Beautiful Hand Lettering

As a society we still recognize and admire beautiful handwriting and penmanship.  I have been interested in learning to write prettier since watching Jake Weidmann talk about master penmanship.  He eloquently says:

"We are abdicating so much of what we are learning and retaining, not to our own memories, but to the memories of the computers and other devices."

I agree with his point.  We used to have amazing auditory memory as a society thousands of years ago and then when the written word became available we could store information more reliably to pass on to the next generation.  It was good because we lose a lot of important info relying on verbal memory but the downside was the decrease in our brains choosing to commit things to memory.  We didn't need to do it so we chose to do it less and less.  Even a scant two hundred years ago when paper was not widely available, school children were educated to dictate their entire school lessons.  They committed entire ballads and sagas to memory and could recite them perfectly.

Now computers have become so available we are handwriting less and less.  College kids have stopped handwriting in class and now they don't even teach kids to write in cursive or print very well because we can let our computers do it for us.  I remember having a little bump on my middle finger from holding the pencil and writing all day and now as an adult I can hardly see it.  I get a cramp in my hand when I sit down to write or draw with intensity for more than 20 minutes.  Maybe it is age but maybe it is also lack of use.  I do love the storage capacity of my computer and I admit to relying on it more than paper because of how compact it can make everything but Jake makes a good point in favor of handwriting:

"But by doing the different tactile movements of forming the individual letters and linking those letters one to another and then putting those words into the context of a sentence; you are actually ingraining the information in your brain." 

-Jake Weidman 

This statement impressed me deeply.  I started using my old handwriting skills again.  I practiced in a my journal and looked up calligraphy writing styles to see how I could improve.  In November my very generous brother gifted me $30 to spend on Amazon.com.  I spent a whole day trying to figure out what I wanted to buy.  Ironically, I found what I wanted when I decided to see what was on my brother's wish list to get a Christmas present for him.  He had More Creative Lettering and just looking at it inspired me.  I ordered it for me and him and I was excited to learn how to make beautiful letters.  Then my husband and I were reading scriptures together one night and I was hit by inspiration when we read a verse.  I had noticed it before and had it marked in my copy but this time I could see it written like an art piece emphasizing the phrases and words building to a climatic resolution like a piece of music that crescendos into beautiful high note.

I began working on it the following Sunday at church.  I wrote the verse and then practiced writing the words that I wanted to emphasize in different styles of lettering.  I used 3-4 pages of plain old regular notebook lined paper.  Then my book arrived and I practiced using the different styles in the book.  I used another couple dozen pieces of lined and copy paper as I worked.  A week later I had accomplished this:

I could hardly believe I had done it myself.  Of course by the time I had finished I had memorized the verse pretty well.  It is from the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ.  I am excited to do more pieces with verses from the scriptures.  In the meantime I made this piece for a friend:

I managed it in a time crunch since it was much shorter and the lettering style for the word "blessing" is from Alexandra Snowdon.  She is one of the contributors to the aforementioned book and each artist has a website referenced in the book which is how I found it.  

These did not appear magically.  Here is a glimpse of the process:

I used the lined paper to practice in pencil first and help me get my bearings for the size of the letters and word.  If it looked too cramped or spaced out to far I could adjust that in the copying process.  When I liked what I saw I inked over it in black fine tipped sharpie.

Then I traced my practice pieces on to blank white copy paper.  When I finished the first page I looked in my creative writing book for more advice because I knew I would have a hard time on the finer details with this method.  It talked about using a light table and I wistfully remembered the light table we had in my high school art class.  But I got to thinking and my kitchen table splits to add in sections to make it bigger.  I also had a large glass rectangal intended for a executive desk out in the garage and one of those lamps that can clamp anywhere.  So I created my light table and that made it much easier to do the second page as well as the second art piece.  When I scanned the final copies into the computer I used our paint application to make a couple tiny adjustments.  I know I could have done A LOT of adjusting to line things up more neatly and such but I decided I just wanted it to look as hand made as possible.  I was not going for perfection or computer made.  Besides I was using Paint not Adobe Photo Shop.  I was using what I had not--professional grade materials.  So that is why the finished product looks exactly as it does.  It is a testament that even with simple tools we can create beautiful work.

Also I chose not to sign my name to it for a good reason.  I am not the author of the words nor the original creator of most of the lettering designs.  I want to share it freely as a gift because it was a gift to me from my Heavenly Father.  I was inspired by words from a holy book that came from Him and from the artists in a book that He put in my path to find.  So if you decide to print this and frame it or share it with a love one I would be honored. 

For Christmas, my husband got me a set of calligraphy pens which I am eager to use in my next creation.  Maybe I will start coming up with my own original lettering designs.