Back on October 29 I posted about designing some lettering for my Bible based on some illuminated manuscripts we saw at the Getty. Since then I developed that post into a lesson plan to teach on the Bible Journaling Facebook page I belong to.

Here it is:

This week’s set of lessons are a real departure from our usual fonts. But there is a very good reason for this and by the end of the week it will all come together into a spectacular page for your Bible journaling.

The font has some odd shapes but you’ll notice a lot of rounded triangulars and a little slanted tip on many letters.

We will be focusing on God the Father, Son and Spirit this week so those are the words we’re writing today.

Remember to draw your letters in pencil several times to get the feel of them, trace them in ink and then go back and erase the pencil.

Today we’ll get a look at the full alphabet for the week’s font.

This is an old-fashioned looking font as I wanted something ‘antiquated’ for our special project this week.

Trace the letters several times in pencil to get them into muscle memory. Then ink over them and erase the pencil.

When you’ve practiced with the lines spread out like they are in the sample, try a set using slightly shortened ascenders and descenders and NO SPACE between the lines. Hmmm… curious? It’s part of the special project I’ve designed for this week.

Well, today is an intensive learning day. You get to learn another alphabet!

Although you will be designing all of these capitals, you’ll be relieved to know that you will only be using one or two in your finished project and on your Bible page. But you only have to do this designing one time and then you’ll have ALL the letters for your reference on future projects!

There will follow today two additional posts since only one photo can be added to each comment and there is a step-by-step process to follow.

First, for each letter, draw (in pencil) a box that is 3 units wide and 4 units tall. Ink the boxes and erase the pencil. Now (in pencil) draw one letter per box with casual ‘funky’ letters that fill the boxes all the way out to the edges.

Ink the letters and then erase the pencil.

Using pencil again, fill the backgrounds of each letter with sketched flowers, lines, diamond grids, whatever you want. They don’t even have to be the same. You’ll just have lots of choices for backgrounds when you actually draw up a boxed letter for your project.

Ink the backgrounds while not crossing into the letter forms.

Now erase the pencil a final time to reveal your illuminated letters.

Now we are going to put the two alphabets together.

I was inspired to design this lettering series by a couple of museum visits – a trip to Dublin, Ireland where we viewed the originals of the Book of Kells and a recent trip to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles where we viewed a whole room of illuminated manuscripts and pages in prayer books and Bibles. Even though they were in foreign languages the artistry and beauty were so moving.

Anyway, back to the project. Today also has three posts to get in all the examples for the step-by-step process.

First, decide on a few two-word phrases that you’d like to work on. The first letter of the first word will be the one that uses the large block letter with whatever background you choose to use. Then in the original alphabet complete the remainder of the phrase.

These letters will be half the height of the block letter and their lines will not have a space between them. You’ll also shorten those ascenders and descenders so the letters do not actually touch one another.

Next, use markers or colored pencils to fill the design in the background of your block letters. Use bright, vivid colors as you are mimicking the inks that were available to the scribes in the early centuries.

On this next illustration I showed the finishing steps in reverse (sorry about that). First, (shown at the bottom) use gold gel pen to fill only the letter inside the block.  You could also use metallic colored pencils. Second, draw a box around the block. Third, fill the new border with the gold gel pen.

Now we’ll finally take the illuminated manuscript design to our Bible.

So, why did I choose ‘father, son and spirit’ as the words of the week? It was to be an inspiration looking at celebrating the full majesty of God. I had in mind that those words could help you choose a scripture that would embody reverence and adoration.

Now, YOU will select a scripture that you feel suits the character of the illuminated manuscript. I chose the Lord’s Prayer for my Bible (Matthew 6:9-13). Some other good selections might be John 1:1-3, Psalm 23, Psalm 8, Luke 1:46-55, Luke 6:20-22, Isaiah 9:6-7, Revelation 4:8b + 11, Revelation 15:3b -4, Isaiah 12:1-6. There are so many more though!

