Author Topic: Calligraphy Goals in 2023  (Read 816 times)

Offline Erica McPhee

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Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« on: December 28, 2022, 01:20:26 PM »
Anyone setting some new year’s calligraphy goals? Mine is to continue working on Copperplate and Spencerian and do more off-hand flourishing.  :) Specifically, I would like to work more on composition and creating finished pieces.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2022, 01:23:58 PM by Erica McPhee »
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Offline AnasaziWrites

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2022, 01:42:27 PM »
Anyone setting some new year’s calligraphy goals? Mine is to continue working on Copperplate and Spencerian and do more off-hand flourishing.  :) Specifically, I would like to work more on composition and creating finished pieces.

I think I'll try to learn Kurrent a bit better, so that I can at least read the words even if I don't know what they mean, which implies increasing my German vocabulary as well. Some of the capital forms are not intuitive, and I must check my exemplars for correct form at this point.
Improve my Spencerian is always on the list.
Maybe learn Spanish?
Maybe learn German or French Ronde?
Haven't quite decided.

Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2022, 03:41:53 PM »
 Excellent! French Ronde would be amazing.  :-*
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Erica
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Offline K-2

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2022, 10:13:00 AM »
Great question for a thread, @Erica McPhee

I'm going to submit my manuscript for Easier, Harder, Bâtarde: A Primer for Medieval Paleography & Calligraphy to the publisher. hopefully by the end of the summer.

...after that, I'll be thinking about extensions for the project, beyond Caroline, Textura Quadrata, and Bâtarde/Secretary.  Maybe Ronde will make it on the list - like @AnasaziWrites (maybe the two of us could study it together some?).  Probably Insular Majuscules (aka half uncials) also, as I extend to the periods before Caroline and after Bâtarde.

--yours, K

Offline TeresaS

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2022, 03:40:07 PM »
One of my daughters (it was actually her husband’s idea…bless his heart) gave me an engraver for Christmas!!… and my youngest daughter is getting married this fall!…so I think I have too many goals to count! LOL!
Teresa

Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2022, 11:53:42 PM »
@K-2  That is very exciting! We should do a French Ronde study group!  I’ll join in!

@TeresaS That is also very exciting! Kudos to son-in-law - what a great gift! You will have so much fun! When I first got mine, I went around the house trying to find everything I could to engrave.  ;D Wow - a wedding - so much to do! Can’t wait to see all the goodies! Congrats!  :-*
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Offline AnasaziWrites

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2022, 12:55:13 PM »
In looking over my "goals," I realize I've fallen into the trap of making them so vague as to making it impossible to say if I've reached them or not. They are more like desires than goals, so

1. Learn Spanish (this doesn't really involve calligraphy, but I mentioned it before, so I'll include it here again) becomes If I decide to learn Spanish, at the end of 12 months, be able to speak and understand simple sentences, and know the definition of the 500 most common words. I'll be looking at online and if available in person courses to do this.

2. Improve my Spencerian. This is difficult to measure. Any little improvement could be said to achieving the goal, but my standard will be to create a piece that I would be proud to frame and hang on my own wall, or of such quality that it would not look out of place in in Michael Sull's Spencerian Script and Ornamental Penmanship in the opinion of a master penman.

3. Learn Kurrent better means being able to write in Kurrent without need to refer to an exemplar, that is, write letters/compositions in English fluidly using Kurrent, having ingrained the forms well enough to not think about it, as I do in writing English.

4. Learn French or German Ronde, to which I'd add half uncial @K-2 , which means create a piece or pieces using this hand judged to be at least good by someone qualified to so judge (hard to do yourself , I think).

Offline AnasaziWrites

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #7 on: December 31, 2022, 12:59:52 PM »
One of my daughters (it was actually her husband’s idea…bless his heart) gave me an engraver for Christmas!!… and my youngest daughter is getting married this fall!…so I think I have too many goals to count! LOL!
That's very interesting. At the Iampeth convention this summer, I tried one of Kestrel's engravers (inkmethis.com) and was thinking this past week I might get one. Which one did you get?
« Last Edit: January 01, 2023, 05:39:32 PM by AnasaziWrites »

Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #8 on: December 31, 2022, 10:29:46 PM »
I got one of Kestrel’s the last time I went to Paper & Ink Arts. HIGHLY recommend. It is so quiet and works so well.

I really like how you quantified your goals. I’m going to have to follow suit.
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Offline TeresaS

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #9 on: January 01, 2023, 08:48:34 PM »
My engraver is also from INKMETHIS.  I haven’t gotten a chance to do much more than try it out yet, but I think it will be a lot of fun to use!
Teresa

Offline Matthew H.

