Chapter 17

More Things to Do with Your Calligraphy

In This Chapter

Trying some doodles and drawings with the calligraphy pen

Designing monograms

Using different kinds of border designs

Addressing envelopes

Making plaques

Using calligraphy in artwork

You can do so much with calligraphy. Entire books have been written on the subject of calligraphy projects, and I wish I could put an extensive description of the many projects you can do in just one book. But with quotes, posters, signs, certificates, invitations, works of art . . . there’s virtually no limit to the number of ways that you can use calligraphy.

Although I can’t describe every potential project for you, I can give you an idea of a few of the more popular projects that calligraphers enjoy. Use these ideas and examples for inspiration and try some of these projects or develop some ideas of your own — the possibilities are endless.

To do the projects in this chapter you should be proficient at lettering one or more alphabets and have the materials I discuss in Chapter 2.

Calligraphic Doodles and Drawings

Have you tried doodling with the broad-edge pen? Because of the way the nib makes thick and thin strokes, you can use the pen to produce some very interesting drawings.

Pen drawings can be combined with calligraphy in many different ways. They can add interest to an address on an envelope, or they can illustrate a narrative. Pen drawings add interest and a touch of personality wherever they are used. Figure 17-1 gives you a sampling of some calligraphic doodles.

Figure 17-1: A few doodles with the broad-edge pen.

Some people have a real knack for pen doodling and others do not. Granted, drawing with the pen isn’t for everyone, but for some people it’s tremendous fun. If you’ve never thought of drawing with the calligraphy pen, give it a try. Just keep these tips in mind:

Use the thicks and thins to enhance the doodle or drawing. The best doodles are the ones where the placement of the thicks and thins is an important element in making the drawing look right. So, as you work with the pen, think about whether you want a line to be thick or thin. Turn the paper so you’ll be able to draw at the angle that will enable you to make the thicks and thins where you want them. Manipulate the pen so you can begin a stroke thick and end it thin.

Don’t worry about rules on pen angle. In fact, broad-edge pen drawing requires that you change the angle for each part of the drawing so you can control where you make the thicks and thins.

Begin with a sketch. Sketch your doodles lightly with a pencil first and then develop them in pen. Don’t just trace over your pencil sketch; instead, give careful thought to how you’re going to make each stroke — make each stroke count.

Monograms

Monograms are extremely popular. Primarily, they are used on stationery, but they can be used anywhere you want to use them. Monograms are quite popular as a design for programs, napkins, and so on, especially at weddings. For more information on the subject of weddings, please check out Chapter 18.

Making a nice monogram takes at least two steps:

1. Sketch a lot of designs to see which letter styles look best.

2. Letter the final version of the design.

A monogram usually has three capital letters with the letter in the middle being the largest and most prominent. The letters on either side are smaller. The large center letter is the initial of the last name. The two smaller letters on either side are given names. (For a wedding, these would be the initials of the first names of the bride and groom.)

The best monogram designs are worked out through a process of discovery and elimination through sketching and re-sketching until you arrive at a good design which is visually pleasing. If you’ve never done a monogram before, it can be a time-consuming process. The more experience you have in making monograms, the easier it becomes.

A simple shortcut that you can use is to make a letter in the center which has straight sides. That way you can position letters on both sides close to the center letter, and the three letters will look like a single unit. Capital letters with straight sides are made similar to Blackletter (see Chapter 8) with simple diamond, vertical, and diagonal strokes.

Figure 17-2 shows three examples of monograms where the center letters have straight sides. Notice in the example that the smaller letters were done with a different size nib than the large letters.

Figure 17-2: Examples of monograms.

A Potpourri of Border Designs

Borders are not really a separate project. You use borders as design elements in other projects. You can use borders with just about anything that you do in calligraphy. Of course, some things definitely look better than others with borders on them. Other things would look odd with a border. For example, maps should always have borders, but name tags should never have them.

Still wondering when you should use a border with your calligraphy? The answer is simple: Use a border whenever you think it will enhance the appearance of your calligraphy. You’re the judge. There’s no rule — not even for maps and name tags.

Borders can be official looking or whimsical or anything in between. The border can go around all four sides or just run down one side or be only at the top and bottom. Using borders means that you have a lot of choices.

There do seem to be a few border designs that calligraphers use more than others. And, there’s a reason they’re so popular — they look good and they’re not difficult to do. These are the ones I want to show you.

