Author Topic: First attempt at anything practical  (Read 1995 times)

Offline Moose

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First attempt at anything practical
« on: January 03, 2019, 02:51:55 PM »
So, posting any work here is intimidating. I am an abject beginner at calligraphy and this is literally my first ... anything. Other than practice pages.

I scanned it in, cleaned it up, added the glider and the drop shadow, sized it, then printed it to a waterslide.  The monoline was a fountain pen, the main logo was a leonardt principal and Moon Palace sumi. 

This passtime is maddening... I must have written fifty Gs trying to learn the form and at least as many copies of "Green" still can't do two in a row they way I like them. And spacing. Man, if you want to make someone miserable, teach them about kerning then get them to care about it. They'll be annoyed for the rest of their life! But it's unique and mine, so enjoy my first attempt at letter art.


Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: First attempt at anything practical
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2019, 12:33:53 AM »
It came out wonderful! Thanks for sharing with us.

Yes - it can be frustrating at times. But that’s when you need to relax and let go and just let it happen.

Well done! I look forward to seeing more.  ;D
Warm Regards,
Erica
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Offline mrunaljani

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Re: First attempt at anything practical
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2019, 01:34:57 AM »
its beautiful :)

Offline RD5

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Re: First attempt at anything practical
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2019, 05:56:03 AM »
It doesn't look like a first attempt.

I am confused, did you print it on the guitar ?

Offline AnasaziWrites

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Re: First attempt at anything practical
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2019, 08:41:38 AM »
Nicely done.

Offline Bianca M

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Re: First attempt at anything practical
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2019, 11:54:54 AM »
It looks great!

Offline Moose

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Re: First attempt at anything practical
« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2019, 01:29:23 PM »
It doesn't look like a first attempt.

I am confused, did you print it on the guitar ?

No. It's a waterslide decal that will be buried under the finish lacquer on the headstocks.

I wrote it on paper -- like a zillion times -- then photographed it, pulled it into the computer and manipulated it there. I resized, cleaned up the spots from the photograph and added that drop shadow, and added the glider which I did totally in inkscape by tracing a photograph. The capitals were separated from the words after them so I could size them separately. I also separated the capitals in the monoline, mostly because that's the prettiest fountain pen S I have ever written in my life and wanted to use it with the best rest of the word...

Anyway, I fiddled with the sizes until I got it to fit and printed it out on a waterslide decal.  Then the waterslide decal goes on the headstock, and I clearcoat over that.

It was very tedious. Gives a man a much greater respect for real calligraphers who are so consistent and elegant when hand lettering envelopes and notecards.


And thanks everyone for the encouraging response. It was tedious on purpose. I spent a while with the spencerian books to improve my daily handwriting a few years ago, but this summer I spent time with Sull's book to try and move from legible to calligraphic. Alas, I just got to the point where I can handle a proper pen, and I'm only moderately good at a few capitals. So this was an excuse to practice on something other than "Ohio is the cradle of American penmanship."  I've got a very long way to go, still.

Offline NikkiB

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Re: First attempt at anything practical
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2019, 04:36:51 PM »
@Moose that looks pretty darn amazing, and I’m not just saying that!

And I hear you about kerning...and ‘Gs’ 😂😂😭
Nikki x

Offline Moose

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Re: First attempt at anything practical
« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2019, 05:17:03 PM »
Thanks.

I actually just got the first guitar together this weekend. I screwed up the lacquering process on the front. Twice. Could have fixed it, I guess, but lacquer takes a few weeks to cure and I am impatient so I will just chalk it up to a learning experience.  I'll do the second neck better having learned a few techniques the hard way. Sometimes you have to do things wrong a bunch to know what NOT to do, right?

Here's the messed up front:

And the back, which I did a much better job on:


It looks grainy, but that's the cell phone camera. It's nice and sharp in person.

I'm unreasonably proud of the handwriting on the back. Unlike Gs, I'm pretty happy with Ms. That one is more in my wheelhouse, though I did spend a bunch of pages trying things out before I got where I liked:

I'm sure we all have scores of pages like this from practicing and designing stuff.