Some New Work, Very Ken Inspired!

[The penner]

Hai Penmanship subforum dwellers, here is another occasional update of some of the work I've done.

 

First up, there's this quick border experiment I did. The Gothic is Ken-inspired - I don't know where the style originated from, but I fell in love with something similar Ken had used in one of his Youtube videos. The style of the border and acanthus leaves I took from [calligraphypen.wordpress.com]. It's a great site!

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6183/6084614426_ee5975d4bf.jpg

 

Here is some Batarde. I was getting very used to the style and developing an eye for it already on that second day. Again, I was prompted to learn Batarde by Ken's post of the Batarde alphabet a while ago. The letters on Ken's post were less condensed as I remember them. The text means Brotherhood Ring in Norwegian, and it's the name of one of my favorite Black Metal songs.

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6075/6084615446_eeb7af8fb4_z.jpg

 

And then there's this strange rose I made. There's this bulgy green part you shouldn't be able to see at the angle that the flower appears to be. The centre of the flower sits at a strange angle too. It might be a coincidence, but Ken's influence again seems to have seeped in (recall his 'Scrappy Script' post). The roses in my garden are in full bloom, and I'm obsessed with them at the moment. I think it's most likely that's why I wanted to paint one.

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6074/6084665158_891a259e59_z.jpg

(There's some very mild language where the I used the pink to make it less visible. I will ask a mod if I can post the original. If I get permission, I will post the original.)

Edited August 27, 2011 by The penner

[Apotheosis]

sweet !!

[The penner]

Realised it still reads fine with the iffy word blurred out. Thank you Apotheosis.

[Mauricio]

Those are beautiful. What pens did you use to create those?

[smk]

All three examples are lovely and inspiring. I especially like the Batarde example.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Salman

[HDoug]

Wow. I like the Batarde -- the way the curves and angles of the "k" of the first line, and the "g" of the second line kind of "meld" together. Really fascinating.

 

Doug

[The penner]

Mauricio, I used Mitchell Roundhand nibs for all the broad-pen work. The extra-scratchy handwriting was done with some very flexy Leonardt nib. The reason for the excess scratchiness is cloggy, thick ink. :/

 

HDoug, I never realised that! I just found a way to compact the two lines of text without leaving the usual space.

 

I have never used proper x-heights and that. I always experiment with the various possible extents of condensation of the letters made possible by different letter heights.

 

Thank you everybody for the encouragement and feedback.

[ihtzazqamar]

Extraordinaire

[caliken]

The Penner,

 

This is really attractive work IMO.

 

I particularly like the lettering in the second example - very sharp, nicely balanced and very assured.

 

Did you have a problem with the paper surface in the first example? To my eye, the lettering isn't as crisp and clean as in the second example. I know that some parchment-type papers can be difficult.

 

The illustrations are very finely drawn with tasteful, understated colouring.

 

Ken

[sniper910]

Very nice indeed. Batarde is my favorite script and one of thee first ones I've learned

[The penner]

Many thanks, Ken. The first example was done on v. v. cheap paper, as it was only a quick experiment. It's real flimsy and it's got a truly strange sort of tooth to it. Besides, I used old, more runny ink that behaves differently from paper to paper, and it's hard to find patterns, i.e. what sort of paper it works better with. Didn't do very well with this one! Also, the finer Mitchell nibs make it easy for flaws to become very visible, because they are too annoyingly flexy and 'spewy' for some Gothic styles. Erm... What does IMO mean? I've seen it too many times on the forum, and this time I want to ask. You tend to use it a lot. (And I thought I was well learnt in internet acronyms)

 

Another annoying thing is that the wrinkles on the paper with the rose play with the light on the flower. Ugh.

 

Sniper, Batarde is one of the first you learned? Have you tried learning scripts like Uncial, Roundhand and Foundational yet? I tried jumping into Textura, and I thought I was doing well, but I backtracked and learnt easier hands... and now when I compare my early Textura with my work now, I know it's made a world of difference.

[caliken]

What does IMO mean? I've seen it too many times on the forum, and this time I want to ask. You tend to use it a lot. (And I thought I was well learnt in internet acronyms)

 

IMO = In my opinion

 

IMHO = In my humble opinion

[ihtzazqamar]

OTHO = On The Other Hand

[The penner]

Ironically, I used parchment for the second example. But even that does act up.

 

I think drawing roses really helps a half-decent artist to get a much better perception of form, lighting and direction. My drawings and paintings are getting better thanks to the roses.

[sniper910]

Sniper, Batarde is one of the first you learned? Have you tried learning scripts like Uncial, Roundhand and Foundational yet? I tried jumping into Textura, and I thought I was doing well, but I backtracked and learnt easier hands... and now when I compare my early Textura with my work now, I know it's made a world of difference.

 

yeah, i started with the pointed quadrata from the calligraphers bible, then got interested in batarde and spent quite a bit of time with that. i also practiced uncial, some gothic capitals also from the same book. i also received a few split nibs about a year ago and played around with gothic skeletal capitals and miniscules, and also versal capitals, all with the split nib. and as of about two months ago, i've been trying to learn copperplate. very fun stuff, but for some reason the flex nib scripts so far are being much more challenging to learn

[Watercycle]

oh wow those are incredibly beautiful and official looking!

 

the writing near the rose, is very, old fashioned looking, it adds that certain touch

 

around here that should be seen as the highest complement

Edited September 1, 2011 by Watercycle

[The penner]

It's nice to know you see something in the writing. Deviates greatly from my regular writing, just because the ink was so brutally thick, quick to dry, and my nib so flexy

 

Very high compliment, yeah! :L Thank you!

[PAKMAN]

Love the Rose!