Art and Design A comprehensive guide for creative artists - Aaltodoc

m) In conclusion, on any outstanding graphic design
In the opinion of Ashwin (1982, 171), “the reeds
containing text—typefaces must be composed after
should be stored in a warm dry place.” Accordingly,
spreading out distance or size on which the design will
a reed meant for making a calligraphy pen should
be set.
be stored for at least two months to dry.
Calligraphy
However, in today’s world of computers,
The study of typography and graphic design is extremely
calligraphy already exists as a font used by personal
large. As creative graphic designers, it is important to note
computers. Applications such as Font lab studio
that calligraphy is oftentimes hand written.
and very many others allow creative designers
On the other hand, nearly all designers of calligraphy refer
to this type of writing as beautiful writing. Swanson (2000,
144) concurs, “... calligraphy is more than simply a stylish
fashion” of beautiful writing. Nonetheless, it is highly
decorative and it contains text written with meticulous
to explore the gallery of calligraphy fonts and to
create or design fonts.
How to construct block letters
The procedure of constructing block letters necessitates
drawing long straight lines, which result into a grid of
The parts of
a calligraphy
letter or type
joins, links and connections.
squares.
Certainly, learners should be advised not to confuse (italics)
Here is a possible approach in which block letters can be
slanted letters with calligraphy.
constructed.
A hand making
scribbles of lowercase
calligraphy letters
on a paper.
Materials: White paper,
a feather and black ink.
Almost always, calligraphy writing is commonly used on
stylish official documents, like certificates, manuscripts and
greetings cards. Such documents; written with calligraphy
text—can only be read very near our eyes in order to
translate their meanings. Hence, calligraphy message has
got to be briefly stated in lowercase with full punctuation
marks.
To achieve the whole idea about writing or scrawling
calligraphy, a creative graphic designer is required
to have a flat-nibbled pen, or a soft flat brush, ruled
paper and water-based ink.
Some other basic tools used for calligraphy
writing are; flat nib or a sharpened quill (from a
goose, raven, crow and a swan), bamboo sticks or
elephant grass, quill ink or any water based ink and
a clean piece of paper.
Open a fresh page in your sketchbook or find a plain sheet
of paper—at least size A3, a ruler, a pen or pencil and a pair
of compasses. Then, write down all the letters of alphabets
from A to Z, in capital letters on one corner of the same
paper (page).
Next, draw two lines to form a right angle measuring 90°
with a horizontal line intersecting through a vertical straight
line on one corner of the paper.
Pick a pair of compasses, on its pencil holder fit in a pencil
and tie it well. Then, pick a straight ruler with clear (units)
markings. Point the two parts; the needle of a pair of
compasses and the pencil nib on a ruler and carefully
measure any two units (for example, from 0 cm - 1 cm).
The obtained estimations shall represent the actual size
of each square. Get back to the sketchbook;
put the set pair of compasses on the exact
corner where the two lines meet. (Vertical
90º
A quill or a feather can be prepared by scraping
and horizontal lines, already drawn at 90
out its thin membrane from inside. Then, cook
the feather for some time with hot sand to
dry out the natural fats.
degrees).
Move the pair of compasses step by step along the space
on a single straight vertical and/or each horizontal line. The
A hand
constructing
a square grid
Sharpen the calamus (the hollow
mark created on each line with a pencil shall appear like a at 900. Angle
lower part of the shaft of a feather)
curvature or enclosing brackets, which separate words from Materials: A pair
end part on a feather to make a nib.
surrounding text—by twisting and turning the pencil. Then, of compasses
Other calligraphy writers use a reed for
drawing letters.
on each generated mark (indicated as a bracket) draw lines
on them to form a preferred square grid in equal sizes of
a paper, a ruler
and a pencil
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squares.
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