Monday's class was lots of fun. Given that I'd packed up some of my practices, I was delighted to find them being collected. Apparently we'll be getting them back with comments from DeAnn (there's DeAnn writing a student's name on their practice sheet). The class is large (14 students) so this is the best way for us to get individualized feedback. Paul was also pleased to hear I'd had to turn in "homework" and would be getting it back with corrections marked.
The second class focused mostly on refining the topics covered in the first class. The central emphasis was focused on the font, gothic textura, being all about texture (achieved via "true picket fence" spacing), even more than individual letters or even readability. Whilst this seems odd or even backward from a modern perspective, it's important to understand where the medieval reader and writer were coming from. The process of making parchment, as can be seen in this Getty demo, was a long and costly, each page coming from the skin of an a single animal (generally sheep or cattle). Gothic textura dates from ~1100 - 1500, the end of the Middle Ages, before paper was widely manufactured or used. Making medieval texts were labor intensive and expensive. As DeAnn pointed out, these weren't newspapers but were written to be re-read. Reader of texts were generally already familiar with what they were reading so it was more important that the significance of the text be conveyed through its beauty.
Another reason texture became important again harkens to the expense of books, especially the cost of parchment. Gothic textura has less white space that other fonts which both gives the text visual weight and makes use of as much parchment as possible. I've tried to take this spacing information (both inline and between lines) as I've practiced the past few days. I can see a difference, but mostly to me I feel things are looking messier rather than neater. Time will tell I guess. I'm trying hard not to be too hard on my work, but just trying to do it each day's work, focussing on the issues raised in class.
Okay, that said, I did jump a little ahead the other night by playing a bit with Gothic capitals (something we haven't covered at all) on the Tinies work, "G is for George smothered under a rug." Really what I'm supposed to be doing as practice is just drawing lines with the space between equal to the width of the nib. I can only do that for a sheet each night though (and that's the maximum) before my focus wavers. I found when I stopped doing the Tinies, I stopped practicing at all. So I'm back at it, with plans to work through the whole alphabet. Last night was "H is for Hector done in by a thug."
What about the title? It's simple enough. My cozy calligraphy space got cozier because of the addition of a small space heater ($35, purchased from Amazon). Much as chilly scribing is historically correct, once a week at class is plenty.
(Special guest appearance by Stanley Fish.)
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