Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - Salman Khattak

Pages: [1]
1
Open Flourish | General Discussion / My interview on CBC Tapestry
« on: September 14, 2018, 12:45:39 PM »
I was interviewed by CBC for their show Tapestry some time ago. The topic is calligraphy and spirituality. The program aired on the 2nd of September. I figured it might be of interest to people here.They also made a short video.
 
You can see the video and hear the program here: CBC Tapestry

The image below is a screenshot from the video.

- Salman

2
Copperplate Tutorial by SMK / General Feedback - Copperplate
« on: March 26, 2018, 01:30:50 PM »
Hi all,

This topic is for the people who have completed the Copperplate lessons posted in this forum. Please post your questions here if you have completed all 4 groups in the Copperplate Minuscules.

We can discuss things like further refinements and alternate letter forms as well as compare notes on composition and other aspects of Copperplate Calligraphy.

- Salman

3
I know this is late but if anyone can make it this weekend I will be teaching 2 workshops on Copperplate Calligraphy.

April 22: Copperplate Minuscules
I will introduce my system of learning the Copperplate Minuscules in this 4-hour workshop. We will go over the basic structure of the letters in groups and learn what makes a letter 'good'. I only take 10 students in this workshop so I can spend time with each participant.

April 23: Copperplate Majuscules
We will start our study with the basic stem stroke and learn the Majuscules in groups. We will look at a few variations if time permits. This 4-hour workshop is limited to 12 students.

Check out my Copperplate Tutorial here on FF to get an idea of what we will be working on.

I will be looking forward to seeing you.

- Salman Khattak

4
Eastern Calligraphy / Arabic Calligraphy in a new style
« on: April 03, 2017, 03:31:37 AM »
This is a composition I did a little while ago. This is done in a newly developed hand called Kereshmeh. I could not find formal instructions for this style so based my study on the few examples I could find. This style lends itself to wild experimentation but I stayed close to classic structure while borrowing the change in slant and the different pen angle used in this script. It took some doing but I am happy with the results.

The Arabic reads 'Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim' which means 'In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful'.

Here is a picture:



Here is a framed picture.



This is one of several practice sheets where I was trying out various forms and figuring out the script.



I had not been practising Arabic Calligraphy much when I took this on. This was a good warm-up as well as a humbling reminder of how much work it takes. One can't just wing it.

- Salman

5
Workshops & Conference News / Copperplate Workshop in TORONTO - Jan 7th
« on: December 15, 2016, 12:39:40 PM »
I am happy to announce my copperplate class in Toronto on January 7th.

I will be introducing my system of learning Copperplate in this 4-hour workshop. This will benefit both beginners and those with some experience with pointed pen. There are only 10 seats available for this class as I want to spend time with each participant.

Here are the details: Copperplate Tutorial in Toronto - Jan 7th



6
Copperplate Tutorial by SMK / Copperplate Challenge
« on: October 19, 2016, 03:38:02 PM »
Practitioners of Copperplate and Engrosser's Script know that the spacing in these scripts is fairly 'automatic' i.e. things fall in place rather nicely when the exit hairlines are drawn correctly and meet the following letter at about halfway up the x-height. It is interesting to ponder exactly why that is so.

It turns out (no pun intended) that the bottom turns of the straight letters (i, t, l) etc are actually similar to the rounded letters (o, c, e). When drawn correctly, i.e. like the bottom right side of an 'o', exit strokes will be at the correct angle (i.e. match the slant) when they meet the following letter. What is even better is that the join won't be jarring even if the hairline meets the following letter a little bit below the halfway point - this typically results in an abrupt 'impalement' of the hairline into the following letter if the hairline is drawn a bit too shallow.

Here is an exercise I give the students. The following image shows the bottom halves of 3 words 'ice', 'lit' and 'tie' - can you tell which one is which?


(you can see the full image here)

The challenge is to write these three words and show only the bottom halves to see if the words are recognizable. I will be looking forward to your participation.