I had two sections that I wanted to use the large illuminated letters on. I penciled in the block for the first one followed by the first two words of the section in two lines like our Thursday lesson. The rest of the section was penciled in with VERY small print (one line of text in each space of the guidelines) using the original font for this week. Remember to use those condensed ascenders and descenders. Then came penciling in the next block, feature words and text.

I Inked it all. In inking this piece, note that the small font looks more like the manuscripts in the museums if a heavier tip pen is used. It wants to look denser than a standard print. Don’t you love it?

I erased all the pencil at this point. Then I penciled in the letters in the illumination blocks and inked those and erased the pencil. Next, I penciled the backgrounds to the illuminated letters and inked those. I went back and penciled double lines on the feature words next to the illuminated letter and inked those. I then erased ALL the pencil marks remaining before adding color to the Illuminated letter and filled between those lines of the feature words, all with colored pen.

Finally, I added the gold gel pen to the illuminated letters. I had a space left at the bottom of the page so I filled it with a decorated block that matches the illuminated letter blocks.

***Remember to work in pencil first, then ink your work and erase the pencil before adding any coloring***

Want to see some of the ‘inspiration pieces’?

I love this style and may be doing some further work along these lines.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 8:20 PM PST

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This week I again followed along in the Letterintg Lodge on the Facebook group for Creative Bible Journaling.

The font this week was a serif print while the focus word was 'Jesus'.

Monday - assignment was to practice the new font with the focus word:

Tuesday - assignment was to learn the whole alphabet in the new font.

Wednesday - assignment was to use the font to write various names from the Bible for Jesus. I did that first. Then I decorated the edges. Then I used pencil to draw the name in large script. I traced it in pen, stopping just short of lettering and decorations and filled it in the same way.

I skipped the Thursday assignment to write out a scripture on plain paper.

Friday - assignment was to use the font in our Bibles on a scripture with the name Jesus. 

I didn't get around to doing the assignment till Saturday, though.

I selected Romans 8:1-2 for my scripture and made a drawing to illustrate it.

All work in Prismacolor Premier 005 Fine Line Marker and Prismacolor Colored Pencils.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 3:01 PM PST

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Continuing on my Christmas card creation marathon, I next pulled out scrapbook papers with themed elements that could be used as card fronts with minimal embellishment.

Rubons and stickers were used for the sentiments.

I did four out of a single 12 x 12 page cut into sections. Love those birch trees.

So, that completes 21 cards in one afternoon. Still more to go, but that will be another day.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 11:37 PM PST

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When I was done with those 'window' cards I still had many fronts of cards received in past years. I sorted through to find several that I could trim, mount, decorate and use to make creative scrap recovery cards.

In no particular order......

Many of these use rub-on sentiments, some have stickers. All have holiday cheer!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 11:26 PM PST

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I suddenly got inspired to start my Christmas cards!

The first set I made started with fronts from cards received in previous years. I had seen a window effect over pictures that someone had made using a grid of quilling paper strips. 

I, on the other hand, made a grid by using a square punch on solid cardstock. These were layered over the top of the pictures.

I added stickers with Christmas sentiments and mounted the windows on base cards with backgrounds of coordinating papers.

Most of the windows got trimmed with decorative sticker 'valances' for fun.

This last one, in a vertical format, got 'snow' in the window created from Liquid Pearls.

Group one done.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 11:08 PM PST

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Another quilt today, actually finished up yesterday along with the trio already showed.

At a warehouse sale at the fabric store I picked up a bunch of matching mini-charm packs and two charm packs of cream solid. The pattern I found (a tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company) needed 96 units of each and I only had 84 so I had to cut a few extras from the stash.

All the blocks are constructed by sewing a half square triangle of the mini-charm onto the corner of each cream block. Then they are twisted and turned to form circles.

