This
piece is the largest piece I have ever worked on, and thanks to
Reggie's and my classmate's encouragement, I felt empowered to take
it on. The work itself is a song by Enya, titled "May It Be" written
for the Lord of the Rings movies. I love listening to soundtracks,
especially when focusing on my calligraphy. This song is one of my
favorites, mainly because it sounds and reads like a prayer.
I started with a large piece of hot-press watercolor paper (I
honestly don't remember the weight), 22 in by 34 in. and measured a
three inch border around the whole paper. I then wrote out the song
on a spare sheet of paper, counting the number of lines I would need
for the whole song. I then drew the lines, 37 in all, on the page,
about 22 mm tall.
I then counted each of the letters I would
need on each line, taking into consideration which letters would be
on each side of the middle line. I realized I could have written out
each line in the font to determine the midpoint, however I was too
anxious to begin so I just "went for it." |
The lettering is
done with Turner Artists' Water Colour Wine Red with a Speedball B3
nib. I then made all the edges "crisp" with a Brause EF 66 nib. Once
the lettering was done, I had to think about what I wanted to do
around the large border. I began to think about tapestries and
banners from the Middle Ages that may have hung in a castle and I
wanted to incorporate some of J.R.R. Tolkien's own work as well. So
I decided to create "tapestries" on each side and fill them with
runes that J.R.R. Tolkien developed for his Lord of the Rings
series.
I measured out the space for the "tapestries" and
then used a ruling pen to draw the lines. I used a combination of
Grumbacher Academy Watercolor Turquoise and Viridian for the
blue-green background color. I then sketched out the runes and used
Seral to transfer the design. I used Golden molding paste to create
texture in each of the runes and Instacol to apply the 23K loose
leaf yellow gold. I went through quite a bit of gold, but I loved
using it and I ended up with the exact effect I wanted.
I
really enjoyed working on this piece because I accomplished a large
finished piece, with a quote I loved working on, and using all the
new skills I have learned. |
