Slow and Steady- Painting Letters with a Pointed Brush- 3-Session Class, Oct. 24, 27 & 30. 6pm MDT

Slow and Steady - Painting Letters with a Pointed Brush

 All Levels

There are times when our lettering calls for a new way of working to achieve the effect we are looking for. Sometimes our traditional pens don’t work to create the forms we want or we are lettering on a surface that is not friendly to the pen. Other times we would like to use a medium that won’t flow through our pens. In these cases, it’s nice to have the skills for ‘drawing’ our lettering using a pointed brush. This tool allows unlimited freedom to produce any letterforms and to write on many surfaces.

In this class we will do exercises to familiarize ourselves and develop skills with using a pointed brush. We won't be 'writing' with the brush as many calligraphers do, but rather drawing and painting with it. This is a slow and steady process that is a good skill to have in your tool kit. We'll start by doing exercises to familiarize ourselves with brush techniques. Once we are comfortable with the tools, we’ll explore a variety of letterforms that lend themselves well to the brush, focusing on a playful and naive version of Roman capitals inspired by old Italian inscriptions. Next we will experiment with creating interesting compositions and adding other illustrative designs as well. I’ll offer some tips in how to transfer our designs onto surfaces using patterns, and then finishing our designs using our pointed brush and water-based paints such as gouache and watercolor.

The first two classes will included demos, discussion and exercises to do on your own time.  The final session will include a show and share of class work with comments from Amity. A link to padlet will be provided for students to upload work if they care to share.

Registration gives you access to the three live sessions of class, access to the class recordings for 30 days, and a handouts file to print at home.