In the tutorial there are circles all over the quilt and no diamond shapes out in the middle.

One could also move the half circles on one side to join those on the other so there would be 6 full circles.

However, this is the arrangement I settled on:

The circles made me think of the big circles of crops that one sees when flying over the midwest. I quilted nested shapes in diagonals to represent the furrows in fields and I'm letting those diamonds out in the open spaces represent the farm houses.

I filled the wide borders with continuous triangles.

The binding matches the border.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 4:22 PM PST

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I taught a 5-day tutorial on lettering for Bible journaling this week on a Facebook site I belong to (Creative Bbile Journaling). Here are the lessons day-by-day:

Monday

Welcome everyone! Here in the lettering Lodge we are learning new fonts, practicing lettering in them, and using them in our Bibles.

Monday’s lesson is always the introduction of a new font paired with a ‘theme word’ for the week. This week the word is ‘remember’ although you can use any form of the word (remembered, remembering, remembrance).

When we are lettering we use a few skills to help break away from our own natural handwriting. Work in pencil first, ‘drawing’ the letters instead of just writing them. Then trace your finished work in ink and erase the pencil lines.

You can work on lined notebook paper, graph paper, dot paper or blank paper on which you have penciled in some guidelines for yourself. There is also a lined practice paper available for you to use if you like at http://creative-bible-journaling.com/wp-content/uploads/lined-PAPER-pg.jpg

So, without further ado, here is the new font. Note that I added some important tips and things to watch for in notations at the bottom of the page. Basically, for this font, anywhere you would normally create a loop in the letter or retrace the path of a stroke, it becomes a side-by-side double stroke with a tight bend at the turn. See examples for the letters ‘a’ and ‘b’ in the photo.

Practice writing out this word on your selected paper and share your work back here in a ‘comment’.

Tuesday

On Tuesdays we get to see the entire alphabet in uppercase and lowercase (whenever both are available).

For this font, study and practice common elements until you are comfortable with them before tackling the letter-by-letter. For instance, the beginning ‘tick’ on the B, D, M, N, P, R – the opening ‘swoop’ on F, M, I, J, K – the common ‘loop’ on V, W, X, Z. Then note the things that make particular letters unique like the split crossbar on the ‘t’ and the direction the ‘Q’ is drawn.

Work on making those side-by-side widths consistent by practicing on a long row of up-down-up-down lines. This helps to get the width, the turn and the spacing into muscle memory.

GOOD NEWS! Everyone can draw the ‘O’ and the ‘o’ on the first try. See, you’ve already mastered one letter of this font! LOL!

Finally, working in pencil, draw out your alphabet, trace in pen and erase the pencil lines. Then share your work back here in a ‘comment’.

Wednesday

On Wednesdays the lessons vary week to week. Today we are going to practice the new font by writing words that are methods by which people remember things. Choose from current day and/or biblical times.

Part of the challenge of this assignment is figuring out the best way to connect letters in various combinations. The lead-in or lead-out on a letter may end up being different than in your written alphabet, depending on the letter that precedes or follows it.

Again, work in pencil to write your practice words, trace in ink and erase the pencil lines. Then, share your work back here in a ‘comment’.

Thursday

For the lesson on Thursdays we select a scripture with the ‘theme word’ in it (In www.biblegateway.com there are 235 verses with versions of it!) and write it out in the new font on paper.

We usually try to do this on a plain paper on which we’ve drawn guidelines for ourselves in pencil. I did mine on dot paper, just because I like the way it looks!

As we’ve been doing all week, draw the scripture in pencil, trace in pen and erase the pencil – including your guidelines.

If you wish, you can add embellishments to your page.

Share your work in the comments. We love to see your work!

Friday

Friday is the day we take the new font to our Bibles. Select a scripture that uses the theme word in any form (remember, remembered, remembers, remembrance) and journal it into your Bible.

