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Another page done in my hymnal. This one is Crown Him With Many Crowns.
For my artwork I drew a stack of different kinds of crowns using Prismacolor fine marker and colored with markers.
The colors are not as bright here as I adjusted to make the dingy brownish-yellow out of the page background.
Ddd
1 CORINTHIANS: Day #1 – Foldover Font – Intro
It may be a challenge to tackle this word without some guidance on letter formation so here are some things to watch for: 1) The letters are 4 units high and usually 2 units wide. The I is only one unit wide and the M and W are 3 units wide. 2) There are no sharp corners. They are either gently rounded or very rounded. 3) There is usually a center spine that is very thin. 4) The structural elements of the letters are just narrower than 1 unit.
Here is a step-by-step on forming one letter. All of the letters will be formed with these same steps: a) draw a guide box 2x4. b) draw in a thin spine top to bottom. c) draw in any deep curves on the outline. d) define the ends of the spine. e) draw in foldovers. f) gently round ends of elements. g) trace letter in ink. h) erase pencil.
1 CORINTHIANS: Day #2 – Foldover Font – Alphabet
Use the pointers and the lettering guide from yesterday to write out the full alphabet. There is no lower-case in this style so we will learn a complementary lower-case tomorrow.
1 CORINTHIANS: Day #3 – Foldover Font – Lowercase
| This is the font we will be using as the lower-case. Here are some things to note: 1) the letters are 3 units high at the ascenders and 2 units at the x-height. 2) letters are generally 1 unit wide. Exceptions are the ‘I’ and ‘l’ at a single line as well as the ‘m’ and the ‘w’ at 2 units. 3) crossbars are unnaturally high or low on the ‘e’, ‘f’, ‘t’. |
I have also included some 3-unit numbers and they also feature unnaturally high or low elements.
1 CORINTHIANS: Day #4 – Foldover Font – Practice
| For practice, create a page using both the Foldover font and the lower-case we learned this week. You can either do like I have done in using one style for each whole word or by using the Foldover for the first letter on every word with the rest of the word in the lower-case. Use a scripture in 1 Corinthians for your practice. |
1 CORINTHIANS: Day #5 – Foldover Font – Bible Page
| Today we will use these two fonts in combination on a Bible page in 1 Corinthians. Yes, it is hard to scale those foldy letters down to only two lines in the margin. The best thing to do is go through and draw ALL of your guide boxes to work on your spacing. Then work through the Foldover letters step by step but to not ink. Draw the lower-case letters and THEN ink everything. |
If you wish, use color medium to do a fill on your Foldover letters.
I think this font is so much fun!
Ddd
This week we covered three books of the old testament with one lettering style. Here are the lessons:
3 O.T. BOOKS: Day #1 – Shield Font – Alphabet
We usually start our lessons with practicing just the name of the book but there are so many of the letters contained in these (9 of the 26) that I decided to go straight to the alphabet today and have you use the book names as practice tomorrow.
This alphabet is 4 units high and 2 units wide. The exceptions are the I and J, as usual. There are a few tight curves (B, O, Q) but most of them are large sweeping curves. The A and H feature double crossbars.
The upper case is distinguished by three small circles. These mostly sit inside the letter but in a few cases replace a portion of a line (I, J, M, T). Numbers have similar characteristics and the lower case has no small circles.
3 O.T. BOOKS: Day #2 – Shield Font – Word Practice
Here are the three books of the Old Testament that are covered this week. This practice page will give you a feel for using the ‘upper-case’ only as the leading letter in each word.
I think the C, U, E are all good examples of why I named this font ‘shield’.
3 O.T. BOOKS: Day #3 – Shield Font – Play Time
Today I want you to practice your letters while adding some variety.
1) - Use colored markers to write the letters in a variety of hues. I used a rainbow order for mine.
2) - Use a standard plain color (black or gray) for the letters and colors for the dots.
3) - Use the full-size letters for capitals and shrink by one unit for the lower-case.
4) - Draw an arched top and a straight baseline then stretch your letters vertically to fill the space.
Your lettering never has to be boring!
3 O.T. BOOKS: Day #4 – Shield Font – Scripture
For more practice, choose a scripture in one of the featured books to write out in the Shield Font. Use any form of the alphabet that we practiced this week. I used all-caps and filled my circles and crossbars with color
3 O.T. BOOKS: Day #5 – Shield Font – Bible Page
This is the day we take the new font to our Bibles. I got quite a bit of text fitted in by using two lines in my margin guides. For longer words you may have to change the scale slightly, making the letters skinnier than the norm. If you do that, be consistent throughout.
I used the same lettering for the scripture reference on this page, too.
Ddd
I really love finding new fonts, studying them to identify the features that make them unique and figuring out how to reproduce them in hand-lettering. Then I like finding just the right place to use it in my bible.
