Saturday, June 28, 2014

Map letters for June

Finishing my map letters from places around the British Isles.

W-Waterloo (station)

X- I couldn't find an X town, so I opted for a place in Kent where there were a lot of X marks for railway crossings.

While making it, I remembered that Exeter is on the River Exe, So, the Exe might be better qualified because it says the name of the letter X.

Anyway, we have 2 for X!

Y-York

Z- Zouch

and the backs

from the area in Kent
from the area near the Exe.

I have some ideas for presentation, but also have several deadlines for end of June, so I will try to do the presentation as soon as possible. I have ideas for the other letter set, so will take it on holiday with me in early July to get it organised.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Jac's first alphabet assembled

I’ve finished assembling the first alphabet for 2014 in a book.
 It consists of 26 monoprints made with acrylic paint on a gelli plate (plus front and back covers)
I was exploring how little of the letter was needed in order to make it ‘read’

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

June letters

I'll have to go back and check, I'm not sure where I'm up to! Must have nearly finished posting the first set though.

V for Violin


X for Xylophone

Z for Zigzag (a little random, I know)

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Here are the first three letters of my free alphabet. They are adapted from the Neuland  type font of Rudolph Koch. I learned the technique of the distorted and cut out letters in a workshop conducted by  the wonderful Olive Bull. The background is gouache on watercolour paper using glad wrap, it is only temporary here for the purpose of the photographs and the letters will be made into a concertina book using variegated colours..

Alphabet of Tricks - M, N, O, P


The M was made by outlining the letter shape with an Expo Vis-A-Vis Wet Erase marker. Then spritz with water and watch the magic. The N was written with Dr. Martins Bleedproof White diluted with distilled water to a happy writing consistency. The O is the Walnut Ink Lift trick: spread some Walnut Ink on watercolor paper and leave to dry. Then write the letter with water and blot to reveal. The P was written using Winsor Newton Calligraphy Inks (blue cap) Dark Blue and Yellow Ochre. These inks are intense and lightfast.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Annette's alphabet - catching up!

I am finally getting caught up on my letters. 


Here are some close-ups…

S is for Shirt and Shoe.


N is for Nighshirt - Don't you love this picture from the old Sears catalog!


Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Alphabet Of Tricks I, J, K, L


The I was written with a piece of balsa wood, and then lightly colored with colored pencil. The J was written with Sumi ink on Arches Text Wove and then rinsed quickly in the sink. I used a piece of Stimudent (Johnson & Johnson) to write the K, and colored one stripe. The L was made by writing with Duo Embellishing Adhesive, and when dry was dusted with Pearl-Ex powder. The scan doesn't show the iridescence, as there is a verdigris green shimmer to the Pearl-Ex Mink.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Map Letters for May

I got a bit behind on the letters because of events and deadlines for other things in May. So, I completed these yesterday. Places around the British Isles.

S-Slough

T-Thirsk


U-Uxbridge


V-Vale
There were plenty of other V places, but I decided to look to the Channel Islands as we went to Guernsey 2 years ago for our 25th Wedding Anniversary. So, I saw on the map the little village of Vale.


And the backs
 

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

The letters are done...

And the final piece has a form! Just not quite ready for showing yet, but I have at least worked out just what it will look like.

My final two coloured-pencils-in-sand letters are:

Y with a touch of Yellow


and Z with a touch of Zinc White…


In a weird way this alphabet proved more challenging than I thought; it was quite hard work some days to get the full pencil into the sand; but it remains for me a fun play with letters which is what it's about sometimes…

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Valerie's 'Place' complete

Here are the final letters in Valerie's "Place" alphabet; along with the finished book…

She is having trouble loading photos from Picasa Web Albums to the blog, so if anybody has any hints, tips or tricks they would be very welcome!




Alphabet of Tricks E, F, G, H


Four more letters for the Alphabet of Tricks. The "E" was written with Higgins Eternal ink on 140# hot press WC paper, and then Dr. Martins Iridescent Copper (acrylic) was dropped into the very wet ink. The "F" was done in the same way as the "E", except the letter was written with Walnut Ink and the Dr. Martins Iridescent was Jade. The "G" was written with bleach and colored with pastel chalks when dry. The "H" was written with Higgins Ink and a pen made from balsa wood, creating the dry-brush effect and then lightly colored with colored pencils.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Jac’s first alphabet finished

I made a bit of a push this month to get the rest of the letters finished.
That gives me a month to work out how to put all 26 small squares together.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Visions of colors & patterns (dancing in my head)

I / P / J



 

I have had a great time working on my first alphabet for ALaW 2014, which consists of little boxes made of various shades of Canson Mi-Teintes & a "sleeve" that slips over it. The twenty-six sleeves, each with a design based on one of the letters of the alphabet, are now all designed & printed, though I don't think I'll have time to assemble them until after I return from a month-long visit to the US. 

In case you missed it and are wondering how these letter-inspired designs came to be, my initial post is here. You'll probably notice that very few bear much resemblance to the letter their design is comprised of. In fact, the designs started to get a little too intricate & complex considering the 7x7-cm size. Some I feel are more successful than others, in terms of the composition & the colors, but I have learned from all of them—not to mention a lot more about working with Adobe Illustrator. I am continuing to explore the possibilities of the designs, and there have been nights lately when I could hardly sleep for the colors & patterns floating through my mind!

The photos show the printed strips for the other fifteen letters, with cutting & scoring marks and, in a few cases, some "overrun" of the designs (which will be trimmed). What you are seeing in each strip, from left is right, is: side 'A' of the sleeve / the top / side 'B' / the bottom / an additional "side" that will disappear when it's attached underneath side 'A'. I opted to extend/wrap the design around to the sides and/or bottom of the sleeve for many of them. (I've posted the same images you see here in an entry on my blog, along with a few additional notes on some of the letters.)

F / U / C


K / W / D

 

R / X / N


H / Q / Y


The sleeves for the letters that I've already posted over the last few monthsassembled & complete with their boxesare shown below. Top to bottom/left to right, they are:
T (i.e. the dark green one)
G / L /S
V / O / A / E
B / Z / M

 

 


So, that's it for the first/"free" alphabet. I will post a photo of the boxes together once they're all assembled. It's been wonderful seeing all of the creativity & incredible variety of everyone's alphabets so far this year, and I'm really looking forward to creating the "Place"-themed one.