You can leave your page with just the lettering or decorate the page as you wish. I chose to draw in non-bleeding pen and use colored pencils to complete the illustration.

Be sure you draw everything (lettering and artwork) in pencil, trace in pen and erase pencil BEFORE you do any coloring that might seal the pencil to the page and make it non-removable.

Thanks for joining me again for a lettering lesson.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 1:59 PM PST

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What do you do when you have a LOT of a specialty fabric to use up and you don't like to do the same project over and over? Well, you could make three different patterns with the fabric. But it took so long to finally find a pattern that I liked for it that I didn't really want to do that.

So I cut all the parts for three quilts from the same pattern, subbing in alternate fabrics where there wasn't enough to use the same (mostly the sashings, but also the lightest squares).

I worked through them all step-by-step all at the same time - sew fabric A to B on all the quilts, then AB to C on all the quilts, etc. This followed through all the way - borders on all, backings on all, quilting all, binding all.

The whole process took a little over two weeks from cutting to binding (not working on them every day and some days only a few hours.)

Since I don't like to do the same thing over and over I changed up the quilting on each of them. The quilting choices inform the titles for the quilts.

This first one is called 'Exit 10' and the quilting is loop-the-loops. The freeway exit we go through the most has flocks of Canada Geese hanging out in the grassy areas surrounded by the ramps. The loops in the quilting represent those freeway ramps.

The second one is called 'Gander At This'. Obviously, gander refers to the geese on the feature fabric. The quilting is overall leaves. You get the best view of this in the white areas. Both the sashings andthe fabric with the open pattern have leaves.

The third quilt is named 'To Each His Own' as each fabric type is quilted in a different manner. Geese have a wavy line side to side, dark green has loops, white tree prints have trees, leafy print has leaves, plaid has 'plaid' quilting, and sashings have leaves on vines.

So, the same.... but different.

Each has binding to match its sashing.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 3:50 PM PST

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The lettering word for this week was 'give' and we learned another cursive font, this time with lots of swoops on the uppercase letters.

Day 1 - Draw out the word 'give' and practice thickening the downstrokes.

Day 2 - Practice writing out the whole alphabet in uppercase and lowercase.

Then we also practiced the alphabet with thickened downstrokes.

Day 3 - practice the new font by writing out words you associate with 'give'. Use some decorative elements.

For the thickened downstrokes I only filled them with hashmarks.

Day 4 - Use the new font to write out a 'give' scripture in a notebook or journal or on paper. I used Matthew 11:28.

Day 5 - Use the new font to journal a 'give' scripture in your Bible. I went with Psalm 139:1.

I used the assigned font mixed with some others. As you can see, I gave up on the 'backwards' letter 'o' and substituted a more conventional one.

I decorated my page with fall elements (leaves, nuts and berries) based on a journaling page that came up on Pinterest when I put in the scripture reference.

Next week I will be the one teaching the lettering lesson.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 9:52 PM PST

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I have had a spreadsheet detailing my quilt finishes since near the beginning. Today I made a second sheet for it that gathers statistics and sumarizes several categories (sizes, disposition and pattern source). This is the current tabulation:

It's kind of fun to see them categorized these different ways.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 3:42 PM PST

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I taught another Lettering Lesson series October 23-27 and in the process I totally forgot to post about it here! Very belatedly.....

MONDAY LESSON:

The font we will be working with this week is single case, meaning there is no uppercase or lowercase. It is all mixed together. This makes it a very casual font.

It is easiest to see the letter height roughly divided in thirds. Nothing happens on the midline at all. All the shaping takes place inside the top third or bottom third.

Also, note how the letter bubbles (b and d) are kind of egg-shaped. I think they look like deflated party balloons!

Remember to ‘draw’ your letters rather than ‘writing’ them. This helps us break away from our natural handwriting. Draw the word in pencil several times. Leave the first one in pencil and trace all the rest in ink. Play with the last two, adding shadow lines and shading as noted (in pencil first). Erase pencil lines from the third one on down.

