Holiday Projects – Easter

Easter is fast approaching, and while I’m working on a larger project to share with you, I thought it might be a good idea to put out a simpler project as well, one that packs a lot of punch for it’s size and ease of accomplishment.

A  single-word project with a large decorated first letter and some simple flourishes straight from your pen-play exemplar has the potential to provide a lot of impact.

Don’t be afraid of the apparent complexity of this project.  Even if you’re just learning calligraphy, if you take it step by step, and have developed a working knowledge of the Italic hand, you should be able to have a lot of fun with this.  Here’s an image from my file to give you an idea of what you will be doing.  Your letter might not turn out exactly like mine (maybe you’ll even like it better)!  That’s part of the fun of calligraphy.

I chose the word ‘Believe’ to write in Italic with a Cadel ‘B’.  A Cadel (or Cadeaux) is simply a large built-up letter in the same style or a similar style as the main body of the text.  This is a designed letter, and no two will be the same.  That’s the fun of this project.

To design a Cadel letter, start with the main stem of the letter, then add decorative strokes on either side of the main stem, which echo but do not perfectly duplicate the first stroke.  I used two strokes with a zig-zag pattern in the center.  Then, because I thought the stem of the letter was still too thin to support what I had planned for the bowl of the ‘B’, I added a third stroke on the left that echoed the first stroke I made.

For the top bowl of the ‘B’, I made a two-stroke curved arc at a bit of distance from the stem of the letter, which I planned to join to the main stem with a thin line later.  I made the bottom bowl of the letter with three strokes, and broke two of them in the middle for interest.  Using three strokes on the bottom bowl instead of two insured that the bottom of the letter would have more visual weight.

Now for even more fun!  I extended the line of the top of the stem to hook up with the top-bowl strokes, and since there was some space along this line I added a decorative motif there.  This gave me an added opportunity to do some decorative pen play at the top of the stem, so I had a bit of fun there, too!

A couple of lines on either side of the stem of the letter were added, along with some simple flourished endings to these strokes.  Now it was just a matter of filling some voids in the letter with more figures and small finishing strokes.

The key to all this is remembering to maintain the same pen angle throughout as the pen angle of the lettering you will use in the body of the word.  All this design work for this piece was done on the Westwind Pad.  I made several designs (actually many designs, since this sort of thing is addictive) and then chose one for the final piece.

The Cadel I chose to use seemed to call for Black Letter, but since I wanted the word to be easily readable, I decided to modify my Italic a bit.  I simply pointed the tops and tails of the letters, giving them a bit of Black Letter flavor.  I drew the Cadel on a small piece of pale blue text paper, added the body of the word, and then a flourish at the end to balance the word, since I wanted to make a card that would fit a #10 envelope.

When the ink was dry, I used Prismacolor pencils to decorate the Cadel , the bowls of the “e’s”, and the tiny triangle shapes I used in the flourish to the right of the word.

I tore the resulting piece of paper to a size of  3 1/2″ x 9 1/8″, and photographed it, so I could make copies on my printer, as I was very pleased with this project, and wanted to be able to make numerous cards of this design.  I then mounted my finished piece  on  cardstock to make a card which I folded with a bone folder.  I added my stamp to the back of the card, and it was ready to put in my portfolio.

Since my design is now saved on the computer, I am free to use it on a card or other project simply by printing out as many copies as I need.  I generally like to print my designs on Arches Text Wove paper, and tear them out to be mounted on other stock, but they can also be printed directly on white cardstock, which makes the process a bit simpler.

I hope you have a lot of fun with this project, and I would love to see some of you’re finished pieces.  I’m hoping to start a forum on the Calligraphy in a Box Member’s site, where I can publish members’ projects for all to enjoy.