuated with decorative versals for the beginnings of chapters, and plainer ones to open paragraphs or verses. How did the scribe set about planning such monumental books? Sheila will help you with all the practical aspects of planning simple books and will also focus on developing personal styles which can work for text writing, Students will be able to make almost any kind of writing, and develop it to work within structured book page formats. All students will study with both Sheila and Julian equally throughout the week as these two workshop themes intertwine.
In addition to personal attention and large demos, both Sheila and Julian will show their individual approaches to calligraphy for the group using a digital video camera and projector which can display small writing very large on a big screen, so students don't have to crowd around a table looking upside down at demos.