[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
> _______________________________________________
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> Scriptoris at lists.ansteorra.org
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