Check out these three kinds of borders and see which ones strike your fancy:

Drawn with the broad pen

Drawn with a ruling pen

Drawn in a fine line with a pointed nib

Borders drawn with the broad pen usually have a darker overall appearance than borders drawn with a fine line. Those drawn with a ruling pen have straight lines. Figure 17-3 gives you an idea of the contrast between borders drawn with a broad pen and straight-line borders drawn with a ruling pen.

Borders drawn with a sharp-pointed drawing pen give you the advantage of coloring them in. Figure 17-4 shows a border which was drawn with a sharp-pointed pen. This is one time when waterproof India ink is called for. If you outline the design in waterproof ink, you can fill it in with watercolor.

Figure 17-3: Borders drawn with the calligraphy pen and ruling pen.

How do you determine how wide or narrow to make a border? It has to be done entirely by eye. There are no rules. Just use what looks good to you. This “do it by eye” approach also applies to deciding what size letters to use and what size guide lines to draw. The purpose of making preliminary sketches is to try things out and decide what you think looks best.

Figure 17-4: A border that was drawn with a sharp-pointed pen.

Because all borders must have a uniform look to them, it is important to sketch them before you draw them with the pen. The sketch usually involves measuring so that the design can be repeated at regular intervals.

If you are creating a mock-up that will be used underneath your final work as a guide, the border sketch is all you need. It can be darkened so it will be easy for you to see it and follow the lines. That is the case with the example in Figure 17-5.

Figure 17-5: An example of a sketch and the completed border.

Addressing Envelopes

Addressing envelopes gives you a great opportunity to use flourishes and embellishments. You can use more flourishes on the envelope than you ever would dare to use on a letter inside the envelope. An envelope that has been addressed in calligraphy makes a truly positive impression on the recipient.

The simplest way to address an envelope is to use a sheet with guide lines drawn on it which you slip inside the envelope. The paper on the envelope should be thin enough for you to see the guide lines. Follow these lines when you write the address on the outside.

Don’t overdo the flourishes. Think of the person’s name and address as a unit. Use flourishes to pull the design together, not to make it look fragmented.

Figure 17-6 gives you a couple of examples of envelopes addressed using calligraphy. The example on the left also incorporates a small watercolor picture.

Figure 17-6: Envelopes addressed in calligraphic writing.

Plaques

A really interesting and fun thing to do with your calligraphy is make commemorative plaques. Anything from a favorite saying or recipe to an award can be made into a nice plaque. Plaques make fantastic gifts. I had a student once who gave plaques to everyone on her Christmas list — she said that she had a “plaque-a-thon.”

Basically a plaque is a piece of wood with beveled edges and a flat surface on which a piece of paper has been mounted. The best plaques have a permanent, clear coating which seals everything in. You can usually find unfinished wood plaques at hobby and crafts stores.

Below, I explain the technique for creating a polymer sealed-plaque with your calligraphy.You can find polymer products designed specifically for this purpose in many crafts stores. Follow these steps for successful results:

1. Gather your materials. Use a dip pen and waterproof India ink (be certain to wash out your pen immediately). Use a smooth, bond paper at least 24 pounds or heavier. Smooth water color paper is an excellent choice. You can look back at Chapter 16 for ideas on how to layout a design on paper. Chapters 4 through 13 present different alphabets that you can use.

2. Figure out the dimensions needed for the paper. Holding the paper in position with one hand, press down on the paper with the thumb of your other hand where the edge of the plaque is. This should make an impression in the paper of the front surface area of the plaque. Do the calligraphy inside this area, cut it out, and have it ready. In this instance, measuring is not a practical way to size the paper, because the rectangular surfaces of plaques are frequently out of square. Also, you may want to work on plaques that are oval or heart-shaped.

3. Prepare the plaque. Sand the plaque really well and then paint or stain the entire front surface and sides. You don’t have to paint the back, but you should paint or stain the entire front. A mistake that some people make is not to paint the area that the paper is going to cover. That is a mistake because the paper often becomes transparent enough for you to see the contrast between the painted and unpainted areas.

4. Attach the paper. When the paint is dry, attach the paper to the front of the plaque using white glue applied to the back of the paper with a stiff brush. This is the tricky part — work fast!

5. Seal the deal. After the glue has dried, the surface must be sealed. Apply a coat of sealer such as modge-podge over everything except the back. A second coat is a precaution worth the time and effort.