7
Copperplate Tutorial by SMK / Copperplate Minuscules - Group 4
« on: September 13, 2016, 12:56:55 AM »
Copperplate Minuscules - Group 4

The last group of the Minuscule letters contains the misfits i.e. letters that don’t follow a pattern. These are:



They will be easy enough to form with the skills you have developed so far.

f - After drawing the entry hairline, the letter ‘f’ starts about halfway in the 1st Ascender space with a hairline that expands to full width by the middle of the x-height. This width is maintained until the 1st Descender space. Now the top loop is formed by drawing up from the starting point of the first stroke about ⅓ to ½ of the way into the 2nd Ascender space and looping over. A small shade can be added on the way down if desired. The downstroke of the loop meets the first stroke about ⅓ of the way below the waist line. The ‘crossbar’ starts with a ‘blob’ in the triangle space formed between the entry hairline and the main stroke and ‘exits’ on the other side in the same manner as if it was an exit hairline from an ‘i’. You can think of this crossbar as the very bottom of the ‘i’ continuing into the exit hairline.

r - The ‘r’ starts with an entry hairline that goes all the way up to the waist line. At this point you form a tear-drop shaped ‘blob’ that goes about ⅓ of the way about the waist line. The shaded stroke is like a deformed compound curve that starts with a slight hairline from the bottom of the tear-drop going to the right until you reach the point where the shade can be drawn. The shade is they drawn down at the same slant as other shaded strokes. The finishing hairline is the same as the one after a compound stroke.

s - The ‘s’ starts just like the ‘r’ up until the tear-drop above the waist line. The shaded stroke of the ‘s’ is an upside down ‘c’. The exit stroke is drawn separately from the point where the bottom of the shaded stroke meets the base line.

NOTE: The shaded stroke in the ‘c’ is heaviest just below the midpoint of the x-height. This means that the heaviest weight of the upside down ‘c’ as used in an ‘s’ would be just above the midpoint of the x-height. This last point is important as putting the weight at or below the midpoint will make your ‘s’ visually dissimilar in slant to the other letters.

x - The ‘x’ is just two ‘c’s back to back. Do you see that? The first ‘c’ is shaded and upside down while the second ‘c’ unshaded but follows the same slant as the rest of the letters.

z - The ‘z’ starts with an upside down ‘c’ but instead of curving up at the base line we make a small tear-drop shaped loop and go into a descender that goes down about 1/3rd of the way below the 1st descender line into the 2nd descender space. The overall shape of the descender loop should be like a tear-drop that is aligned with the letter slant.

k - The ‘k’ starts with the same stroke like an ‘h’. The second stroke is the top arm that starts just a bit below the midpoint of the x-height and is drawn like the top part of a ‘c’ but is kept a little flatter. The last stroke is just a small compound curve about ⅔ of the x-height.

There are no new types of joins in this group so there should be no issues on that front. Keep a eye on the spacing and overall texture of the writing.

Please post the following words for feedback:

risk, fox, stork, craze, and one word of your choosing using at least 2 of the letters in the last group.

As a final project, please write the following Chinese proverb:

be not afraid of going slow, only of standing still

Here is a link to a video I made as a follow-up to a workshop: Group 4 Minuscules.


8
Copperplate Tutorial by SMK / Copperplate Minuscules - Group 3
« on: September 12, 2016, 06:16:38 PM »
Copperplate Minuscules - Group 3

This group introduces the ‘o’ shape. Combined with the strokes in the previous two groups we can make the following letters:



The ‘o’ stroke can either be started at the waist line coming down and left to form the shade or the 1 o’ clock position where one goes up to the waist line before coming down into the shade. Use whichever one works better for you.

It is important to understand that the inside of the ‘o’ stroke does not have much of a curve. The appearance of roundness comes from the gradually increasing and decreasing shade. The thickest part of the shade is a little below the halfway point between the waist and base lines.

