Calligraphy School

Today was the first day of Calligraphy School taught by calligrapher, paper artist, Mary Lawler . Mary will be teaching this year long class, one Saturday per month. (Be sure to visit Mary's page to see the incredible sculptures she makes from paper)

A year long class is an exciting concept. There isn't a real structured, calligraphy program in the US; one does not earn a degree in calligraphy. So most calligraphers take workshops or attend conferences in their area. A class here, a class there. From the classes, one usually slavishly copies the exemplars, following the ductus (stroke order) in the everlasting quest to make the perfect letter. We learn as many "hands" as we can to increase our repetoire. Some we learn and practice well. Others we learn to collect and move on, storing the notes in large binders and rarely going back to look at the lessons.

Mary's approach will be different. We started from the very beginning with Romans based on the carved letters found on Trajan's column in Rome. We all "know" these letter forms as capital letters. Most of us started out in kindergarten or first grade making ball and stick letters.

Mary had a handout of Roman letters that was photocopied backwards. Our excerises began by knocking our preconceptions of these letters upside down. We were to think of these forms as shapes and not letters. Shapes to be drawn and not slavishly copied in a linear, rigid fashion.

We traced the letters upside down and backwards. What we thought we knew became foreign to us. Strokes were hesitant. I found I can not only draw a straight line, I can't trace one either. We then traced the letters backwards. The shapes were more familiar and our strokes more sure. We noticed straight lines are not really straight but tapered. The serifs, "feet" or "tops" of the letters that stick out from side, have curved shapes.

We traced, and traced, and traced some more.

Mary had us take a 7 letter word and trace the letters backwards. Then combine the letters to make an abstract layout.

Homework for the month is to trace the letters to learn their proportions, to doodle letters, to draw the skeleton form of the letter to learn its structure.