To see samples of work from A Portrait of Self, Time & Place, click here.
Saturday morning 1 February was a beautiful winter day in Cary NC, and the third floor classroom of the Page Walker Arts and History Center was bursting with energy and enthusiasm as the class assembled. Sherri and Peter quickly went to work. Peter explained that the five day version of this workshop has been presented at Lake Louise, and the concept is to integrate color, collage, and lettering so that each student can create a coordinated work around central theme of their own choosing. Then Sherri took the stage and demonstrated the first step of the process. She took a large sheet of Rives BFK and showed how she randomly applies selected items from her theme (which was about Dorothy and Kansas, from the "Wizard of Oz") with adhesives. Lots of white space was left between the applications. Then she followed that by applying a randomly distributed wash of watercolors over the sheet. (Peter commented that "it is almost impossible to go wrong at this stage.") Then each class member had about 30 minutes to take these two opening steps with their chosen themes. (My engineer’s mind was protesting "you can’t do this – it needs a title block and border lines, at least!")
We all laid our sheets aside to dry while Peter took center stage to give demonstrations and reviews of pencil drawn Roman Caps. He distributed several exemplars showing Texts and Textures and put us all to work practicing the various lettering options.
The next step had Sherri demonstrating how she takes frames cut from matting stock, and moves them around the collage/color sheet to select interesting areas. Interesting because of the pleasing combinations and happy accidents that happened in the previous step. Once some areas are selected (your choice – 3 or 4, or more) then the frame was used as a template to make light pencil marks of the perimeters. These will eventually be cut from the large sheet and will be the "deck of cards" or pages of your final composition.
But there was still more color and texture to be applied. In this step Sherri and Peter demonstrated the "Ribbon of Words" which seemed to instantly bring unity to the previously free form process. The idea is to choose a phrase or quote that is central to your theme, and to write in a meandering ribbon of 1" tall capitals. It is important that the path of the ribbon be through the areas of the cards you have marked off in the previous step. The words were to be written lightly along lines made with curving templates. Then, we took watercolors and filled in the spaces between the edges of the letters. The result is the multi-colored ribbon with the letters being the spaces in between where the uncolored paper showed through. Once you see this it is a very striking effect.
Once again our sheets were laid aside to dry while Peter spoke and demonstrated the principles of layout and design. This was broken into two segments. One was for those with less experience, and another for the more advanced class members. As always, his lectures were technically exact, and laced with good humor.
The next step had Sherri demonstrating techniques for applying more images to the selected cards. She had stacks of pages with various images copied in reverse. By laying the sheet on your card and rubbing it with a Design Art Marker Colorless Blender, the image is transferred. Now it was time to cut your cards from the big sheet and begin working with them individually. An examination of the open spaces shows where words, phrases or other images can be applied to add balance to the compositions.
Then, the final step in the process was demonstrated by Sherri. A sheet of Canson Mi-Tientes was cut, folded, and glued to make a neat little cover for the completed cards.
Thus ended a weekend of creativity, guided by two of the most loved teachers of the calligraphic and book arts, all of it spiced with lots of fun. It was Peter’s birthday so we sang to him about as much as he could stand. One of the class generously provided a beautiful cake which was shared by all, including a family at the next table at the restaurant Saturday night. Phyllis Peterson read from and presented a special book she had made for Peter. And we all went back to our regular lives, pledging to finish the project we had just started.
Saturday morning 1 February was a beautiful winter day in Cary NC, and the third floor classroom of the Page Walker Arts and History Center was bursting with energy and enthusiasm as the class assembled. Sherri and Peter quickly went to work. Peter explained that the five day version of this workshop has been presented at Lake Louise, and the concept is to integrate color, collage, and lettering so that each student can create a coordinated work around central theme of their own choosing. Then Sherri took the stage and demonstrated the first step of the process. She took a large sheet of Rives BFK and showed how she randomly applies selected items from her theme (which was about Dorothy and Kansas, from the "Wizard of Oz") with adhesives. Lots of white space was left between the applications. Then she followed that by applying a randomly distributed wash of watercolors over the sheet. (Peter commented that "it is almost impossible to go wrong at this stage.") Then each class member had about 30 minutes to take these two opening steps with their chosen themes. (My engineer’s mind was protesting "you can’t do this – it needs a title block and border lines, at least!")
But there was still more color and texture to be applied. In this step Sherri and Peter demonstrated the "Ribbon of Words" which seemed to instantly bring unity to the previously free form process. The idea is to choose a phrase or quote that is central to your theme, and to write in a meandering ribbon of 1" tall capitals. It is important that the path of the ribbon be through the areas of the cards you have marked off in the previous step. The words were to be written lightly along lines made with curving templates. Then, we took watercolors and filled in the spaces between the edges of the letters. The result is the multi-colored ribbon with the letters being the spaces in between where the uncolored paper showed through. Once you see this it is a very striking effect.
The next step had Sherri demonstrating techniques for applying more images to the selected cards. She had stacks of pages with various images copied in reverse. By laying the sheet on your card and rubbing it with a Design Art Marker Colorless Blender, the image is transferred. Now it was time to cut your cards from the big sheet and begin working with them individually. An examination of the open spaces shows where words, phrases or other images can be applied to add balance to the compositions.
Then, the final step in the process was demonstrated by Sherri. A sheet of Canson Mi-Tientes was cut, folded, and glued to make a neat little cover for the completed cards.
