Typography

I was sorting through some old work and came across my final project at Kingston, for my foundation.
Completely unfamilar with proper techniques (like usual paint and a brush!) I used a parker pen and
dark blue ink. I remember it was raining on and off all day while I was trying to take pictures of them
but somehow they're still in tact. The ingenuity and inexperience of youth!

Signpainting Workshop with Mike Meyer - June 2014

Last week, I took part in a signpainting workshop with the amazing Mike Meyer. A complete learning experience for me, considering I'd never so much as used a quill and before but I'm glad I did it this way, learning it the *proper* way rather than on my own. I've wanted to do a self initiated signpainting project for the past couple of years but a general inexperience and having no idea where to begin has always stopped me.

These pictures are from the second day of the workshop, which ran for two days on Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th, and where I began from scratch after a bit of a shit show the day before. I spent a good few hours doing basic exercises; straight lines, horizontal lines, practicing straight finishes and flicked finishes (it was only last week and now I can't even remember the proper terminology...)  I then began using some of the reference materials to just start painting words and get more comfortable using the brush to write letters. I discovered that find it much easier to do script or freehand rather than geometric/bold typefaces, using a rough pencil sketch as a guideline (as i did for 'Hubbs' below) or just beginning to paint straight (as i did on 'Luckies pay higher prices' and 'french'). I was really happy with a 'young' i did in grey at the end of the session on Thursday, but it dried stuck to a sheet of newsprint so it's more of a ghost! 

It was a real joy to get more *hands on* with typography, like I found with letterpress. It really gives you an understanding of the letterforms and how treatment (how you position and angle the brush, know when to push down and lift off) can make such a difference. It also taught me that, while it's necessary pay close attention to detail and focus, it's really important to be relaxed and to trust your instincts (also, to try to get a good line with one stroke - a shaking hand and increasingly thickening paint the first day working on bold letterforms meant that really didn't work the first day.) 

Now to get some paint and quills and start practicing again! 

Pick & Mix

Early this month I took part in a group show, as part of the Just Us Collective, at Beach London. 

I created two text pieces, both hand-rendered, one on a jar and the other on the gallery wall. 

The idea of painting onto the shop's window was replaced with me painting my text piece directly 

onto the downstairs gallery wall by the stairs - see second image - on wednesday before the show was 

to open on Thursday the 2nd. Annoyingly my brain was addled with hysteria and exhaustion late on 

wednesday and I didn't think to take a close up image...

hopefully there's one floating around somewhere that I can thief. 

An all round lovely few days with some lovely people! Click through for more images.