TUESDAY LESSON:

In writing out this alphabet you’ll note that all letters are the same height. There are no ascenders or descenders.

Draw three alphabets in pencil. Add shadow lines to one long side of each letter in the second alphabet and thickened lines to the third alphabet. You’ll note the numerals (at the bottom) follow the same shaping rules as the alphabet.

In practical use, if you wanted to have ‘capital letters’ you could 1) make the caps taller than the rest of the text or 2) use shadow lines or thickened lines just on the capitals or 3) do both!

WEDNESDAY LESSON:

Here are some ideas for embellishing your letters with big hearts (A, B, D, G, P, Q) – Little hearts on the double-lined letters – Musical notes (B, D, P, Q) – Botanicals (A, B, D, E, G, I, J, O, P, Q). These will only be useful if the lettering you aree doing includes the letters that are embellished (except for the tiny hearts).

BONUS:

On a page in your journal or notebook, using any style of the font and embellishments (if you choose), write out a list of your blessings. Use these to practice some of yesterday’s suggestions for making faux capital letters in some text.

****As a bonus, I have a fun and easy drawing lesson for you! Just follow along with the notes on the drawings below (two postings because we only get to put one photo per post)

As with the lettering, practice in pencil first, trace in ink, erase the pencil.

THURSDAY LESSON:

Today, in your notebook or journal, write out a verse about being blessed, using any one of the styles in the lettering. Don’t forget to write out in pencil first, ink the letters, erase the pencil. I used the shadow-line letters for mine and did not worry about using anything to denote capital letters.

Again, working in pencil, add some roses and trace using colored ink (I used Sigma Micron). As you trace the roses in ink, stop just shy of the letters so the flowers recede to the background.

Here is Proverb 8:32 (NIV) – “Blessed are those who keep my ways.”

FRIDAY LESSON:

For Friday’s work, combine the ‘blessing’ font in any style with the roses in colored ink, working in your Bible on a verse about blessings. The Sigma Micron pens I used do not bleed through the Bible pages.

TIP: When I want my lettering to line up along the right-hand margin, I actually pencil in the letters right to left to get the correct spacing. I still ink it left to right, though, so I don’t smear it with my hand as I go.

I used colored pencils to color in three shades of pink/red in the various open spaces of the flower drawings. Then I used a dark burgundy and added shading at the inner edge of each section to give dimension to the ‘petals’. I added dark yellow to my shadow lines in the letters.

This is Psalm 128:1 (NIV) – “Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him.”

Sorry about the delay in posting.

Ddd 

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 2:12 PM PST

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I wanted to ‘build a snowman’ and I did it!

I started in March with a paper piecing pattern that I had won as a door prize several years ago and had not stitched up. It included three snowmen and a pair of mittens. They were arranged in the pattern to be a horizontal banner.

So I stitched up these 5 blocks and laid them out as instructed –

Then I yawned because, not only is this boring but I don’t have a place to display a horizontal banner.

I tried some other arrangements:

Then I brainstormed with the hubby and finally decided to make MORE motifs and create a row-by-row Christmas tree wall hanging.

The angel was from an outline of a pattern found on Pinterest. I added a halo of sequins.

Then came the pair of mittens from the original design. I added fluffy yarn to the cuffs.

I drew my own paper piecing pattern for the wreaths. They have a fabric bow and red seed beads as decoration.

I also drew my own paper piecing pattern for the candle. It is decorated with a single gold tube bead in the flame.

I used the outline of a paper pieced pattern found on Pinterest for the poinsettias. They have yellow seed beads stitched into a cluster for the center.

The snowflake is the one motif I am most disappointed with. The pattern I found online was very small. I had to enlarge it a LOT to get the size I wanted. Unfortunately, any inconsistencies in the seam matching on those small pattern pieces were magnified in my version so there are some snaggly edges toward the center. I used scrappy whites throughout this block and I chose not to use any embellishments.

