This work was done at the beginning of the Covid quarantine when I had a lot of time on my hands. My goal was to improve my ability to draw Roman caps. I had no intention of creating a finished piece.

I chose a letter and drew it on John Neal’s grid paper. Working slowly, I studied the subtleties of the forms, angles and serifs. Letters are one inch tall. Yes, I used a magnifying glass and a 4B mechanical pencil which I kept very sharp. When finished I relaxed by adding decorations. Several weeks later I completed 26 letters all on grid paper.

Then I had an idea. I chose a page with about 8 letters on it, put it in my scanner, filled the tray with 8 ½” by 11” Arches Text Wove…and pushed the button. Ta Da…It worked…Letters on good paper without blue lines. I touched them up a little with my pencil.

Weeks later I was going through my paper storage and came across a piece that always intrigued me. It had strings woven through it and was crinkly with a thin coat of wax. You could not really draw or write on it…but it could hold some small decorated Roman Caps.