The illuminated letter is meant to be bright and visually intriguing and also tell a story! This one-day drawing and design workshop shows a simple and traditional way to create an important letter and refine its form. Using versal construction, a multi-stroke technique, the letter is drawn freely by hand. The goal is to design a letter surrounded by and containing, a well-designed white space. We will explore a variety of means of developing that surrounding space.

Design skills focus on improving the sense of harmony of line and balance of positive and negative shape. We will explore the directional forces of opposing curves and learn the possibilities of these forms as illustration. A versal letter can be the sole subject of a drawing, the beginning letter of a text, or it can be enlarged to form a background image in a design.

Materials to Bring:

• Pigma Micron .05 Fine Point or Pitt Fine Point Pen, Black
• Automatic Pencil: .03 or .05
• Small brush, Size 0 or 1
• Pan watercolors or gouache
• Pad of tracing vellum, Canson Pro Layout Marker pad or other Layout Bond with good ink holdout
• A small piece (1/4 sheet) of heavy archival drawing paper

• Usual drawing kit: small palette, water container, #2 pencil, eraser, blade, ruler, rags, etc 

• MORE: Your favorite sketching or pointed dip pens (Speedball B-5 or Brause .5mm or 1mm or your favorite pointed pens for drawing)

• Saral transfer paper if you have it; otherwise just rub back of paper with pencil to transfer your design.

Workshop + Materials Fee: $175.00

Date & Time: Thursday, April 9, 2015 | 9:30am-5:30pm

Location: 375 Rhode Island St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Note: Please read over the SFCB Registration Policies before signing up for a class

REGISTRATION WILL CLOSE 3 DAYS PRIOR TO THE START DATE OF THIS WORKSHOP.

About the Instructor :: Ann Miller

ANN MILLER (Stanford University, AB, AM Art) studied painting and lithography with Richard Diebenkorn and Nathan Oliveira and has taught art and art history classes at Stanford, University of Santa Clara, San Mateo Community College district and in local guilds and arts venues. In 1979 she founded M2 Design for calligraphy and graphic design work. In 2002 she authored two courses in calligraphy and letterform at Academy of Art University and continues teaching online.

Her calligraphy has been published in Letter Arts Review and Bound & Lettered, and Alphabet, and her book titles for Protean Press can be found in the Harrison Collection at San Francisco Main Library. Her work is in public and private collections. She created of a series of large calligraphy murals for the City of Belmont's new public library and a 12-foot long family tree scroll for actress Brooke Shields for an early episode of the NBC television series “Who do you think you are?” Visit Ann at http://www.pennib.com.