Here is another lesson that I produced to do just that:
JONAH: Day #1 – Watery – Introduction
It may not be obvious but all three of these lines are the SAME script! We are working on a 3-unit grid with the x-height at exactly the center.
First, write the word standing upright in its natural stance. Then on another set of guides, draw some slanted lines at an extreme angle. These are at 45 degrees. Use these slanted guides to get the slant of the script consistent when writing out the focus word: Jonah.
JONAH: Day #2 – Watery – Alphabet Uppers
First, write out the upright version of the upper-case letters to learn the letter formation. Note all the little curls on these! Then, make your slanted guidelines and rewrite the alphabet with the letters slanted with the guides.
JONAH: Day #3 – Watery – Alphabet Lowers
Today’s lesson is the same as yesterday’s except with the lower-case. The curls are much more prominent on the lower-case alphabet.
Draw the guides and the upright letters. Then draw the slant guides and use them to tilt your script alphabet.
JONAH: Day #4 – Watery – Stretched Script
Now that we have learned the letter formations we are going to write with the script in its slanted form.
Begin each line with a curved leader and continue the line between words. Finish with a curved tail.
Make the word transitions stretched out and smooth.
JONAH: Day #5 – Watery – Bible Page
We get the big finish as we use this watery script in our bibles. Use the slanted, stretched out script to write out a scripture. You’ll note that some letters are unrecognizable in the connected state (upper-case I). If you wish, try making another form of the letter you like better.
Use a range of light-to-dark teal and blue pencils to make solid coloring directly under the words, fading as you go down. The tops of the words are not colored, nor are the insides of loops.
Amazing how this looks like waves in the water!
Ddd
Final five days of #30DaysOfBibleLettering are done. As much as I enjoy doing these, I am always relieved when the month is over and I have more time freed up for other projects. This time it will be some online art classes I have been putting off.
September 26 - Proverbs 4:23
September 27 - Zephaniah 2:3
September 28 - Psalm 100:5
September 29 -Isaiah 6:8
September 30 -Jeremian 17:7
30 days of bible lettering and this project is done.
Ddd
Another hymn was chosen for art that was indeed in my book but that I had never heard. We obviously grew up with a limited repertoire and a different one than some others. I wonder if the distinction is regional. It isn't denominational as the book I am using is the hymnal from the denominationn in which I grew up.
In any case, I focused on the aspect of prayer and chose a scripture to reinforce this.
I lettered over the musical staffs and then added several stickers to fit the theme.
In celebration of Psalm 116:1-2
Ddd
As our group is working on journaling in the bible 'cover to cover' the goal is to have something done in every book by the end of the year. We are alternating between Old Testament front to back and New Testament back to front. Since there are many more Old Testament books, sometimes a set of short ones will be combined into one week. So this week we did various activities in Joel, Amos and Obadiah. (I misspelled Obadiah in several places throughout my samples!)
Here is the lettering lesson for the week:
JOEL/AMOS/OBADIAH: Day 1 – Flourish – Introduction
This is probably the fanciest font we have introduced here in the Lettering Lodge. But it, too, is not really as complicated as it looks – just several steps to get you there.
Follow along with the basic building process shown on the letter ‘A’.
1) Sketch out the basic letter skeletonDo the same steps on the ‘J’ and the ‘O’ and write in the rest of the words in script. Note relative size and placement of script letters.
JOEL/AMOS/OBEADIAH: Day #2 – Flourish – Alphabet
The Flourish alphabet has a few elements that are common across multiple letters. These are the bones that make the alphabet cohesive. First practice these structures – you will recognize them when you are making your letter skeletons. Follow the step-by-step shown for the letter ‘A’ as you draw EVERY letter in the alphabet.
1) Used on B, D, E, F, P, R
JOEL/AMOS/OBADIAH: Day #3 – Flourish – Lower-Case
The lower-case alphabet used with the Flourish capitals is a delicate script with faux-brush styling. Note that this is built on the same framework as the upper-case (4 units high) but the baseline is raised one unit and the x-height is at the midline. The ascender is ½ unit lower than the full 4th unit.
Draw base letter with pencil, ink it, then draw a second line along the downstrokes and fill in with pen. Erase pencil.
When this is combined with the Flourish font it creates an elegant word.
JOEL/AMOS/OBADIAH: Day #4 – Flourish – Practice
Today, select a verse from one of the three featured books and letter it using the Flourish font. Don’t you love the way this looks?
I made the flowers and trimmings with a dark purple marker and brushed over them with a lighter purple to create a ‘glow’. This was done before inking the letters.
JOEL/AMOS/OBADIAH: Day #5 – Flourish – Bible Page
Create a bible page in one of the featured books using the Flourish font. My words were short so I was able to keep the original scale of 4 units using the lines in my margin.
