March 2021 Meeting

 Meeting Minutes 9 March 2021

20 present

Ruling Pen with Bister Inks- Lonnie Watts

 

Welcome & Announcements:

**We are still planning on hosting our guild retreat om October at the Hideaway.  Details will be forthcoming as we know more.

**Our May workshop at Cottonwood Gallery, originally scheduled with Heather Held, is being reorganized as a Paste Paper Workshop Rosie Kelly-style, presented by Deb Strawn and Cecelia Harris May 16/17. The workshop will be $50 with a limit of 18 students.

**Leslie will be planning a card-making session as a service project to stock cards for the Myron Stratton Home. She also suggested we letter bookmarks for First Friday events again once Cottonwood opens up.

**The books on the table are from Kay’s collect and are free to take home.

 

Library Book Review:

**Carole shared the book Vanishing Flora by Dugald Stermer originally introduced to her in Renee Jorgensen’s Traditional Illustrations class. Dugald’s interest was changing the world for the better through his drawings of leaves and botanicals in graphite and diluted inks.  He often added a map for highlighting locations, and Carole brought a piece that reflected Stermer’s style.  She made it for a granddaughter’s birthday using sketches of leaves and even a tiny map. As Carole was researching Dugald Stermer, she found they crossed paths several times without knowing it when both of them lived and worked in and around San Francisco.

 

Show & Share:

****Carole brought a card she made to demonstrate how a Pebeo masking pen works for lettering under watercolor. 

**Tom had slides to show of his recent lettering project.  In 30” tall letters, he painted Northwest Airlines Inc. for the National Museum of WWII Aviation with a 4” brush.  

**Cecelia brought samples of the work she’s been doing in Yve’s class.

**Sally sowed us a draft of a commissioned poem she did in the Italian hand she learned in Heather Held’s class at Iampeth.

**Nell brought several of her lovely watercolors painted while at Glen Eyrie on an overnight with her husband.

 

Evening Presentation:

**Lonnie gave a brief history of Bister Inks, how Amity Parks was instrumental in exposing them to the calligraphic community in the US, and how to mix them, as one would mix walnut ink. She also showed us how well images and/or lettering can be printed on fabric such as muslin backed with freezer paper and slide through a standard inkjet printer.  The examples she brought were wine sacks she and Deb created. Deb used a canvas drop cloth from Harbor Freight and it was surprising how well it went through the printer. Lonnie encouraged us to go to Amity Park’s Pinterest page to see the way she uses Bister Inks in conjunction with metallic inks that seem to float on top.  

The key to getting the letters to splatter on the paper was to push the pen up for the down strokes on relatively rough cold pressed watercolor paper. She used a fun EZA pen she bought from Alan Ariail to demonstrate how it could make wide letters like a standard folded pen, as well as very fine letters when the tip was used.  She encouraged us to add tiny drops of other bister colors before the letter dried so the color would migrate to the edges as it dried.  If we didn’t work fast enough, water added into the letters worked just fine.  Lonnie had a station set up front for adding metallic colors so they floated on top of the Bister Inks. 

When the letters were dry, she showed us how to use a pencil to draw thin lines to the right of each letter and smudge the lines to create a shadow effect, giving the letters dimension. It was nice to learn something new!  

 

Sally Liverman

Cecelia Harris

Cecelia Harris

Cecelia Harris

Cecelia Harris

Nell's Watercolors

Nell's Watercolors

Book Reviewed

Carole Rudy

February 2021 Meeting

 Meeting Minutes 9 Feb 2021

15 present

Brush Lettering Basics Video by Reggie Ezell

 

Welcome & Announcements:

**There were no nominations for the Board, so the current Board members have agreed to serve for another year.  Thank you everyone!

**Our annual dues of $30 are due this month.

**There is a link in the eDigest for a quick video on how to make a folded pen from flashing if you don’t have a ruling/folded pen for next month’s project.  Lonnie gave us a sneak preview of what’s in store.  She’ll have bister inks for us to try and wine bags for us to make and take! 

**The books on the table are gifts from Kay Dingwell, who moved to OK.  Deb, Cecelia, and Lonnie were out recently for a surprise visit and helped her move her studio from upstairs to a bedroom on the main floor.  In the process, Kay downsized and gifted us with books!  Please take a look and take some home.

