ReggieEzell.com Pic of the Week-2025

PICK OF THIS WEEK - Week #02
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This work is by Joan Merrell.

The Living Christ

Homework for Reggie's Letterforms From the St. John's Bible class. "The Piece That Almost Didn't Happen" Even though it didn't get completed until several months after the class, I only managed because I told myself I had to treat it like deadline homework or it wouldn't ever happen - for instance, as I lettered the text I realized it wasn't flowing well and really needed me to write the whole thing out 8-10 times to get it to do a really good job - but that simply wasn't going to happen in my life at this time. I pencil-lined up the whole layout three times, thinking I had the pen/ink/paper worked out and finding it wasn't working well, or that the layout was just too tight and squished. Then when finally doing the piece I hit two spots where suddenly the ink bled like crazy, apparently flaws in the paper or its sizing. So I just plugged on through deciding it was what it was or it would never exist at all.

During the class I found I really wanted to try to write the text script in the actual size in the bible - 2mm. I thought I was doing OK until I tried enlarging some to the size many of the examples are in the book - then I saw just how crooked and uneven! One thing that helped was jumping up to the generous size of 2.5mm - well, it seemed roomy after practicing smaller. That also meant a 1mm nib was perfect. I used a Mitchell nib on Arches hot press, the colored blocks are acrylic gouache because I find it's nice to write over, the gold letters are Finetec gouache. By the time I finished the versals (a couple of weeks after the text), the script didn't look so bad -- and I was able to use all four types of letters we learned about. It was a great class and a lot of fun, and increased the respect I already had for the Bible scribes!
_____________________________________________________________________________