Calligraphy

Doing some italic practice with dip pens and Diamine inks, using forms by Gaye Godfrey-Nicholls.

Quote from One Week One Band.

My favourite poem, known as the Maboroshi poem, by Murasaki Shikibu. Translation by Liza Dalby, from her book The Tale of Murasaki.

Some quotes from blogs and my new fandom Yuri!!! on Ice. The original was in all caps too! I find it silly but inspiring.

Speedball C-4 dip pen with Diamine Oxblood, Grey and Carnation.

commonplace book

A commonplace book is basically a running record of things you pick up every day that educate or inspire you. Often it's like a scrapbook, or a card file, or just a collection of interesting quotes. Blogger Ryan Holiday has a pretty interesting post on his methods.

I have very messy notebooks where I record lists of books I like, quotes, errands and basically everything, but I wanted to collect some quotes to practice my lettering with. My commonplace book is an A6 Nocturnelle from Paperblanks. It's not very 'commonplace' looking, but I fell in love with this journal ages ago because it looks like a door in a Gothic novel. Paperblanks also has great paper for pen and ink. My calligraphy dip nibs just skate across this paper!

Copperplate Hunt 101 nib with Rohrer & Klinger Salix ink.

This is my first quote, dashed off in dip pen and framed with washi tape. Of course the aim of a commonplace book is to quote correctly - it's Kobori Enshu, not Ensho.

Same nib, with Noodler's Bulletproof Black.

Yogananda is a great guide for life. Concept designer Chris Oatley of the Oatley Academy is a great guide for work.

Copperplate nib and Mitchell 'script' nib, Bulletproof Black.

Listening to podcasts is a great source of inspiration for me. This quote comes from actress and comedian Aisha Tyler interviewing John Cho on her awesome podcast Girl on Guy.

Copperplate nib and Speedball B-5 lettering nib,
Noodler's Bad Blue Heron and Luxury Blue ink.

Jen Dziura's column Get Bullish gives 'aggressive lady-advice' for the go-getter gentlewoman.

Copperplate nib, Diamine Sherwood Green ink, and acrylic stamps.

Karen Healey is a YA author with a collection of pretty great quotes about writing...and some choice words of her own.

Copperplate nib with Bulletproof Black.

This post about Elizabeth Bathory was pretty terrifying, but it did make one important point. The online magazine The Gloss has a column called Shelved Dolls, a fascinating series on women in history, where I get a lot of inspiration and amusement.

Some other commonplace books I like:
The Journal Diaries - Ellina's Commonplace Notebook
Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom

calligraphy: song for the dúnedan

I always see the second line of this poem floating around Pinterest, and more than one friend of mine has used a variation of it as inspirational quotes. It is actually one of my favourite poems, and has a lovely story behind it (...it's called The Lord of the Rings). So I wrote the full version down.

Parker Vector with medium italic nib, filled with a mix of
Waterman Green and Brown ink, in Botanicals notebook.

My other group of friends, of course, not only knows the story, but many of them also know that this is a poem that Bilbo Baggins wrote for Aragorn. It also seems to echo the promise of the first King who Bilbo knew, Thorin Oakenshield. But Thorin (spoilers for The Hobbit, if you haven't read the book!) was never able to achieve his own destiny. I like to think that Bilbo was thinking about his old friend when he wrote that poem, which adds a shade of tragedy that makes it more meaningful for me.

Additional nerdery: How much do I love that Tolkien created his own rune from his initials? 

noodling and doodling: blue

Once you start, it's hard to stop. Some materials are very addictive.

Maped fountain pen, Speedball dip pen with C4 nib.

Brause 361 and Hunt 101 nibs.

(Here an aside: I have always been fascinated by the fact that Sauron chose to use an Elvish alphabet to write in the Black Speech of Mordor. Tolkien used this device wonderfully to show off the beauty that cloaked Sauron's darkness, something I think none of the media based off his work has been able to do successfully.)

Joseph Gillott 404 nib.

This sketch, while nominally an illustration for my merboy story, is also a little nod to a painting by Caravaggio, one of my favourite artists: The Inspiration of Saint Matthew.

Noodler's Bad Blue Heron ink in various pens, Winsor & Newton cartridge sketchbook.

pens: Noodler's Nib Creaper flex pen

Originally I wanted an Ahab, but at $20-$24 each, it was definitely more expensive than the $14 standard flex, and since this was my first flex-nib fountain pen, I didn't feel comfortable spending that much.

What is a flex pen? It's a fountain pen with a flexible nib, which is designed to give you as much variation in line as a dip pen. Noodler's is especially famous for coming up with an affordable version that is also adjustable.

Here is the pen:

I will draw a veil over the slight struggle I had with the adjustable feed and piston-fill mechanism, and move on to how it writes (and draws!):

(No, I can't write in Elvish, why do you ask?)

Noodler's Heart of Darkness ink in Daler-Rowney cartridge journal,
Winsor & Newton artist's pan watercolours.

I'm very pleased with it. It looked a bit cheap in the seller's pictures but feels nice and solid in the hand. There is a strange smell at first, which the Fountain Pen Network says is normal for resin pens from India, but I'm not too bothered.

It's quite tricky to use right out of the box though (look it up on the forums for instructions on how to adjust it to your own style), but for me it's a small price to pay for a fountain pen that draws like a Mitchell copperplate nib!

Calligraphy: if the eyes are the windows...what is the door?

Noodler's Bulletproof Black and Ecoline Graphic White ink
with Speedball C-4 and Leonardt 801 nibs on Muji craft paper.

Several years ago when I was obsessed with doors, I wrote this down in my diary. Then I made it into an artwork. Now that I am getting a little more serious with my calligraphy, I wanted to revisit and refine this thought.

So many people think of the eyes as silent communicators, and of the mouth as verbal. But when we choose to hold something back, to close the door of our mouth before the words escape, that can be just as great a sign of our character.

page a day: calligraphy

Playing with Speedball nibs and pen ink. C0 & C4 broad tips, B5 round, orange Calligrapher's that I got in a Kate's Paperie warehouse sale and Noodler's Eternal Blue. I used a syringe to mix them on the second page and splashed them around a bit.

My work seems really halfhearted lately. I will step things up in coming weeks.