There are some safety precautions with this step. Be especially careful to follow all the safety warnings that come with polymer products. Mix and pour a polymer coating over the plaque following the directions that come with the product. I like to set the plaque on top of an inverted paper cup pedestal on top of several sheets of newspaper.

6. Allow the coating to set at least two days.

7. Glue felt to the back, attach a decorative hanger, and your plaque is complete.

The important thing about doing plaques is to be careful and take your time. Don’t rush the process. Set up a work space and work step by step, and make small plaques at first until you have mastered the technique.

Combining Calligraphy and Other Art Media

In Asian art, calligraphy has been considered a fine art as opposed to being merely a craft. Using calligraphy as part of paintings has been a tradition in Chinese and Japanese art for centuries. In Western art, the tradition has been to view calligraphy not as a fine art but merely as a craft. Fortunately, that predjudice against calligraphy is dissolving. If you do any kind of art at all, I encourage you to feel free to incorporate calligraphy into your art, whether it be drawing, painting, or printmaking.

You don’t have to just incorporate calligraphy into art; you can also create art where the letters themselves are the design elements. In other words, calligraphy is not incorporated into a design; calligraphy is the design. Figure 17-7 is an example of this kind of design.

Figure 17-7: A design made with the letters.

Calligraphy can be used with computer art. You might be wondering why the letters in Figure 17-7 aren’t black, so I’ll tell you my trick. First, I drew the letters with a pen. They were originally done in black ink on white paper. Then I scanned and manipulated them using a graphics editor with my computer.

Figure 17-8 shows how calligraphy can be used to create perspective in the painting.

When you use calligraphy either as art or incorporate it into art, you should keep the following in mind:

In order to make letters look three dimensional, you’ll need to make sure they have at least three colors or tones — the highlights, mid-tones, and shadows. I call this the “rule of three.”

Learn to do calligraphy with a brush. Refer to Chapter 14 for an introduction to using a brush for calligraphy.

For pen work that you want to tint with watercolor, you must use waterproof inks. Just be extremely careful that the ink doesn’t dry in your pen. I recommend that you have a container of water nearby where you can douse your pen immediately after you use it.

If you want to paint a background design or picture that is supposed to look like it is behind the calligraphy, it is usually better to do the calligraphy first. That way when you do the painting around the calligraphy, you can leave a small amount of white space or even soften the colors between the letters and the painting.

This last example is a detail of a mural which was painted on a wall in a school’s media center (Figure 17-9). It was a really ambitious project. The entire mural was over seven feet tall and over twenty feet long. It took me the better part of a year to complete this project. This is an example which shows that calligraphy doesn’t have to be small; it can be used on a large scale.

Figure 17-8: Calligraphy in an oil painting where it is a vital part of the image.

The illustration shows a part of the center portion where you see extensive use of calligraphy. There are two detailed maps and over a hundred names of historical figures on this mural. Several alphabets were used, and some of the letters are Greek.

Considerable research and preliminary sketching was done before the actual painting began. Many of the sketches were projected onto the wall so that all the proportions would be correct.

This mural employs several design elements and techniques which you can use in your own art work. They include:

The entire wall was painted a solid dark red as a ground color. Using a dark ground color can help create a dramatic image and intresting color effects. It provides a contrast that enhances the illusion of light in the painting. If you use this idea in doing calligraphy, you can make the letters appear to jump out at you.

In order to keep this large, complex design from looking too “busy” and disjointed, a strong underlying geometric design was used throughout. Geometry, especially if you use a lot of diagonals, is an easy way you can create an interesting, cohesive design.

Depth and perspective were created by using overlapping shapes, linear perspective with vanishing points, and using color spatially — bright, vivid colors projecting forward and dull, pale colors receding backward. These are ideas you can use in any art where you want to create the illusion of depth.

Variations in texture were used throughout. Many novices tend to want to smooth everything out. Allow some brush strokes and pen work to show. Use texture.

The ribbon effect creates a rhythmic movement that helps create interest and ties the design together visually. If you like this effect, feel free to take the idea and use it.

The dove in the lower center is the same image that I had used in the painting shown in Figure 17-8. Don’t be afraid to re-use images you’ve drawn or painted before.

A key element here is that the calligraphy does not look like it’s simply added on top of an image. The calligraphy is a necessary part of the imagery. If you were to take the calligraphy away, the art would flop. When you use calligraphy in your own art, strive to make it an integral part of the design.

Figure17-9: A detail of a mural where calligraphy was used extensively.