For the flowers and trimmings, I drew them in using black and then used a bleed-free marker to color over them.
The lighthouse is from this week’s Drawing Room.
Whew! That is some intensive lettering - doable but time consuming. But isn't it awesome when it is done?
Ddd
From my stash of fat quarters I selected 4 that looked good together to create another Convergence quilt from the instructions created by Ricky Tims. I truly love how these come together.
I wait until the center is constructed before selecting material for the borders as so much depends on the final layout.
For this one I chose a small border of tiny houndstooth followed by a dark teal print with browns and golds in it.
I used a paper pantograph and teal thread for the quilting.
The whole thing is brighter than this appears but I could not adjust the color intensity enough without totally skewing the look of the quilt. This will have to do.
Ddd
Wow, this series is going so quickly!
September 22 - Ephesians 2:8
September 23 - Exodus 14:14
September 24 -Hebrews 12:14
September 25 - Lamentations 3:23
This last one is my favorite so far, too!
Ddd
My hymnal is really looking good as I add more artwork to it. This week the assigned hymn was 'God Will Take Care Of You'.
I pulled out my envelope of stickers and created a sticker collage on this page. Instead of using the song lyrics I chose a scripture with the same theme. The letter dots are stickers, outlined in ink. Then I lettered the rest of the verse over the sticker bookmark using Prismacolor marker.
More stickers for borders and a gold sticker for the open bible.
Doesn't Isaiah 41:10 fit this hymn perfectly?
Ddd
After using this style of lettering on a couple of recent projects I decided I wanted to do a full set of lessons so that YOU could do it too!
GALATIANS: Day 1 – Unicals – Introduction
This week’s lettering is an old-fashioned style that looks complicated to duplicate. But it is really based on a basic oval. And since the flourishes share common elements it is really quite easy to accomplish.
Here are step-by-step guides to get you through writing the sample word for this week: Galatians.
GALATIANS: Day 2 – Unicals – Alphabet
For this alphabet you can see there are basically the ‘round’ letters and the ‘straight’ letters. I’ve given you a red guide for each that will show you what your basis will be. This is followed by the addition of the elements that turn it into a completed letter.
There are a few things to point out that unify the letters. The curved letters have a bulging line that comes to a rounded point along the midline. Only a few straight lines have a bulge (A, K, X, Z). These are always on a single line, not a double. These letters have serifs. Sometimes they are dipped (tops of B, D, N, M, P). Some are angled (C, G, S). Then there are triangles (L, T, Z). Watch for the teardrop ends on A, B, D, G, J, K, N, P, R, U and X.
Finally, there are two letters that are truly unique but are in keeping with the original uncial alphabet. These would be E and W. If you truly don’t like these, change them up. The E could have the long right bar removed and replaced with two angled ends like the C. The W could be replaced by an inverted M.
GALATIANS: Day 3 – Unicals – Practice Words
Practice writing a phrase or scripture with the new alphabet. In your Pencil-Ink-Erase methods, actually draw in the ovals and the posts to begin with as it will help with not only your letter formation, but your spacing as well. Try using a color fill on your letters.
GALATIANS: Day 4 – Unicals – Scripture Writing
Work on making larger and smaller versions of the letters as well as centering. Do you find it easier to write the letters now? You should be getting a feel for where the various style elements fit in which will make it easier to write. Did you change out those Es and Ws?
Do you have a gold gel pen? If so, use that for your letter fills. This is a style that will especially benefit from it.
GALATIANS: Day 5 – Unicals – Bible Page
Because of all that practice, the writing of this long block of text went fairly quickly. I did compress some letters in ‘deceived’ and ‘mocked’ so I would not cover too much of the text. This time, I used a silver glitter gel pen for the letter fills.
Find a scripture in your bible, Galatians if possible, to use this font. This page also uses the dandelions from the Drawing Room lesson of the week.
Give this one a try!
Ddd
I'm only posting three days of lettering today. There's plenty left to come, though.
September 19 - Psalm 126:5
September 20 -Colossians 3:16
September 21 - Galatians 6:9
I promise to make up the shortfall on days later on.
Ddd
I had a quest: 1) find a pattern for a set of fabric rolls I had acquired 2) find a use for a little scenery panel that came from someone's stash 3) make a quilt as a gift for a guy (no frou-frou!). When I came across this pattern in an old magazine I knew I had the solution.
Unfortunately the fabric rolls were not going to stretch to fit the layout so I set out searching my stash for coordinates and cutting more 2.5 inch strips from them.
The fabric panel was not quite large enough to equal one of the pieced blocks so I used a batik to frame it up to fit.
I used a different pantograph roll (with oak leaves and acorns) to quilt this, carefully working around the panel rather than over top of it. Then I did free-hand quilting on the scene - following along the outlines of hills, houses and fences.
The quilting was completed in dark green as it blended well with all of the colors in the piecing.
