Inktober 2021

[Erica McPhee]

I sure did! I am in awe at the creativity you both are sharing!
@K-2 - your watercolors are incredible! And it is a pleasure seeing your work and skill increase.

I am really impressed by how Inktober has prompted you both to push boundaries and produce some really great work!

[AnasaziWrites]

spark

Lest I be confused with someone who can draw, the image entitled "A receipt for Courtship" published by Laurie & Whittle, 63 Fleet St. London, no date, and is not by my own hand.
The quote is from "A letter of Genteel and Moral Advice to a Young Lady" (1740-1766) by Wetenhall Wilkes, and is a good example to practise English Roundhand, but I chose to make an crude approximation of the script it was published in.

[AnasaziWrites]

@K-2
Really liked the bridge. Terrific colors, great idea. So well done.

@AnasaziWrites - I connected the dots!  As always, such a great interpretation. 
26. Connect

Thanks. Let's straighten up that first line from #1 to #2 shall we?--wouldn't want a short circuit.

[K-2]

Oh for petessake, @AnasaziWrites - somehow that line on the dot-to-dot got messed up before I posted it!  I'll have to figure out how to fix it in the new software I was trying out.

I love this interpretation of "spark"!  And I think your actual drawings have been splendid too - as @Erica McPhee says, we're out here pushing boundaries and getting better at things.

Thank you both for your kind thoughts about my Golden Gate Bridge for "connect"!  It was a really fun coaxing the sky into shape.

So here I am.... reverting to my comfortable (Spencerian-adjacent) Palmer writing.  Say... @AnasaziWrites (have I seen you called, Mike, on the Forum? if I may).  As a Spencerian expert, how do you feel about the humped-p versus the closed p?  It seems like you favor the closed form.  Should I prefer it too?  I understand it's a bit divisive in some circles!

But I'm experimenting a bit more with the bleach on ink effect in the drawing - which I'm still working on how to fine-tune.  And which I'm planning on using for a large-scale piece on The Divine Comedy, commemorating the 700th anniversary of Dante's death this year.  I just received a sizable grant for it from my university!

27. Spark

[AnasaziWrites]

So here I am.... reverting to my comfortable (Spencerian-adjacent) Palmer writing.  Say... @AnasaziWrites (have I seen you called, Mike, on the Forum? if I may).  As a Spencerian expert, how do you feel about the humped-p versus the closed p?  It seems like you favor the closed form.  Should I prefer it too?  I understand it's a bit divisive in some circles!

Oh, I don't favor one form of "p" over any other, and use them all quite a bit, although I'd keep to one form or another in a given work. P. R. Spencer taught the open form, so that might be considered more "old-school" and less familiar to more modern readers, so seems to be used less these days. Prefer whatever you like.

[AnasaziWrites]

crispy

[K-2]

"Crispy" indeed, @AnasaziWrites -- what a great picture of a great player on a great team.  Sometimes I really miss LA...

I take to heart your good word about the Spencerian "p" too -- I guess I tend to use the open form for more formal writing, the closed form when I'm just taking notes.

Here, I'm back at my Copperplate practice - Inktober (and @Erica McPhee) has really kicked me into a new gear on that this year.  The drawing is a bit of nostalgia for those of us of a certain age.

Can you believe we're almost done with Inktober?  Only three more days!

28. Crispy

[AnasaziWrites]

"Crispy" indeed, @AnasaziWrites -- what a great picture of a great player on a great team.  Sometimes I really miss LA...

I was wondering if anyone would get this use of crispy, as in "crispy with the rock", meaning very skillful in shooting or passing, in this case with a basketball (often used in lacrosse as well). My drawing, such as it is, is based on a TopShot video highlight. As a last step in making it, I risked ruining it by getting out my untrustworthy watercolors to give it a little background color.

Here, I'm back at my Copperplate practice - Inktober (and @Erica McPhee) has really kicked me into a new gear on that this year.  The drawing is a bit of nostalgia for those of us of a certain age.

