shivver | Entries tagged with calligraphy

Well, now that I got some quotes, I have practice material!

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I usually practice on pre-guidelined paper, but I did this on better paper with my own lines drawn in. One thing that I've discovered is that your work looks better after the guidelines have been erased, so that you can't see how poorly you followed them. I did this yesterday while I was feeling a bit sick and it shows. "Elegance" is embarassing. And I've discovered that "excellent" is one of the most difficult words to write in Copperplate - the e, x, c, and e are all next to each other and should have the same shape, and this particular attempt was pretty bad. Also, I still don't vary from basic forms very well, as is shown by the attempt to double-cross the "tt" in "little".

On the other hand, I nailed "power", and "screwdriver" came out rather well, considering I hate "v"s. Yes, I know, you can't really see why those two words are better than the rest. It's all about shape, consistency, and spacing. Copperplate's kind of a bitch about those. Those two words are pretty good (though I can point out what's wrong with them). The rest, well, I've done better.

Anyway, so you see, I am REALLY enjoying the quotes that I got. I'm actually compiling them into a notebook of "things to write". Please send more!

Crossposts: https://shivver13.livejournal.com/190236.html

One of the things about practicing calligraphy is that you have to have stuff to write. When I practice, I mostly write lists of episode names and companion names because that's the best way to write lots of capital letters. However, I'm getting a little bored. Also, I'm working on a filling up a little booklet with quotes, but it's really hard to find ones that fit.

So, I'm asking anyone who feels like participating, can you provide me with DW quotes that aren't too long and aren't so famous that they're the first thing you think of when someone asks you for a quote from the show.

This is kind of what I'm looking for:

I'd prefer ones that are not too long, maybe a dozen words at most. But if they're longer than that, that's okay - I also appreciate the inspiration.
They don't need to be deep. Humorous, quirky, clever, or even just a favorite phrase. It doesn't even need to make sense out of context. One of my favorites is "Who sent you?" "Who sent me what?"
I would love quotes from the Big Finish audios, but I have to ask that you also identify the character speaking it and which audio it's from (or at least guess if you're not sure). I can google for attribution for TV quotes but audio quotes will be beyond me.
I guess a good rule of thumb is, if a DW fan has seen/heard the episode/audio and they would recognize the phrase and remember the story/scene for a moment, that's a good one.

Examples:

The Pandorica speech is way too long for my purposes (well, maybe if I decide to write out a page), but "Hello, Stonehenge!" is perfect.
"Biting's excellent! It's like kissing, only there is a winner!"
"Do not throw crossbows at security bots." - Security bot, "The Light at the End"
"What is, what was, what could be, what must not."

Thanks so much for any you can suggest!

Crossposts: https://shivver13.livejournal.com/189989.html

It's been a while since my last life post. Since then, at work, I've done the last bit of time on the project I've been on since last August, taken a week's vacation, and now joined the team of an existing in-house project.

The old project

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The vacation

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The new project

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You know, it is really hard to teach yourself new crafts.

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Lots of milestones recently. I posted my 120th story on AO3, which means the next one starts page 7! Not many hits, since it's for Good Omens and that's a dying fandom (it really has been nearly a year since the show was released), but people seem to like it. I go by kudo percentage, not by total kudos or total hits: if I can get a 10% kudo rate on a story, I'm happy, and so far it's gotten 20%.

I also just finished my Camp Nanowrimo goal of 10k words for the month across all things I'm working on, so that's done and I'm never coming back. I completed the story I posted, did a good amount of work on the other story I've been picking at for a while, and put some words on paper for an original story that I've been thinking about.

I don't know how anybody else works, but I usually have some kind of narrative rattling around in my brain all the time that I think about while I'm not doing other brain-intensive things, like when I'm cooking or something. Even though I've only actually written fiction since I started doing DW fanfic in 2013, I've always had a narrative going on, as far back as I can remember. By "a narrative", I mean some kind of story with characters I've created, and I imagine scenes or situations, and over the course of however long it's in my head, I replay and refine the scenes and the plot. Nowadays, the narrative is often the story I'm working on; most of the individual scenes for Blue Rain started this way, and then it was just a matter of figuring out how to link them together.

