A funny thing happened...

...when I got back from Austin. As some of you may recall I took an illuminated manuscript course. The last day we worked on lettering- actually, I was the only one that worked on lettering. The others continued with their illuminations. The instructor gave me some quick and dirty guidelines with regard to spacing and pen manipulations and encouraged me to continue with calligraphy.

Until that day, I was a self-taught calligrapher. Books were my friends and mentors. Unfortunately, they don't talk to you or critique your work. I seemed to be stuck with an amateurish ability and strangely only able to write in the Gothic or old english style. The instructor and everyone else were very impressed with my letters that day, but I still felt they were sub-par. However, I felt there was some improvement.

The weird part is, since I have been home, without much more practicing, I seem to be able to write in any style- and well. Even when I am writing, it is hard to believe that I am actually penning the letters. It's like I am miraculously healed somehow. Italic was my nemesis, so I thought I would try it TODAY to put in this post as an example. It's not perfect, but I think it is pretty good for quick, spur of the moment work.












I walked with a limp and now I can run. What does it all mean?