The snowmen were part of the original pattern. I left off pom-poms on their hats but added fabric scarves and small tube beads for eyes and buttons.

I drew my own paper piecing pattern for the trees. They got star buttons (that I had on hand!) sewn on for decorations.

I set in green half-rectangles for the overall tree shape. I obviously had some problems with the math on these!

After stitching in the ditch around all the blue background blocks I did free-motion ‘snow’ and ‘icicles’ around the tree branches.

I also did a stitch in the ditch across the rows where they connect and used a 1 ½ inch vertical line to quilt the background.

Finally, I added a hanging sleeve the same fabric as the binding.

So – 9 months to birth this baby! I can’t wait for it to be time to put up the Christmas decorations. This will be front and center at my house.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:37 PM PDT

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Another week - another font!

I am much happier working with fonts that are precise than those that are loose and interpretive, but this week the assigned font was the latter. He were working with the word 'heart' throughout the lessons.

Monday --

We learned the basic letters needed for the focus word and wrote them out with slight variations (some of that interpretive stuff).

Tuesday --

I was less than thrilled with the whole alphabet.

So I added thickening lines with a ribbon twist. I left them open so I could review the line structure when I used them on a project and then select whether to leave them open, fill with the base color or fill with an accent color.

Wednesday --

We worked on loosening up the letter forms by shaping the word to fit inside a heart. One has to adjust the length of legs, the tilt of a letter cap and make some letters smaller then others to nestle them.

We practiced making border frames as well to create a finished piece.

I colored mine with highlighters. (Sorry about the photo quality. It was taken at night by lamp light)

Thursday --

When writing out a scripture on a journal page, I really worked on making the words flow across the area and adjusting some letter heights for interest.

I used that 'word in a heart' motif again but did a solid blackfill instead of color.

Friday --

I kept selecting verses to journal that had the word 'heart' in them but found that the page I needed was already journaled on or the adjacent page was done. I suppose that will be happening more and more.

I finally settled on Psalm 119:11.

I drew a padlock and key from imagination and colored them with metallic colored pencils in silver and gold.

I managed to get my lettering to look loose and carefree without being sloppy and filled the ribbon portion of the letters with gold gel pen.

Here you can get a better look at the effect of the metallic pencils and gel pen.

I am liking that gold gel pen!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:55 PM PDT

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When we toured the Getty Museum in L.A. recently I was inspired by the illuminated manuscripts and the hand-written codexes and prayer books. I took photos of many of them. SO beautiful.

Then I ran across a font that intrigued me and I set out to develop my own set of letters based on this. Here is the font I found:

I liked that the letter forms are informal so not difficult to draw. I wrote notes to myself outlining what would become my process.

Here are those steps along the way:

As you can see, I developed my alphabet with different flowers in the background. As they are used for a project the flowers from one can be substituted into another.

So, then I went looking for a font that could be used for the text and settled on this one. I simplified some of the lines so it could be written smaller and remain readable.

The result is this page in Matthew:

For the framed letters I colored the flowers red, leaves and stems green, checked background in blue/brown/purple, and used gold gel pen on the letter, the frames and the fleur-de-lis.

On those larger letters that match with the illuminated letters, I drew a thin shadow line on the right and filled with red pen.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 5:24 PM PDT

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When my daughter saw the tree skirt I made for myself last Christmas she requested one 'just like it'. I had to move some of the colors around because of the amount of fabric I had on hand, but it is essentially the same.

I used a pattern from the November/December 2015 issue of Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting magazine that uses the LeMoyne Star. I don't have their special tool so I made the directions fit my own method. That makes the outer diamonds into trapezoids but I like them anyway.

This is the new one:

Compared to the one last year:

On last year's skirt I used a pieced back but for this new one I found a neat metallic 'brush painting' fabric for the backing.

