[Scriptoris] Seeking help

Elaine eshc at earthlink.net
Tue Jan 3 09:18:05 PST 2012


Advice from "Gramma Lete"----

Painting is all so very personal. Why wait for videos or someone to  
demonstrate how to do that? Just jump off the board and see what you  
can work out on your own. That way you can find what works for you  
and what doesn't. Enjoy exploring! There are more ways than one to  
get to get you to your goal.

The learning curve is the place for mistakes to be forgiven. The name  
of the learning curve is called "Experience." Don't be discouraged.  
Now is the time to make mistakes. (Newbies to a technique are always  
forgiven by understanding mentors.)

How to make mistakes and not get caught--- Practice and pray in private!
The best places for mistakes to be made are on a practice piece of an  
identical surface to the proposed finished piece, or as close to the  
surface the project uses. (Hint: I keep the practice pieces, with  
detailed notes on why something works or doesn't, in a ring binder  
for future reference as to how certain nibs, brushes, inks, and  
paints work on which surfaces.... Works for me.)

Years ago, as a painter, I was advised to make three of something.  
One for my portfolio/body of work (1), and one to give away (2), and  
the last done (3) for the client/winner. Lots of practice with a  
purpose, you know.

Personally, in work using calligraphic tools, I always found crow  
quills a bit stiff for white work. Even with the more flexible nibs,  
such as those used for Spencerian lettering (late 1800's), the ink  
had to be a lot thinner to come off the nib and didn't cover as well  
as a brush and gouache based in pigment rather than dye colors. When  
the drying gouache dammed up the tip, I had to wipe the nib  
(whichever I used) a lot.

Too, even the kind of brush needs to be looked at in view of how thin  
the lines have to be and the length the line has to cover  
effectively. (Think of modern auto shops and pin striping.) Short  
haired brushes need a lot of picking up and refilling, whereas the  
longer (say, male Kolinsky sable tail hair) brushes need less of that  
and a much lighter touch to get the thin lines. Experiment  with  
(borrow or buy) the line of brush sizes that start with "0" and  
progress towards "00000". There is a really long-haired brush, but  
not big in diameter, called a "rigger" brush, which was used to make  
the tiny lines in one stroke that were the ropes (rigging) in  
paintings of sailing ships.

To check whether a new brush can make the tiny sized lines, wet the  
brush, flick the water and sizing out of the brush, and hold it to  
the light to check how few of the tapered hair ends make the tip's  
point.

The thickness of the line, or its thinness, will be determined by how  
pressured or how delicately you touch the brush tip (or a  
calligraphic nib) to the surface. I sometimes envision the brush just  
a bit higher than the surface and the ink's being a liaison between  
the two, like the end of a garden hose (the tool) aimed at the  
flowerbed (the surface) and the water (the media) between the two.  
Another vision is that I am scribing Tinkerbell's wings, and I don't  
want to hurt her.

Personally, and in the last few years, I prefer using my right hand  
(steadied by my left)  and just painting the colors on each of the  
line's sides of what I want colored and leaving the paper untouched  
as the "white". If the line is thin enough, almost no one notices the  
white line is really just the paper. They just think you have a great  
hand at doing the white work. (personal smirk) (Some of the scribes  
have seen me do that at S & I meetings in Steppes.)

It's all a matter of experimentation and practice to set your  
preferences. Two hundred years from now, no one will know-- or care -- 
how you did the work or how long it took.. They will just care about  
its finished appearance.

Do your sloppy "practice" on other surfaces that no one will ever  
see, and become the exhibited "pro" at the point your learning curve  
has gotten you to. The "pros" have learned what sets up failure  
(they've been there, done that in practice runs) and how to detour to  
get past that area.

There is no "kit", no "video" that will make anyone an "instant  
master." Read some of the marginal notes the Period scribes wrote  
about how their shoulders and backs hurt. That speaks of hours and  
hours of work. There are scenes with curved knives being held by  
scribes at work. Those knives were not only for cutting new quills  
but for scraping out mistakes on the skins. (Talk about projected  
negative thinking!)

Another hint as a calligrapher:
Before I put a newly dipped, refilled pen nib to the "real paper", I  
personally test each time each pen stroke on a paper just off my work  
surface so the blobs happen there and not on the exhibition piece.  
It's nit-picky, but that's what works for me and makes my work  
respected.
.
Devin, good luck with the path(s) you choose. Keep you mind open.  
Learn to play. Enjoy the journey.

So much for now,
YIS,
HL Lete Bithespring, Steppes
aka "Gramma Lete"

................

On Jan 2, 2012, at 9:46 PM, David Brown wrote:

> I have a crow quill and I am wanting to use it to do some white  
> work. Are there any videos out there to kinda help me. Or does  
> anyone on here have any advice?
> I have never used one before. Thanks!
>
>
> Devin
> _______________________________________________
> Scriptoris mailing list
> Scriptoris at lists.ansteorra.org
> http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/scriptoris-ansteorra.org




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