Did you think I was done?

HA! No. This is my primary way of showing Susan what I am doing, so she gets to see loads o projects. I am making good on my intention to learn illumination and calligraphy. It has been years since I picked up a pen and this time I decided to work with a dip pen. Might as well learn it the right way.

You will notice that the fonts are different and the penstroke is completely off in my first attempt in about say... years? The black pen is my great grandfather's dip pen that I found in his desk. I was using stamp ink on a flat surface. It is a ball tip, so it doesn't pick up the look that I want. The purple is a shaefer with a cartridge.







Ah ha! Here we go! I ran to Michael's and got a Chronicle dip pen with five round hand tips to learn uncial. I don't know that one at all. I guess that is obvious from my practice pages.

Master JimBear was so sweet. I called him and he was kind about walking me through what I needed and curbing my shopping habit. I can't be trusted in that mode and I think he knew it. I wanted to buy everything I needed for my project day so that there were no holes between blogging and production. I limited myself to a Chronicle dip pen and set of nibs, calligraphy paper and sumi ink. He said no to brushes and such, and will try and pick some up for me in LA.



To my county hours... I think that is what this is!

I started this when we first had some stuff to take home from the calligraphy and illumination workshops. I expanded the 8x10 drawing to fit my water color pad. I taped it in the window and did some tracing. The first time I colorded in the bits, I didn't really understand acanthus leaves.

I am repainting all of the acanthus so that I understand the twist and thrust of the leaves. Undersides are red and overs are green. It is sloppy, but remember, this is my first time ever using a water color since like second grade.

The piece has ink spots from my calligraphy, and I think I will figure out something cute to write on it and hand it off to someone as a letter of appreciation.