Chalk It Up

Oh my, how time does fly.  I have not posted since before IAMPETH...more on that later...but I have found a new way to keep my hand in the lettering world and fulfill some of my work duties at the same time. 

At the school where I work, the old easel we used to post notices finally gave up the ghost and could barely stand.  Happily, I found this "weatherized Oak Street A-Frame Sidewalk Sign" from billyBoards, intended for use with (also weatherproof) Zig Posterman markers. They withstand water, i.e. rain, and come off with Windex.

It's amazing, after a long day in the office, how much I unwind while sketching and chalking these messages!  It's become a (usually) Friday afternoon ritual.

It was a fun challenge to fit all the information on this one:

Since the theme of this one is "Simplicity Holidays", maybe the design ought to have been, well, simpler...

The board is two-sided, so I can be working on one side while still displaying the other. Happiness!

Sayonara Sylvia

A longtime colleague is departing at the end of this week, and it is bittersweet for her as well as for those of us staying on.  For some time, she has wanted to teach at the same school her children attend--which will significantly simplify her life, we hope--but she has been with us for many years and we all feel like family.

She loves orange, and wears it well.  I wanted to make a going-away card for her that expresses both her favorite hue and the fire within her that makes her so strong and ambitious!  Inktense pencils, lightly brushed with water, give a flame-like feeling.  For the ornamentation, I remembered learning from Harvest Crittenden how lovely it is to combine gold leaf and shell gold (see the halo in this post);  this is the "poor man's version" with gold leaf over Instacoll, and painted Finetec gold and silver.  I love the dimensional look it gives!

The shadows on the Sickels lettering are Zig gray suede (a heretofore under-appreciated brush pen that has patiently awaited attention in my studio) and HB graphite;  outlining is done with a fine-tip Pitt pen.  The paper is Crane's correspondence card, mounted on a piece of old greeting card (cut with deckle scissors), a piece of metallic gold (ditto), and a Fabriano Medioevalis card.  The final touch was a scattering of random crystals from Michaels, glued on.  Hope she likes it!