My current one, which I have to admit has the main characters originally inspired by the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble but have completely changed into something else, is a lot more fully formed than my usual narrative, in that there actually is an arc with only a few handwaves for sections of plot I haven't thought about yet, but it's never going to be written, as I really don't have any interest in writing original fiction (and the plot and the world are actually kind of weak). However, I still do enjoy writing the more interesting scenes as an exercise, and so the last thousand words of Camp was spent doing that. These characters, and this world, has been occupying my idle moments for going on six months now, so it was nice to see them on paper for a bit.

Hm. Two milestones. That's not "a lot". I have actually started on learning some pointed pen calligraphy, which is something I've been poking at (ha ha bad pun) but haven't made a concerted effort toward. It's a lot different from broad-edge pen calligraphy, so I'm learning new skills. I haven't decided if I'm going to try learning a formal script like Copperplate, because it is freaky hard (here's an example), or if I'm going to concentrate on learning the general strokes and then do a modified Italic because it's easy. I mean, a few weeks ago, I was messing around with an oblique pen for the first time during a really boring video meeting and this is what I came up with. It doesn't look too bad, considering I was working with only a basic knowledge of how to use a pointed pen.

Anyway, that's life today. Take care and stay safe, everyone!

Crossposts: https://shivver13.livejournal.com/185628.html

Today's the last day of this term's calligraphy class. I didn't take one in spring and there isn't one offered in summer. This fall was Foundational. Italic is being offered in winter, but as I found this term, having three different things to do during the week is exhausting, so I won't be taking that class. I'll probably sign up for the spring term class (All Things Capital - focusing on Roman capitals and others), even though I'll probably miss a good three weeks of it if I go traveling.

General observations:

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Images and discussion:

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And that's calligraphy class for this year. I am enjoying this so much and am looking forward to my own personal study for the next few months. Then it's back to class again in April. Whee!

Crossposts: https://shivver13.livejournal.com/179915.html

Okay, I think I've found my limit.

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Crossposts: https://shivver13.livejournal.com/178893.html

I'm back from a weekend of calligraphy and art, and I'm still recovering. In the meantime, here's an Inktober piece from the weekend.

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Crossposts: https://shivver13.livejournal.com/178574.html

An inadvertent Inktober piece.

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Crossposts: https://shivver13.livejournal.com/178330.html

I've always loved October because my artist friends post their Inktober drawings and it's always great to see their wonderful work. I knew the purpose of Inktober was to develop good habits by creating a simple, monochrome work and posting it to social media every day or otherwise regularly throughout the month, but I've always regarded it as a spectator. After all, I don't draw.

Yesterday, as I was doing my daily calligraphy practice (read: sitting in a boring meeting and writing the names of all the actors that have played the Doctor in monoline Foundational, as that's the hand I'm learning in the class I started this week), I realized, "Hey, I'm actually doing monochrome work right now!"

So here I am, actually participating in Inktober. I'm going to be using this for practice, so the items are not going to be extensive, ornate, or good, but they are going to be complete at the very least (I hope). I don't know how many I'll actually do, as I'm super busy this month - band on Wednesdays, calligraphy class on Mondays, watercolor class on Thursdays, and next weekend I have three days of workshops, not to mention that yes, I am still writing - but I hope to do at least one thing every three days or so.

My first one, done for the "Ring" prompt from October 1 (yes, I'm late).

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And for my own reference, the prompts for Inktober 2019.

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Crossposts: https://shivver13.livejournal.com/178089.html

I really haven't figured out why I have no time to do anything!

Warning: Rambly and ranty blather below.

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Crossposts: https://shivver13.livejournal.com/171604.html

One of the reasons I've been so busy for the past couple of months is that I decided to finally take a calligraphy class. It took a lot more of my time than I had anticipated, but I really enjoyed it and I want to continue with it.

Background:

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Images and discussion:

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And that's it. I'm now trying to keep up my skills with Uncial, experimenting with drawing knots, and starting to learn italic. (I'm particular to blackletter, but it's much more difficult than and nowhere near as useful as italic, so I'm starting there first.) I have to keep at it, because I bought so many supplies over the course of the class and it would be a waste if I didn't use them. ;) So now I have yet another hobby to take up my time. I'm also thinking about creating a blog, to document my learning and exploration, because I found, while searching for calligraphy instruction on the web, experts write a lot about what to do but have forgotten the stuff that beginners might trip over. I might be able to provide pointers to beginning calligraphers. We'll see if I get up the motivation to do that.

(Does anyone know how to take pictures like this so that they don't come out so dark? I took these with my camera, with a flash, and they're still so dark.)