"Please sir, I want some more."
"More?!"
(Charles Dickens :: Oliver Twist)
I am excited to announce my brand new book titled MORE CREATIVE LETTERING, a sequel to my popular book titled CREATIVE LETTERING (one of Amazon's Best-Of books). Many thanks to the amazing contributors who rock the lettering in this book, from cover to cover.
Available here and other places where books are sold.
I rode the final wave of my recent birthday by celebrating with my friends Pam and Amy last night. Conversations about art, more art, and then more art still. Conversations that could keep going on and on if we only had the time. Pam took this photo of me admiring the handlettered gift wrap she made. As I unfolded it and saw what it said, it warmed my heart. What a life season it's been these last few months.
Pam pointed out that I look deeply happy in this photo and I replied that yes, I feel that more than ever, as I feel a sense of fulfillment and peace to just go with life's flow and art's flow and ride whatever wave that comes my way. It made me recall early convos with my therapist months ago when I started with him. He had asked me what I wanted and I had told him that I wanted to feel fulfilled but not at the expense of my passion and fire for life. Even if that meant that I'd have to live with some degree of torment and melancholy.
Going with life's flow I think involves a complete breakdown at times. Like when my brother passed this past Thanksgiving. From the moment I found out to now, I know one thing for sure. I just let myself feel it all. No holding back. Completely broken. Completely shattered.
And I allowed art to take me over with complete inhibition. Every part of me. It is truly what saved me and breathed in me a newfound strength and wisdom.
I've become less afraid of complete breakdowns. Because when it's completely so, that's when I get to see and feel what there is to see and feel and understand ... and then breathe again, deeper than before.
Brush pen lettering on pink paper. Nothing quite like it.
The brush pen I used for these works is the Kuretake. A great starter pen for those who want to explore brush lettering work.
I'm happy to announce two of Pam Garrison's upcoming classes in Studio CRESCENDOh!
Hip hip hooray! Pam and I look forward to seeing you in the studio as we have fun with letters and art journal pages. :)
Do you ever wonder what to call these things?
They are some of my favorite writing instruments and are actually composed of these pointy metal things which are called nibs. Nibs come in lots of different sizes. They also vary in the level of flexibility. When you find a nib you love, you might buy a bunch of them like I do. The best way to get to know about nibs is to try them out. They don't cost very much so I say get to know as many as you want.
I suppose you could hold a nib with your fingers to write with but that would be inconvenient and so you usually put them in these longer objects called nib holders. Nib holders also come in lots of sizes and thicknesses and colors. They're a bit more pricey than nibs so you probably won't buy as many nib holders than you would buy nibs. But the best way to learn about nib holders is to try them out. (Note: The two that look really weird like the second from the left and the one on the right are called oblique holders. "Oblique" means slanting. Makes sense, right? No need to be afraid of oblique holders. They are one of my favorites to work with.)
So then you push the nib into whiever holder you want to use. There's really no wrong way to do this. Just shove it in there so that it's nice and tight. The holder's job is to keep the nib nice and steady so you can write with it. If you decide you want to put a different nib in the holder, just pull it out and put a different one in. Usually, most nibs will fit in most holders so don't worry too much about potential mistakes. If a nib for some reason doesn't fit into a holder, then don't put that nib in that holder. Simple as that.
After you have the nib in a holder, you dip it in some ink. Some folks recommend that you put a new nib to a flame for a few seconds or to dip a new nib first into gum arabic to help break it in. I've done that before and sometimes I've not done that. Whatever. And becasue you dip the nib into ink, that's why you call these nibs with holders "dip pens." People also just call them calligraphy pens ... which is a bit more of a general term which could mean other things.
Once you dip it, you'll see that a bit of ink gets captured in the nib. Not a lot. Just a little bit. This shot below shows the nib's concave side, where you can see the captured ink.
Enough to write a letter or a word or even a couple of words. Depending on how much a nib captures, you'll have to redip to get more ink on the nib to finish what you are writing. (Note: Isn't that thick nib at the top cool? I think it's rad. It was given to me by Lisa Engelbrecht. Thanks, Lisa!)
Here are some pens with calligraphy-type nibs that you don't dip into ink. The nibs also don't get removed. Usually. Rather, they come with ink cartridges that you replace now and again. I personally call these "calligraphy ink cartridge pens." They're convenient when you don't have the wherewithall to take ink to wherever you are going.
The one thing I've learned about nibs and nib holders and such is that owning every variety available is not what will make your lettering awesome. Practicing and experimenting is what will make it awesome.
After seeing the fantastic woodburning work that Gennine and Alisa have been up to, I got inspired to get a woodburning tool myself. Using it brought memories of the woodburning tool I had as a kid ... did you have one too? It came as a kit, actually, with sheets of wood with images/scenes printed on them that you could burn with tool. So much fun.
Anyway, the tool is super simple to use. And I burned some words on popsicle sticks that I had in my stash. Yeah ... you should see my crafting stash. I mean, really.
Here's a photo of the package that the tool came in by Walnut Hollow. I haven't tried the other nibs yet but I will.
And of course I burned my favorite four words of all-time: If You Want To on a larger wooden stick.
Command Statement + If You Want To = Free Will
So yeah, I recommend that you get a woodburning tool and try it out for yourself. If you want to. :)
Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great
strength.
However, there are times when it takes much more strength to
know when to let go and then do it.
(A. Landers)
And it hurts.
And it burns.
And then we rise.
Practice. Play. Persevere.
Brown sandwich bags stamped, lettered (with sumi ink),
and embellished with washi tape and sheet music.
I am thrilled and humbled to announce my newest book titled Creative Lettering!
It is a book where 16 amazing arists share their unique insights and signature methods related to their lettering work. From the bottom of my heart, I'd like to offer my sincere gratitude to these artists for working with me to create this truly breathtaking book.
They are (in order of appearance):
Flora Chang, Jessica Swift, Pam Garrison, Francois Begnez,
Karyn Denten, Aimee Dolich, Andy Ainger, Linda Schneider,
Lori Vliegen, Madeline Tompkins, Stine Kaasa, Lisa Engelbrecht,
Philippe Debongnie, Barbara Close, Rhianna Wurman, and Martha Lever
Creative Lettering will hit book stands on March 5th but you can also pre-order it here on Amazon. And here's a little video to give you a sneak peek. Enjoy! :)
I've been doing some papercutting lately. It's so fun and easeir than I thought. Just takes some patience is all.
For this project, I used a small paintbrush and sumi ink to write the word "love" onto a book page. I made sure that all the letters were connected to each other so that when I cut it out, the letters would all be connected. Then I taped that page onto a piece of sheet music. I placed the layers of paper onto a self-healing mat and then very carefully, used my sharp craft knife to cut the word out.
So here's what the book page looks like once the cutting is done. So cute, right?
But what's also cool is that because I placed a layer of sheet music beneath the book page, I end up with two sets of cut-outs that I can use in my artwork.
Here's what I did with one of the pieces ... I added it to one of my art journal pages. So happy with how the page looks with the addition.
And onto a different art journal page this cut piece goes ... just a beginning. It'll evolve more from here I'm sure.
Easy peasy.
Happy crafting. :)
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