The ‘o’ shape in Copperplate is a thin oval with its width about half the height. It is important to pay attention to this as the letters based on this shape can get too wide when we add other strokes to it.

o - the ‘o’ starts with a hairline as in the ‘i’ - the ‘o’ stroke is made so it almost touches the the hairline around the halfway point of the x-height. The ‘blob’ is made about ⅓ rd of the way down coming down to almost half the x-height allowing for a graceful exit hairline similar to the ending stroke in ‘w’ and ‘b’.

c - the left side of the ‘c’ is the same as the ‘o’ stroke. The hairline from the base line goes out to join with the following letter rather than up and around to form the oval. The right side at the top is drawn in the clockwise direction if you started at the waist line coming down about ⅓ rd of the way down. (It would already be drawn if you started at the 1 o’ clock position.) The blob is formed inside the oval in the same place it would fall if we were drawing an ‘o’.

e - the left side and exit hairline of the ‘e’ is similar to the ‘c’. The eye is formed by drawing the closing stroke in the clockwise direction. Once again the eye is not too rounded - the inside shape (counter) of the eye is a flat almond shape. One can add a very slight shade to this stroke if desired.

a - the ‘a’ is just an ‘o’ shape followed by the ‘i’ stroke. Just like the hairline join, the right side of the ‘o’ and  the shade of the ‘i’ should barely touch each other.

d - is just like an ‘a’ but the ‘i’ stroke is as tall as the ‘t’ i.e. between the waist and 1st Ascender lines. The ascenders of the ‘d’ and ‘t’ are shorter than the regular ascender height.

g - the ‘g’ is an ‘o’ shape followed by a ‘j’ - the two strokes should barely touch around the middle of the x-height.

q - the ‘q’ is an ‘o’ shape followed by what starts like a ‘j’ but loops the wrong way around i.e to the right. In order to make room for the loop on the right side, the shaded down stroke moves a bit to the left as it tapers after passing below the base line. The hairline stroke forming the loop at the bottom joins the downstroke at the base line and then comes right out for the connecting hairline.
 
Joins:
The hairline strokes connecting to round letters from the left meet them at about half way up the x-height as shown in the example above. On the right side the ‘o’ connects to the following letter in a similar manner to the ‘w’ and the ‘b’. The other letters in this group all have their exit hairlines at the base line so join in the same way as an ‘i’ would. Here are a couple of examples:



How about tot, talon, dice, quench and gauge for practice words? Please feel free to add a word of your choice using any of the letters from the three groups we have covered.

9
Copperplate Tutorial by SMK / Copperplate Minuscules - Group 2
« on: September 12, 2016, 03:56:51 PM »
Copperplate Minuscules - Group 2

This group has two strokes. The inverted ‘i’ stroke and the compound stroke. These are shown below.

The inverted ‘i’ starts with a hairline midway between the base and the waist lines. As it goes up, the hairline curves slightly in the clockwise direction until it reaches the waist line where the shaded stroke will begin. The down stroke starts with a gradual shade that achieves full width about ⅓ rd of the way down. The nib naturally moves to the right during this stroke causing the right tine to form the curve. The stroke is completed by drawing the full width all the way down to the base line.
The compound curve looks a little tricky but becomes simple when you realize that it starts like and inverted ‘i’ and ends like a regular ‘i’. That is all there is to it really.

The most common mistake with this stroke is that the top curve does not match the bottom one. It is very easy to make the bottom of this stroke heavier than the top - a slight difference is acceptable but ideally the top and the bottom should have the same thickness. Watch out for that when you are practising your groups of 5.

Once you have mastered these two strokes, the following letters will be easy to form.



