Reggie Homework Warts and All

This is the third Reggie weekend. My teaching schedule and commission work made it difficult to fit time to do the homework. Again, I marched to my own homework drummer as there were things I needed to work on. After all, that's the purpose of homework to reinforce skills. The homework this time around focused on pressurized Romans and again working with gouache.

Since time was growing short, I opted to skip working with gouache. I tried, but too many other variables to worry about mixing gouache went very low on my totem pole. That and I realized I don't like writing with gouache. I also had lots of difficulty with the pressurized caps. I still wasn't confident with a plain Roman so that was my first assignment. A stream of consciousness calligram. Done on Arches Watercolor paper, Winsor Newton Ink and a Brause 2 mm.

We were to make an exemplar of pressurized caps with serifs. 1 inch tall with a Mitchell  #2 . We also were to do a short quote. I combined the two assignments. I had a flash on inspiration instead of writing out the entire alphabet, I'd pick letters that represented all the shapes. Straight, angle, curve, circle. This fit with the quote ANCORA IMPARO. Translated as I am still learning and may or may not be attributed to Michelangelo. Pressurized caps require a very light touch. I'm ham-fisted. Since I was having some problems making delicate serifs, I opted to skip the wasp-waisted letters for a more plus size letter with serifs. I also had problems working so large so decided to work at 1/2 inch. Scribes don't have a patron saint. We have a patron demon named Titivillus. Titivillus happily waits for the scribe to make an error, and then he scoops the mistake into his bag. When Judgement Day arrives for the scribe, the errors in Titivillus' sack are weighed against the good deeds the scribe did. The scale would determine whether the good outweighed the bad, and the scribe could be admitted to Heaven. ANCORA IMPARO - I am still learning.

We had to make another exemplar of pencil drawn caps with serifs, 1 inch tall on grid paper. then we were to cut and paste these letters to make a layout and do a short quote. The layout was to be transferred to black paper, underpainted with white, and then painted or gilded the letters. Another assignment involved mixing 5 values of intermediate colors of gouache. We were to paint the quote with a color from the mixing assignment that appealed to us. Again, mixing colors very low priority for me, and as I'm partial to blue that was the color I opted to work with.

Translation of the quote was gilded along with the dots. The lines in the illuminated "I" were painted with shell gold. The gold was burnished using a Letraset (shoe) burnisher and glassine.

Lots of things I need to work on. Spelling for one. At least, I have pieces to turn in for confession show and tell to prove I wasn't a total slug. ANCORA IMPARO Titivillus will have a field day with this one. I am still learning.