MINI-WORKSHOP
Brush Lettering with Barbara
Gere
Thursday, January 20th
Warm Spring Rehabilitation Hospital
5101 Medical Drive
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
$5 for members, $6 for non-members
Barbara Gere recommends the Splash!
Brush Markers or the Pentel Color Brush.
They should be available at S.A. Arts & Letters on NW
Military Hwy. or order from Paper and Ink Books.
Beginners may find the Splash! Brush Markers easier to
manage. Barbara has found the color brush easier to
handle than alternatives she has tried. If you have
either of these markers, you won't need to bring ink or
gouache to the mini.
You will also need layout or bond-type
paper to practice the letterforms.
You will discover that with the brush you can write on a
wonderful variety of papers, even paper towels. If you
have some neat papers that you haven't been able to use
with metal nibs, bring them along to try after we have
gone through the alphabet.
When Barbara began brush lettering she used lined paper
and the result was rather stiff. She encourages you to
try this alphabet on blank paper; you might find that
this would free you just a little from the tyranny of
lines. And, letting go of lines will make it possible for
you to write on heavily textured papers that cannot be
lined. If you are most comfortable
with straight lines, bring graph paper.
Bring three sharpened pencils and some masking tape and
she will demonstrate another way to line up paper.
Summary of supplies:
Pentel Color Brush and/or Splash! Brush Markers.
3 Pencils. Tape. Paper of your choice including bond,
layout, and/or graph. Textured samples if you want to
experiment. Call Barbara if you have questions.
If you are interested in
attending a mini-workshop, sign up with Gayle Venticinque.
If you need to cancel, please let Gayle know so she can
contact someone to fill your slot - she keeps a waiting
list.
Origins of
Non-Asian Brush Writing
Barbara Gere contacted Jenny Groat for some history and
background information on Brush Lettering for our "26
Letters" poster. We will put the abbreviated version
on the poster; we wanted to share the expanded version
with you via the newsletter.
1) For the edged brush, most historians agree that
inscribed Roman Capitals were first written on the hard (marble,
etc.) surfaces with the brush. By the time of the Trajan
Capitals, this skill was already highly developed. It is
desirable to begin study of metal-edged pen Romans with a
brush, to see how and why the stroke order is as it is.
2) Before that, Rustica was written, often very
informally, with a brush or with a reed pen "frayed"
on the tip to be more like a brush. (Ref. class with
Father Catich, who answered my question about Rustica in
this way. Also, Rustica was street graffiti in Pompeii.)
3) Continuing use for commercial reasons, through history,
perpetuated the skills of the sign-painter, and is seen
all over today, in the signs on gas stations, in grocery
stores and other displays. We pass them without noticing
how skillful they are. Try doing them! You'll never pass
another of those signs again without noticing!
4) The Pointed Brush, which is the kind so completely
developed in Asian calligraphy, has no real, continuing
counterpart in the European-evolved hands, but has had to
be re-designed and re-invented. Scribes who have studied
the metal pointed pen forms have an easier time in
learning to use the pointed brush with some control,
since they have more often developed a "pressure and
release" kind of letter stroke, within the western
alphabet.
5) However, I believe that the most complete development
of the pointed brush forms of the western alphabets did
not originate with the metal pen, but from the interest
and skill of some of our still-living, aging, artists.
Specifically, David Howells and Karlgeorg Hoefer seem to
have contributed the most, with Howells introducing
Hoefer to this via slides of his work, in about 1978. KG
Hoefer has now endlessly designed and redesigned the
alphabet, in western forms of all periods of history,
with non-stop innovation, which he also encourages in his
students. He is also a master of the edged-brush forms.
6) Many graphic artists, it is true, also do superlative
brushwork with both tools. It is very difficult to say
where and how they acquired their skills, except that I
have several old books that attempt to teach pointed
brush work by first learning the pointed pen hands, then
drawing the outlines of those letters and drawing them in.
7) Somewhere along those years came the old, show-card
writers, making posters to announce theater events. They
used an amazing number of alphabet forms and were highly
proficient in making their signs very quickly and well.
Thank you to Jenny and Barbara for this info.
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