Here is how the letters are formed:

n - an ‘n’ is formed by drawing an inverted ‘i’ followed by the compound curve. The rising entry hairline of the compound stroke touches the inverted ‘i’ in the middle of the waist and base lines.

m - an ‘m’ is formed by drawing two inverted ‘i’ strokes followed by a compound curve.

h - the ‘h’ is formed by drawing a hairline, followed by a full width downstroke that begins at the 1st Ascender line. This line is uniformly thick all the way to the base line. You can go back and square the top and bottom after the stroke is drawn. This is then followed by a compound curve.

y - the ‘y’ is a compound curve followed by a ‘j’ stroke.

p - the ‘p’ starts with a hairline. The main stroke starts halfway between the waist and the 1st Ascender lines. This stroke continues, with uniform thickness, all the way down to the 1st Descender line. Square the top and bottom of the stroke after drawing it if needed. This stroke is followed by a compound stroke.

v - the ‘v’ is just a compound stroke where the exit hairline goes all the way up to the waist line and is finished with a blob like in a ‘w’ or a ‘b’ from Group-1.

Practice these letters until satisfied. Post the following words for feedback when ready.

bin, mint, nymph, vim and one word of your choosing that may include letters from both groups.

Joins

This join applies to some letters in Group-2. The join for letters that begin with a hairline going all the way to the waist line (‘n’, ‘m’) needs to be a little steeper than normal. This allows for the letters to be slightly closer than if we drew the exit and entry hairlines are the regular angles.

These letters will still be a bit further apart than letters joining from base line to mid-height (e.g. t-i join in the example) but will still look quite acceptable.
Here is what this word looks without the adjustment i.e. drawing both the exit hairline from the 'i' and the entry hairline into the 'n' at the regular angles where they are expected to join the next or previous letter at 1/2 x-height.

10
Copperplate Tutorial by SMK / Copperplate Minuscules - Group 1
« on: September 12, 2016, 03:04:32 PM »
We will start our study of Copperplate with the small letters i.e. the minuscules. I have divided the minuscules into four groups. The first three groups are based on strokes common to the group. The last group contains the letters that do not share a pattern with other letters - these are the misfits.

We will need some materials before we start. I always recommend using the best materials you can afford for practice. The time we spend practising is our most valuable asset. It does not make sense to waste a second of it fighting with uncooperative paper or ink that doesn’t flow well. Here is what I recommend:

Ink: I will start with ink because it determines the other materials to some degree. I know the following to work well:

  • Higgins Eternal with a few drops of Gum Arabic.
  • Walnut ink (can be bought in liquid form or as crystals that are dissolved in water to make ink).
  • Pelikan Black with a good dollop of Gum arabic - experiment to find what works best for you.
  • Noodler’s Black with a good amount of water added.

Fountain pen inks contain surfactants which sometimes causes the ink to slide off the nib in an uncontrollable manner. The last two inks on my list are fountain pen inks but work well with pointed pens in my experience.

Please feel free to experiment with other inks but stay away from pigmented inks like Sumi or India. These can be made to work well with pointed pens but I don’t think it is worth the effort to fiddle with these inks when one is learning.

Paper: The paper you use should be smooth and should be able to take the ink you have chosen to work with. Higgins Eternal has a higher tendency to bleed than the other inks but it flows well. Some experimentation will be needed here.

Also, I recommend printing the guidelines on the paper you will be writing on. It makes a big difference over placing printed guidelines underneath the paper you are writing on. The paper you choose should be suitable for printing guidelines on the type of printer you have.

You can use paper with pre-printed lines on it e.g. Rhodia pads. Please maker sure the lines are at least 6mm apart though. On such papers you will only need the slant lines. We will be writing Copperplate at the traditional 55 degree angle from the baseline. You can either draw these on your paper or place a printed sheet with just the slant lines underneath.