**Elma said she called to check on member, Toni Reilly, who was happy to hear from her.

 

 

Library Book Report:

**Leslie read the whole volume of a new book we have in the library, Herman Zapf and the World He Designed by Jerry Kelly: A Biography.  She thought it was more like a tribute to the man who was born in 1918 and became a typographer after the war in 1938.  He was a gentle man and was very sought after for his calligraphic work as well as his roughly 90 font designs.  He was commissioned to letter the Preamble of the United Nations Charter in 4 languages, Russian, English, Spanish, and French.  Some of his font’s in Adobe are on every computer known to man.  Fascinating history as well as insights to the man behind the pen.  

 

 

Show & Share:

**Cecelia is taking a class in Built-Up Romans from Yves Letterme along with about 40 other students from around the world.  She brought some of her sample practice work.

**Cheryl brought a sample of her work in Yves class as well, but a more slanted version, and a watercolor/pen & ink drawing she did of the Little Mermaid for her granddaughter’s room

**Kimmi embroidered lyrics from the Beatle’s song, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, on fabric.  She also had a few of her little jewelry box dioramas, and a little folded book of love for Valentine’s day!

 

Evening Presentation:

**We watched the video Reggie Ezell produced on brush lettering basics.  He gave Candy permission to print his exemplar and started by demonstrating how to take a new Color Brush Pen apart.  He carefully showed how the brush makes thin and thick strokes and progressed to demonstrate the stroke sequences for every miniscule. as well as a few variations of the word GENTLE to show us the fine and wild abilities of the Pentel brush.  Most folks stayed until the end!  

Cecelia's

Cheryl's

January 2021 Meeting

Meeting Minutes 12 Jan 2021

16 present

Leslie Boehm/Sally Liverman- Timothy Botts’ Masking 

 

Welcome & Announcements:

**Our annual dues of $30 are due in February. 

**The guild roster was passed around to double-check our information.

**Leslie passed around the Birthday Card list.

**Michael Sull’s American Cursive Handwriting Self-Study Workbook and Curriculum, including his handouts, can be found in the library.

**Candy gave us an update on a few of our members: Betsy Wintermute has Covid, Kathy Sullivan’s dad died recently, and Kim Hetherington is being treated for Leukemia.  

 

Library Book Review:

**Kimmi brought two books from home she uses for inspiration. She found Clover Robin, the author of Cut Paper Pictures, originally on Pinterest. The book shows lots of ways to turn photos and art into personalized art.  Maira Kulman’s The Principles of Uncertainty was filled with drawings and funky portratis Kimmi loves to emulate.  I was fun to see what stirs Kimmi’s creativity!

 

Show & Share:

**Ceclia showed us the Christmas card she made for family and a few friends along with a lovely tea towel.  She did the lettering and background and sent it off to Spoonflower, the fabric design company she uses.

**Carole brought two cards she lettered Strength and Gratitude in black brush.

**Sally showed us Timothy Botts’ original “Thanks” he did in class at IAMPETH in 2019.

**Kimmi had the cutest diorama she made in a small box for her grandson with a turtle, fish, and beaver. She lettered her thoughts next to a gnome with a broad edged pen in funky script. She also lettered 3 small pieces on long slender candle bags and an assortment of gift card holders with whimsical art to go with her funky letters, and…the tiny atravel journal she took to Egypt and Jordan in 2019.

**Karen used Carolingian she learned from Reggie’s recent online class to letter a Peter Marshall quote.

 

Evening Presentation:

**Sally and Leslie teamed up to introduce us to the masking techniques Timothy Botts presented in the class he taught in Denver at IAMPETH in 2019.  Leslie used the overhead to show us a variety of examples from books she brought.  We were free to look at the pages she marked to help with ideas, and she walked around to make sure we were understanding what to do and to encourage us as we worked.

Sally had us get both of our sheets of watercolor paper and wet the back sides of them.  She instructed us to use strips of green masking tape to create a pattern or random shapes with it before washing over it with gouache or watercolor.  After it was dry, we were to take the tape off revealing the white paper behind it before lettering something on top. Sally used the time we had very well by toggling back and forth between sheets so that as one was drying, we could work on the other.  In the end, we should have been able to go home with two mostly finished projects!