Now it's off to arrive as a birthday gift and dress up the upcoming Christmas festivities.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 8:21 PM PDT

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Progress! I got back to work on a quilt that I started at retreat in June and just finished it.

This started with a panel of prints. There are six views of country life with repeats in reverse that total 18 units.

I made patch units with six fall-colored prints bordered in black.

Those patch units appear in twos fours and sixes to intersperse with the picture panels.

The result is a small lap quilt bordered in plaid and a leaf print for binding.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 11:14 AM PDT

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Our lettering lessons this week were focused on the work 'harvest'. The font was more casual in nature and we were encouraged to add little loops and stems in keeping with the theme. I even made the lies wiggly and doubled them to look more like vines.

Since I liked the look of vine lettering, I kept at it as I wrote out the alphabet on day two.

On day three we wrote words we associated with harvest and did a little pumpkin illustration. I used my colored pencils on my page.

When we wrote out a scripture on day four, I chose Matthew 9:37. I also switched from pumpkins to wheat for the illustration and colored the lettering with a rainbow of hues.

My day five was going to be the same scripture reference but when I opened my Bible I had already done work on that page - although with a different scripture. So I skipped over to Luke 10:2 which is essentially the same thoughts.

The colors ended up being duller than I had wanted but I did manage a whole cornucopia, including both the pumpkin and wheat plus acorns, Indian corn, grapes, apples and a gourd.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 5:12 PM PDT

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When we were in Los Angeles last year we spent a couple of hours at The Getty Center and wished we had much more time there. So, earlier this week, we made time for it and flew down to spend two days viewing all the artwork on display.

What a treat! There is something magical in standing in front of a painting of irises by Van Gogh, a sculpture by Degas, a landscape by Monet... To see the brushstrokes, fingerprints in the paint, chisel marks of a master - it is almost overwhelming.

One small section of the museum is an area called The Drawing Room in which a small-scale statue, a couple of marble busts and several paintings are displayed. There are benches with built-in easels around the room and you are provided with paper, a large clipboard and a packet of drawing materials.

With these supplies you can sit and draw - with the sculptures and paintings as inspiration. What Fun!

I selected one of the busts and drew in sepia conte crayon. Here is my model:

And here is my finished work - about 1/2 hour of time invested:

For anyone who desires, they will put your work up on the bulletin board. Thus one can say they have work hanging in The Getty!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 1:50 PM PDT

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It really frustrates me that I can only apply ONE topic to blog entries. If I had my way, I would tag this one 'Bible Journaling', 'Lettering' and 'Tutorials' because it is really all three. I had to choose what I might want people to search for in order to find it.

This week I have been the Guest Host on the Creative Bible Journaling Facebook group in their Lettering Lodge. This is the same place I have been getting my Bible lettering inspiration from lately.

The font I am teaching is the new one I designed a few weeks ago. As soon as this is posted, I will go back and delete the original entry as the samples for it were poorly executed and the photography was bad, as well.

So here goes:

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DAY 1 - Good Morning! I'm your Guest Host in the Lettering Lodge this week.

We're going to be working on a new font I named 'Gather Round' because it is ALL about the circles! And the word we will focus on this week is 'Trust'.

This font takes some prep work to make sure the letter shapes are correct and consistent.

First, you will establish your letter height with penciled lines – one for the base and one for the top. Then add a dashed ascender line half a letter space above the top, a dashed descender line half a space below the base and a midline in the center. You will have a total of five lines.

Practice making perfectly round circles in pencil between the base and top lines. For this step, draw lightly and circle loosely, round and round until the shape takes form. Make whole rows of them. This is a crucial step because EVERY LETTER in this alphabet is traced in-part on the outline of that circle.

When you’ve got a good row of 5 circles, go back with pencil and trace the parts of the circle that form the lowercase letters. Add extension lines as needed to complete the form.

NOTE: the uppercase letters are all based on two circles stacked on top of one another.

