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January 18, 2006

mhcc calligraphy: class 1

by gl. at 11:11 pm

i'm taking the third class in the three-round cycle of mt. hood community college calligraphy classes, this time in italic. i've never actually taken an italic class before and after years of trying to train myself out of a slant, i need to become familiar with the 5-degree slant that makes italic both quick & elegant.

below is a monoline italic, which means i'm not doing it w/ a chiseled nib to give it the appropriate thicks & thins, but a blue sparkly gel pen instead. i'm surprised & relieved to find italic's basic letterforms are easier than expected:

monolineitalic.jpg

and in fact, if i were using a copperplate nib instead of a gel pen, the letterforms aren't really that much different.

i know the gashlycrumb tinies so well that i often use it for calligraphy practice, but i think i'm going to begin learning gorey's "utter zoo alphabet" as an additional abecedarium.

posted by gl. | January 18, 2006 11:11 PM | categories: calligraphy, classes & workshops