Nib(s): We will be writing the minuscules at Ό inch x-height i.e. letters without ascenders or descenders will be Ό inch tall. We will need a nib that can handle writing at that size. I can recommend the following:

  • Speedball Hunt 101. These are commonly available in art stores and work very well.
  • Brause 66EF. These are easily available online and in some stores. This is very small nib but has more than enough flexibility for our purposes. It works well with inks that might be problematic with other nibs. Because of it’s small size, it needs a specially adjusted holder.
  • Leonardt Principal EF. This is an excellent nib and could have been at the top of the list. I have placed it at no.3 because it requires a delicate hand to get the best performance from it. Also, there have been reports of loss of quality lately (new nibs turning out bad).
  • Gillot 303. This is also an excellent nib but can be hard to use as it requires a delicate touch on the up strokes. There have been quality issues with this nib too but reportedly Gillott has invested in new tooling that will take care of these issues.

Various G nibs are very popular and often recommended for beginners because of their forgiving nature. These are excellent nibs but are a bit too stiff for writing at the size we will be practising with. By all means get some (my favourite is the Zebra G) to play with. You will definitely find a use for it outside of these lessons - or for practising Copperplate at a smaller size.

Holder(s): Oblique holders are usually recommended (but not absolutely necessary) for right handed people. I use one and do recommend it highly. However, you can write Copperplate with a straight holder if you want. You will need to turn the paper so that the slant lines are lined up with the direction of your holder shaft. The goal is to allow the nib to spread evenly on both sides of the shade on the downstrokes.

Left handed people, if they are underwriters, can use a regular oblique holder (like the one used by right handed people) and write with the paper turned clockwise between 40 and 60 degrees. It is difficult to draw the hairlines as upstrokes using a straight holder.

One of the advantages of an oblique holder is that it presents the nib at a shallow angle to the paper. This helps sharp nibs make smooth hairlines on the upstroke without catching on the paper. In my opinion, this is a big enough advantage to consider using one - even for left handed scribes.  Left handed oblique holders are available but I believe a regular one works better for left handed calligraphers.

Guidelines: As mentioned above, we will be using Ό inch x-height. I have prepared the guidelines in 2 sizes, A4 and US Letter. Both are attached to this post as pdf files. Please download the appropriate one and print it out on the paper of your choosing.

The illustration shows how the guidelines are laid out. The traditional proportions for Copperplate are 3:2:3 i.e. the ascenders and descenders are 1.5 times the x-height. However, at the Ό inch x-height we are using, the ascenders will be hard to draw at those proportions. We will be drawing our ascenders and descenders at 1 times the x-height. Some exceptions apply though and will be noted as we go along.



OK - enough about the preparation. Let's get started with some Copperplate.

Copperplate Minuscules - Group 1


The first group of letters we will be working are based on the ‘i’ stroke i.e. the stroke that makes up the letter ‘i’.

The ‘i’ stroke starts at the waist line and goes down to the base line. The stroke is started at full shade (i.e. the full thickness of the letter) and drawn at this thickness down ⅔ rds of the way down. As the illustration shows, pressure is released in the last third while simultaneously moving the pen to the right. This causes the right tine of the nib to keep drawing a straight line down while the left tine closes down making an arc as the tines come together at the base line. This is where you stop. Pick up the pen off the page and put it back down to start the hairline stroke that will connect to the following letter if there is one.

The picking up of the pen ensures that the bottom of the shade comes to a point as well as avoids pulling excess ink into the hairline.

Here is the group of letters based on the ‘i’ stroke:



i - Start with a hairline at the base line and go up to the middle of the x-height or slightly above - this is the entry hairline. Now place the pen at the waist line and apply pressure to the nib to spread the tines and pull down towards the base line. The stroke should be placed such that it meets the entry hairline halfway down the stroke. Gradually release the pressure on the nib two-thirds of the way down while moving the pen to the right bringing the stroke to a point on the base line directly below the right side of the stroke. This will cause the left side of the stroke to have a curved shape. Now lift the pen for a beat, put it back down and draw the hairline back up to the middle of the x-height, this is the exit hairline.

The dot is placed directly above the ‘i’, halfway between the waistline and the the 1st Ascender line. It is the same thickness at the letter - no more. You can go back and make the top of the starting stroke ‘square’ now. In time, you will learn to square the tops directly at the start of the stroke but there is no need to spend time on it at this time.