I remember well. So very well done.

On another matter, I think a local artist, Justin Beckett, here in Atlanta is using your bleach technique. Since the Atlanta Braves entered the playoffs (now in the world series), the local paper--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution--has published a poster of one of the Braves--today's being Eddie Rosario. I had been wondering how he got that splash look, and I'm guessing he's using bleach like you do. What do you think?

Can you believe we're almost done with Inktober?  Only three more days!

Hard to believe. It's gone by so quickly.

Tell us more about your upcoming work for the grant. @K-2

Mike

[Erica McPhee]

That Copperplate crispy is GORGEOUS! 

[AnasaziWrites]

patch

(As my attempts to draw a face were, shall we say, spectacularly unsuccessful, I'm using this portrait of a 17th century lady. Unfortunately, I could not find the artist's name who painted it.)

The script is Court Hand, popular at the time in and at court, as were patches for women.

[TeresaS]

Thought I’d give it a try.  I did the cutout paper “quilt” a couple of years ago.  I’ve really enjoyed all of the Inktober posts!

[AnasaziWrites]

Thought I’d give it a try.  I did the cutout paper “quilt” a couple of years ago.  I’ve really enjoyed all of the Inktober posts!

Very nice indeed. Well done.

[K-2]

Beautiful work, @TeresaS - Thank you for sharing and joining us for the end of Inktober, and thank you for your kind words about all the work we've been sharing!

@Erica McPhee - your good opinion of my copperplate has inspired me to put out a longer bit for "patch" - it's actually the text from the 18th Century advertisement that I based my drawing on; "tache" is French for spot or patch (so I figured it would count as patch).  It looks like @AnasaziWrites and I independently came up with the same response to "patch"!

And Mike - I don't actually think that poster was done with a bleach technique.  It looks to me like the artist layered several elements in a graphic design program - like photoshop or illustrator or something.  I'm betting he did a paint splatter in black, scanned the shape, recolored it or used it as a mask, layered it over the background, added the drawing of Rosario, and outlined the figure with a corresponding value.

Maybe I'll start a new thread about the (now fully funded) Dante project - I should have some test pieces ready soon.

29. Patch

[Erica McPhee]

Love it @TeresaS ! Wow @K-2 and @AnasaziWrites  kismet!

Beautiful copperplate. I see great improvement!!!

[K-2]

Thank you so much for your encouragement, @Erica McPhee - I do think that taking Inktober to get serious about my Copperplate, coupled with your expert advice, has pushed it forward a bit.  It might almost be ready for prime time.  I'm considering a collaboration with a scholar of 18th century literature next year, and a different collaboration with a 19th century musicologist, so I want to be ready!

@AnasaziWrites - here we are on the penultimate day of Inktober!  I have to admit that I badgered encouraged my spouse into gifting me Diamine's 2021 Advent Calendar, which is full of little 12ml bottles of ink behind the doors.  If you're having fun with this and would like to keep working on your drawing skills... for the price of a lavish bottle of whisky (or two of your regular malts), you too can have an "Inkvent Calendar" - I'm planning on drawing a picture with each of them, using the name of the ink as the prompt.  Actually, quite a few of this Inktober's drawings were done with the 2019 Invent inks.  I usually do a test card to see what the ink is up to before I draw with it - putting it through its paces with broad edge and pointed pen calligraphy, and testing it for chromatography, shimmer, sheen, and shading.

I could start a thread in the service of Flourishers who are looking to work with colored ink - especially for those using fountain pens.  After the success of the 2019 Invent Calendar, Diamine eventually released the inks in full sized (50ml) bottles.  Would that be appropriate here, Erica?  Would anyone be interested in such a thing?  To keep it more calligraphy focused, I could just post the test chips and not the drawings (but maybe people like seeing the drawings too?).  Or maybe after Inktober, everybody has had quite enough of me. 

30. Slither