Calligraphy Masterclass 2019

2019 marks the 3rd year I’ve been attending Sheila Waters’ calligraphy masterclass. It is a week long workshop of inspiration and hard work.

Normally, Sheila asks us what we want to study beforehand. I did not go with an agenda (being inundated with work). Instead, I listened to the other 9 attendees’ projects and determined a path I thought best for my growth.

Foundational

I created my course for the week in order to become familiarize myself and grow from my weakness. Therefore, I started with foundational. The definition is denoting an underlying basis or principle. But that’s not really the “foundational” hand. Instead, it’s a variation on Roman minuscule (which I didn’t know).

Roman minuscule and variations

So I worked on other variations of Roman minuscule.

Roman minuscule and variations

This Roman minuscule was inspired by a piece made by Julian Waters. I updated the A to be a bit wider though because I generally like my letters rounder and wider.

Browsing Day

On browsing day, which is halfway through the week, I spent the time looking for exemplars. These help me to experiment with my hand lettering artwork.

Uncial

Uncial is a great next step. I’m not comfortable with Roman Caps so I thought Uncial is a better way for me to learn capitals. Indeed, it is one of my favorite hand!

Uncial variation

Even though I’m comfrotable with uncial, I wanted to flex my skills and try different style. I used a flat pen angle instead of 20º which really forced me to manipulate the pen stroke to get particular curves and shapes.

Carolingian

The last day came by much too quick! I really wanted to get Carolingian hand in this week and had to rush through it. I was able to make a final piece that incorporated all the hands I learned. It was such a fulfilling week of learning, friendship, and more! While it was a bit stressful, it was a blessing!