This will shortly be on its way to the new owner.
Ddd
More lettering today from the 30 Days of Bible Lettering challenge:
September 15 - Proverbs 16:3
September 16 -Matthew 5:44
September 17 -1 Corinthians 10:31
September 18 -Romans 5:8
Many of these are using lettering styles I have taught here.
Ddd
At a yard sale last year I picked up a variety of Asian fabrics. They were from a sample pack so the sizes varied. I set these aside while keeping an eye out for just the right pattern that would have a feel of asian design but would look good with the scrappy look of mixed fabrics.
When I saw this pattern in an advertisement for a fabric line in a magazine, I immediately knew that it was the one.
I cut it so that there are NO DUPLICATE fabrics in the whole thing. There are some with the same design but in a different colorway from the fabric line so they coordinate.
I made the top while on a quilting retreat in June and set it aside to do on the longarm machine. But I wanted to have lots of practice under my belt so I would not ruin it. I found a pantograph roll that was included in the things I got delivered with the longarm. Perfect!
Here is a closer photo of the quilting.
I found great prints to use for the borders, backing and binding - all having some gold pattern overlaying them. This coordinated with the golds featured on the prints.
Ddd
The assigned hymn to work on this week was 'Does Jesus Care'. Of coourse we KNOW he does and this song confirms it.
I didn't want to have to do a truly photographic version of a face so I found a photo of a sculpture which automatically gave me a gray-scale image. I drew the defined lines with Prismacolor marker and did all the shading with regular graphite pencil.
I may need to spray this with a fixative to keep it from smearing.
Ddd
On we go with lettering lessons every week. This week we are up to Hosea with these lessons:
HOSEA: Day #1 – Overstated Serifs – Introduction
The base shapes for this new lettering style come from the Basic Oval Print. From there, double lines have been added and the serifs are hugely overstated.
This sample uses a letter height of 5 units with an x-height of 3 units. Other options will be explored as we progress through the week.
HOSEA: Day #2 – Overstated Serifs – Alphabet
This page of letters was done without the dot-grid paper. This will help you get a feel for the letter relationships which is much more important than having exact measurements. For example, you may wish to have the double lines wider or thinner, you may want the actual letters wider or thinner, or you may want the x-height to be higher or lower. Make it your own! You can write up the alphabet with any of these options knowing that you can change to a different formula when you use it in a project. Color is optional at this stage.
HOSEA: Day #3 – Overstated Serifs – Options
Today we are going to incorporate some of the changes we discussed yesterday. So write out the words that describe the options being demonstrated.
This is a great font to use with simple pattern doodles, to experiment with color, to toss about off the baseline and to mix cases. You can also experiment here with those size variations. If you think of more options, write them out and give it a try.
HOSEA: Day #4 – Overstated Serifs – Scripture Work
Use one or more of your variations (or the original alphabet) to write up a scripture from Hosea. I am loving those curls on the descenders of the y and g, the tails of the R and the arms of the f and r.
Don’t forget to use capitals on all of the initial letters of the words. It adds continuity and gives you more practice on the upper-case.
HOSEA: Day #5 – Overstated Serifs – In Your Bible
For my bible page I varied the letter sizes slightly, tossed them off the baseline and colored them with a range of teals and blues. I combined the verse in Hosea with the lesson from the Drawing Room (raindrops).
And in the drawing lesson for the week, I taught them how to do the raindrops!
Ddd
Time for four more days of the 30 day bible lettering challenge.
September 11 - Romans 12:12
September 12 -1 Thessalonians 5:15
September 13 -Isaiah 40:29
September 14 -Romans 8:31
Almost halfway done with the challenge now.
Ddd
I made this quilt top this summer and got it sandwiched back in June. I was prepared to do the quilting on my domestic machine but set it aside for other stuff. Then I got the longarm machine and figured I would do the quilting on that.
Well, two issues with that: 1) I had spray basted the three layers together so I wouldn't be able to do the standard loading of the machine and 2) I had wanted tonot have a lot of extraneous material beyond the top so I could fit it in my domestinc sewing machine. That left me no fabric to attach to the leaders on the longarm.
So I found some heavier fabric and sewed it on the two edges - about 7 inches of it. This was what I used to load the quilt onto the machine.
Then I just practiced making patterns on the quilt with free-hand stitching - different patterns in different decorative areas.
I had a lot of tension problems and thread breaks on this but I think it was due to the spray baste that was in the sandwich.
Ddd
Days 7 to 10 of the #30DaysOfBibleJournaling challenge (Yeah, I know, hashtags don't work on my blog).
September 7 - Colossians 3:23
September 8 - Numbers 6:24
September 9 - Matthew 19:26
September 10 - 1 John 3:18
You might have recognized that medeival writing above on the 9th. I told you I like it!
Ddd