It is worth your while to practice this stroke until you can do it without thinking. The best way to do that is to use Mr. Geoff Ford’s method of practising in groups of 5. Here is how you do it:

Write the letter 5 times. Now stop and look at each letter you have drawn and place a tick mark against ones that are good. Now pick the best one and try to replicate or improve on it 5 more times. Repeat.

This process not only take the boredom out of the practice, it helps sharpen the eye in the process. Once you can see what a good letter is, making it well is just a short distance behind.

So when do you know when you have it? When you can consistently make 3-4 out good ones in a group of 5.

u - All that practice with the ‘i’ will come in use here. The ‘u’ is nothing more than two ‘i’s written next to each other i.e. the exit hairline of the first ‘i’, is the entry hairline of the second. All done.

w - The ‘w’ is just a ‘u’ with the exit stroke drawn all the way up to the waist line. The ‘blob’ in the end comes ⅓ of the way down and back up to the waistline, or the following letter if there is one. You can draw the blob without any pressure on the nib and then fill it in - or you can make it one go if you feel like it. Please note that the hairline stroke becomes pretty much parallel to the main stroke as it reaches the waistline - it does not curve back into the letter.

t - Now things are getting interesting. The ‘t’ is drawn like an ‘i’ that starts halfway between the waistline and the 1st Ascender line and goes down to the baseline. The tapering at the bottom is the last third of the ‘i’ part of the letter so if you cover the tops, the bottoms of the ‘t’ and the ‘i’ would look the same. The crossbar is drawn halfway between the top of the letter and the waistline.

l - This is beginning to feel like cheating now. The ‘l’ is just and ‘i’ that starts at the 1st Ascender line and goes all the way down to the baseline. As with the ‘t’, the tapering at the bottom should match that of an ‘i’.

b - The ‘b’ is an ‘l’ that is finished like a ‘w’ i.e. the exit stroke it taken all the way to the waist line and then the blob is drawn.

j - Things were getting a bit repetitive with the ‘i’ stroke so we will play with something a little different. The ‘j’ is not strictly based on the ‘i’ stroke but it begins like one. It is used in a few other letters so practising it with the first group will pay dividends later. You start just like with the ‘i’ but keep moving down at full thickness through the baseline. As you move below the baseline, start to taper your stroke towards the right gradually until you come to a point at about the 1st Descender line. Continue to draw the stroke as you go a little (about 1/3rd) below the 1st Descender line and come around to form the bowl of the letter and go up to join the downstroke just below the baseline where you lift the pen. The exit stroke continues on the right side of the downstroke as a hairline. The reason you pick up your pen is to avoid drawing excess ink into the hairline exit stroke from the still wet downstroke.

The dot is placed above the main stroke just as in the ‘i’.

This completes our first group. Take your time with it. When satisfied with your work, post the following words for review:

ill, will, built, jilt and a word of your choice made up of these letters.

A note about joins


The standard join is made when the hairline exiting at the baseline joins the following letter at mid-height between the base and waist lines. This is the simplest join.

Care should be taken to make the join as seamless as possible. Leaving a very small gap (as in the first hairline before the ‘t’) helps to avoid ink from the following shaded stroke bleeding into the hairline. This is quite acceptable although the gap in this example is a bit too far.

The hairline should be nearly in line with the slant lines at mid-height. This ensures that the join with the following letter is seamless.
The second type of join in Group-1 is from letters that end at the waist line.

These letters (‘w’ and ‘b’) end with a blob at the top of the final stroke. This blob is drawn about ⅓ of the way down from the waist line and a looping connector is drawn to the following letter. The bottom of the loop is about halfway between the waist and base lines allowing a join to the following stroke a little below the waist line. This join is slightly steeper than the ones starting at the base line but the transition can still be made smooth by drawing the hairline loop in such a ways that it matches the slant of the letters at the place where it joins the following stroke.