Trace your formed letters in ink and then erase all your guidelines, circles and penciled letters.

Here is a step-by-step sample sheet:

DAY 2 - Today we are going to learn the letter shapes for both the lowercase and uppercase alphabets in the font we started yesterday. The guide pages attached show the step-by-step with letters that share the same characteristics grouped together (o through q, c and e, r though m, etc)

Note that some letters use TWO circles. These may be side by side or they may be stacked and overlapped.

When you have completed the sheet, erase all the pencil lines FOR THE LAST, FULLY FORMED LETTER ONLY.

This first picture is the instruction sheet for lowercase.

If you want to print practice sheets they are available in PDF form at http://mystudio3d.com/practicesheets.pdf

Now you can go on to the uppercase letters. Note that every letter is based on TWO stacked circles. Again, some letters will be double-wide as well.

The guide page attached shows the step-by-step, grouping the letters that share the same characteristics. Since these are different in the uppercase than in the lowercase the letter order is different here than on the last sheet.

When you have completed the sheet, erase all the pencil lines FOR THE LAST, FULLY FORMED LETTER ONLY.

Again, if you want to print practice sheets they are available in PDF form at http://mystudio3d.com/practicesheets.pdf (all the sheets are combined there so printing one set will give you all the pages you need)

Now you should prepare a new practice sheet and draw all your alphabet in the correct order by referring to your instruction pages for correct letter forms.

Leave the first set of guide circles in place for reference but, when you have completed the sheet, erase all the pencil lines FOR THE LAST, FULLY FORMED SET OF LETTERS ONLY.

There is a sheet for this in the practice pages as well at http://mystudio3d.com/practicesheets.pdf

DAY 3 - Lettering lessons so far have been kind of regimented so now we are going to play!

First, let’s practice making banners to contain words or phrases. There is a great set of banner lessons at https://www.thepigeonletters.com/single-post/2016/08/11/6-Step-by-Step-Banners

Then we’ll practice overlapping your letters slightly. This comes in handy when a l-o-n-g word must fit in a smaller space. There are hints for this in the notes on the page.

Finally, play with Drop Caps. In our case, the letter height of the capitol letter stays the same but the descender line becomes the base for it.

DAY 4 - Next, your assignment is to write a scripture with the word ‘trust’ using the new font and some play-day features. We’re using paper or a journal page for this exercise. We’ll be in the Bible tomorrow.

I worked on scrapbook paper with Jeremiah 17:7 (NIV) – “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.”

(Do you know, this font was a gift of God just a few weeks ago. As I sat listening to the choir one Sunday, some of the forms came to me and I turned to the back of my notebook and just wrote out the whole lowercase alphabet. Then I actually took my sermon notes with it – not as fast as my usual scribbled notes but I got down all the key phrases!)

DAY 5 - The final homework is to work in your Bible on a ‘trust’ scripture using the new font.

The reference I used is Proverbs 3:5 (NIV) – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

From the ‘play day’ lesson, I used the space-saving overlapping letters as well as banners. I also practiced colored pencil blending. I have been using the cross in my illustrations in the Old Testament a lot lately. After all, the whole of scripture is pointing toward Christ so that really makes me want to tie it all together in my ‘word pictures’.

***It was a privilege to prepare lessons for the Lettering Lodge this week. All those who played along did a wonderful job. God bless you all!***

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 7:26 AM PDT

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On assignment to journal the scripture Psalm 27:1, I wanted to focus on salvation as the theme. Even though the scripture was written before Jesus walked the earth and died on the cross, the gospel is really just ONE STORY that all points to Him.

I went looking on Pinterest for 'stained glass window cross' and found two that were free line drawings. I combined the two drawings and added some elements like the 3D lines on the cross.

Then I used several colored images for reference in making the window come to life.

I used a much thicker pen on this one so it would look more like the leading on stained glass.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:31 PM PDT

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