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #10 on: January 02, 2023, 11:30:48 AM »
Like @Erica McPhee, more than anything, I'd like to create more finished pieces this year. I have a terrible habit of practising letterforms over and over but only rarely finding the courage to actually create something with them. (And on those occasions that I do, I spend so long trying to get things 'right' that I completely overrun my deadline.) It's particularly frustrating because I always come away amazed at how much I've learnt from the process. I think it would help if I set myself a definite goal. Hmm. Let's say to create one thing every two months.

I'm currently working on italic capitals, and I think I'm on to flourished italic after that, which is exciting. The script I'd like to learn more than any other is blackletter, but I'm not sure if I'll manage that this year. (I don't have the heart to rule it out definitively, though!)

I've also been mulling the idea of entering for CLAS's Certificate of Calligraphy. Entry closes at the end of April, I think, so I need to be making a decision soon. It's another of those things I could learn such a lot from doing – but convincing myself to put my calligraphy up to close scrutiny is another matter!

Offline tiffany.c.a

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2023, 11:53:28 AM »
Great thread. It’s good sometimes to put voice to our goals, and to hear other people’s goals.

In general, I’d like to have more fun with all this, not be so stressed out about it. Finishing a piece used to be very rare for me because it was so stressful. I think I’m turning a corner with that. I believe doing little simple projects has helped. And also helpful is having some grace for myself and accepting what my best is at that time.

Specific goals:
-slow down and take time to go through the process from layout to finished piece
-be able to produce consistently nice work with consistently good skills, not because it just happened to turn out nice
-continue weekly practice of Spencerian, and the other various hands/styles I like (find time during each week)
-have regular journal fun with any and all hands/styles/techniques I’m interested in (and that’s a lot of them)
-use more of what I have before buying anything else

Offline Matthew H.

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #12 on: January 03, 2023, 02:57:49 PM »
In general, I’d like to have more fun with all this, not be so stressed out about it. Finishing a piece used to be very rare for me because it was so stressful. I think I’m turning a corner with that. I believe doing little simple projects has helped. And also helpful is having some grace for myself and accepting what my best is at that time.

It's a relief to hear I'm not the only person who's struggled with this. I love the excitement of working on a project and seeing it progress (well, hopefully!). But the pressure I put on myself takes much of the fun out of it.

I loved what you said about accepting your best as it is at that time. This Christmas, I managed to make a card for my family. It's only a small thing, but it was the card I'd tried to make the previous Christmas before time had run out on me. (I'll sheepishly admit that I almost allowed that to happen a second time…!) At first, I was pleased just to have completed something in time. In truth, though, I'm not thrilled with how the card turned out – and seeing it on the wall each day has given me time to think about what I'd like to have done differently. But thinking instead that that was the work I was capable of doing at that time, to meet that deadline, takes some of the sting out of it.

There's a story I try to keep in mind from the book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. A piano student regretfully says to his teacher that he never plays the music as well as he hears it in his head. The teacher says something like, "What makes you think that ever changes?"

-use more of what I have before buying anything else

If I only achieve this in 2023, I'll consider the year a success!

Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #13 on: January 03, 2023, 04:08:58 PM »
I have a terrible habit of practising letterforms over and over but only rarely finding the courage to actually create something with them. (And on those occasions that I do, I spend so long trying to get things 'right' that I completely overrun my deadline.) It's particularly frustrating because I always come away amazed at how much I've learnt from the process.

Yes! This is a great post! That is exactly what I do - just practice over and over. But pushing ourselves to create pieces - and more so if they are one original piece, not something for reproduction - is definitely how we grow as artists.

And yes - I, too, am also amazed at how much I learn from the process. Every single time. And like you, I look back on older pieces and uncover things I could improve upon. I cringe a bit, but I like the idea of giving myself grace for where I was at the time.

It still amazes me a bit when I complete a piece and think it’s the the chef’s kiss (doesn’t happen often) but then look back at it in even 6 months and see all the flaws.

The CLAS certification is a great goal!
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Erica
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Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Calligraphy Goals in 2023
« Reply #14 on: January 03, 2023, 04:13:47 PM »

There's a story I try to keep in mind from the book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. A piano student regretfully says to his teacher that he never plays the music as well as he hears it in his head. The teacher says something like, "What makes you think that ever changes?"


Mic drop. I hope it does though!
Warm Regards,
Erica
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