UPDATE (March 2018)
I just uploaded a short video describing the 'i' stroke to my YouTube channel. You can find it here: Copperplate Lessons - Group 1

I made a separate video for the 'j' stroke as I also wanted to show the 'g' and the 'q' at the same time. Here it is: purl= Lessons - j, g & q[/url]



11
Copperplate Tutorial by SMK / Introduction (please read this first)
« on: September 12, 2016, 01:31:31 PM »
First off, I want to thank Erica for bringing together this wonderful community and for inviting me to post these lessons here. I consider it an honour and a privilege.

I have compiled these tutorials as a series of lessons on groups of letters that share some similar characteristic. The idea is to learn how to identify these similarities while practising to produce the forms. I believe that developing this understanding (the 'eye') is critical to the learning of any hand.

The style of the letters in my lessons is a combination of Copperplate and Engrosser's script with some nuances of my own. I write my Copperplate this way most of the time. However, my intention is not to present this style as an exemplar. I am merely using it to illustrate the various elements that go in this 'family' of styles. I ask that you stick to it for the lessons but rest assured you will not be 'stuck' in this way of writing. You will find that you can adopt different styles with just a little bit of practice. This is where the 'eye' comes into play.

I ask everyone to follow the structure of the lessons as they build on each other. I know some of the students might be skilled already but the process helps me to get to know you. That is important in the faceless world of digital instruction.

I would appreciate it if everyone would take some time to introduce themselves briefly in the first lesson. The better we know each other, the more useful I can be. Please feel free to send me a PM if you would rather keep some information private.

I will try my best to provide feedback as quickly as I can. There are times where work and family commitments might delay things but I will always get back to you.

Please feel free to start additional threads in this forum if you have any questions or want to discuss something not covered in the lessons.

I also welcome participation by anyone who would like to contribute to the feedback and discussions. We all benefit from each other's knowledge so please don't hold back if you have something to share.

I am looking forward to everyone's participation.

- Salman

12
Hi all,

I wanted to announce my Copperplate class that I am offering in partnership with Wonder Pens. The class will be held at Wonder Pens in Toronto on June 11, 2016.

This is a 6-hour Level-1 class and is open to beginners as well as those with some experience. We will start our studies with the structure of the small letters. The class size will be small so I will have enough time to spend with each participant. There are still a few seats left.

Here is a link for more details: Copperplate Workshop with Salman Khattak at Wonder Pens

I hope to see you there.

- Salman


13
Coffee & Nib-bles / Scriptus Toronto - Pen and Writing Show
« on: October 26, 2014, 09:14:05 PM »
Hi all - I thought I'll just throw it out there. Toronto is going to have its own pen show next Sunday (i.e. Nov. 2nd). The show is called Scriptus Toronto. Details here: scriptustoronto.com/.

I am sharing a table with a friend and will be there throughout the day - stop by and say hello if you are there.

Salman

p.s. I will be on table 18.

14
Broad Edge Pen Calligraphy / Gothic Batarde & Italic
« on: April 19, 2014, 02:40:35 AM »
From time to time I find that I have taken up something that is more punishment than practice - this was one of those times. Having bought some furniture recently, we were left with a decent amount of Kraft paper. Not one to let any writable surface unexplored, I decided to use it for practice.

As it turns out, Kraft paper is a very challenging surface to write on - it is rough and has fibers that get in the way and is very tough on nibs. On the positive side, it takes a wide variety of inks and paints very well. Here is one of the results - this is done with white Gouache and William Mitchell nibs.



- Salman

15
Introductions / Hello from Toronto
« on: April 12, 2014, 04:58:24 PM »
Hi all - my name is Salman and I live in Toronto. I have been a Calligraphy enthusiast for a while. I dabble in both Arabic and Western styles and enjoy combining different hands and languages. Some examples of my work are available on my very infrequently updated blog at: http://salmankhattak.net/blog.

I hope to participate to both learn and share whatever I know.

- Salman

Pages: [1]