Dust-up Wrap-up


Last weekend I did a new wall to welcome seven brave souls who came to learn about lettering with chalk at the "Chalk Lettering Dust-Up". It got good and dusty around here as we worked both on black foam board and on chalkboard-painted masonite boards. In the morning we transferred pre-made sketches to the boards. The short phrases were mostly from Patti Digh's book Four Word Self Help. Everyone did a great job, and each board had a very distinctive look!

Carla

Marjorie

David

Linda

Katy

Janice

Lori


Before lunch, we each personalized our chalkboard painted wine glasses using chalk pencils! Aren't their designs wonderful?!?









In the afternoon we created our own designs in pencil and transferred them. 

Katy

Linda

Janice

Marjorie


David

Carla, the overachiever!

Lori

 ...and we ended with an art show on the back patio! Aren't they amazing?!?
 




Doesn't it make you want to grab a piece of chalk and start writing???




Chalk One Up



Last weekend I was honored and excited to be asked to teach one of the six mini-workshops at San Francisco Friends of Calligraphy's Trivial Pursuits XXVIII ! The calligraphers' version of speed dating, this event has each teacher meets with five groups of eight for fifty minutes each. The wonderful Evelyn Eldridge chaired the event and made everything run like clockwork.

Planning the class gave me the opportunity to reflect on how I got into doing chalk lettering, which was after a kitchen remodel during which it was suggested we paint a wall black to make it 'disappear'. After a few years of staring at that wall, one Christmas I impulsively wrote a snippet of a carol on it to add to the decorations. This was the humble first one:



I decided to make it an annual tradition, so I made a template on graph paper, blocking out the 'obstacles': TV, framed artwork, beam, etc.



The designs got a teensy bit more elaborate.



And here is this year's iteration.



Of course, there was nowhere near enough time at Trivial Pursuits for something this large in a fifty-minute class! Things had to be scaled down. So a sweet little book by Patti Digh, entitled "Four Word Self Help", came to mind.  Four words seemed doable, so I picked a few of them and made thumbnail sketches to scale for our 15" X 20" black foam boards.









And one more I read somewhere, sometime:


After studying a couple of inspiration boards filled with vintage lettering and alphabets, and establishing a list of elements to work into the design, my FOC colleagues dove right in and transferred one of the phrases onto their pieces of foam board--with, of course, artistic license. It was a joy to see what all these talented calligraphers came up with to make them their own!




A fun event and an inspiring day! Thanks to all for your enthusiasm!

Joy to the World!



This project took quite a while to gel, but yesterday it finally came together! I started several weeks ago with an actual scale diagram, taking in to account the television, the cabinet, two framed pieces of art, and even the beam. Oh, the obstacles we face as artists...


The script-y words took a different form--couldn't quite pull off the ribbon look. Of course, with chalk one can keep "fixing" things forever... Unlike the signboards for the school, this is real chalk (not Zig Posterman); my guests tend to be better behaved than the preschoolers. It also doesn't rain inside my house.


My husband kept telling me to add color to the "illuminated" R, but I was curious how far it could go with just black and white. What do you think?




Happy holidays to all, and keep looking for the joy!

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!

Summer Fun in the Family Room

"The Perfect is the enemy of the Good."  ~Voltaire
Much to the amusement of friends and family, I've been at it again, scribbling on the walls!  This quote had been rattling around in my brain for a while, and seemed a propos after coming away somewhat intimidated by the hundreds of more-accomplished calligraphers at Calligraphy Northwest last month.  Not that those inspirational folks are the enemy, mind you--I am perfectly capable of taking on that role for myself--but for me, it's an important reminder that just plain "good" is something to feel, well, good about.

I thought I'd share a bit of process this time.  I started with a little doodle on a graph-paper sticky note;  as usual, television = design challenge.


Although the finished project is done with dime store chalk, for some reason it was hard for me to get started with such a blunt tip.  Enter two handy tools, both marketed primarily to quilters:


The Fons & Porter is ultra-fine chalk--about the size of pencil lead--and happens to be sold by Paper & Ink Arts for lining dark envelopes.  The bolder "pen" is made by Dritz and I picked it up at Joann Fabrics.  It comes with a little box of white and colored "leads"! Joy!

I started out sketching with the Fons & Porter...


Then defined lines a little more with the chalk pen:


Gradually I filled in and tweaked:




As you can see, there's still some clean-up to do, but I kind of like the chalkiness of it all.  By the way, this wall is painted with plain old latex (hadn't actually planned to be writing on it back then), which is getting a bit trashed by all this foolery.  My "buddy" Martha has a recipe for homemade chalkboard paint, and some great ideas for using it, here.  Check it out!

Handwriting on the Wall Vol. 3


I am having so much fun with chalk on this big blank wall!  Of course, that pesky TV is in the way but I just view it (so to speak) as a design challenge.  This quote from Bay Area icon Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is a seven-word rule-of-thumb for taking care of ourselves.  (By "food" he means real food as opposed to "edible food-like substances"...).  

To this he has added some new rules in his new illustrated version of Food Rules: An Eater's Manual:  "Give some thought to where your  food comes from."  "If you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you're probably not hungry."  "Place a bouquet of flowers on the table and everything will taste twice as good."

Of course this does mean we have to close our eyes when we're packing away a pint of mocha chip...

Handwriting on the Wall


Finally got around to taking down (well, actually just erasing) the Christmas "graffiti" I had done on the almost-black family room wall.  But then it looked kind of empty, so I decided to kick off the next holiday with some more doodling.  Though I have neither the time nor the talent to "chalk up" like the amazing Dana Tanamachi, I find her work inspiring and a whole bunch of fun!  Check out her time-lapse videos here!