Month: April 2019

A Lettering Project

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

Hello! I am so glad you stopped by.  I hope this post will give you a bit of a look behind the scenes of my art-making. I am sharing a video I made of myself doing a project for a lettering class I am taking at my local art supply store (Spokane Art Supply  http://spokaneartsupply.com/). The class is intended for beginning students in calligraphy. It is open to more advanced students who want weekly accountability and critique. I fall into the latter category and am so glad I decided to do this. Our teacher taught calligraphy at the local Community College and is very knowledgeable about the history of lettering. It has been very interesting to hear and see (he demonstrates so well!) the way letters have developed into the forms we recognize today.

Our first formal lettering project was to use the alphabet designed by Rudolf Koch- a German type designer and artist who lived during the early 20th century. Neuland is blocky and sans serif. Because every stroke is the same width the appearance is very dense. Sans serif means “without serifs.” Serifs are the little feet and shoulders on letters. Here is a diagram showing the difference between a font with serif and a font san serif. (Thanks, Bing online images!)

The little green circles show you the places that the little “shoulders” and “feet” are on the serifed font and where they are absent on the sans serif font.

 

Sans Serif alphabets are somewhat easier to read if the shapes of the letters don’t get too creative.

Here you can compare readabilityof fonts with and without serifs. What do you think?

Here is a sample of “Neuland” that Koch designed. It is a bit tricky to read because of the evenness of the type. Compare it to the “Arial” font in the chart above.

Notice the dense, overall texture that this lettering style creates. Readability is definitely diminished, don’t you think?

But one of the fun parts of the Neuland font is that it is open to adding color and designs in the spaces around and between the letters as well as within the “counters” of letters. The counters are the spaces enclosed by the shapes of letters—the circle within the ‘O’ and the triangle within the ‘A’ and so on.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals

Here is another sample of Koch’s work with color added in the counters and between some letters. He has also been more free with the letter shapes (not so blocky) and the height of the letters is more than the usual so the letters have a “slimmer”, more open look. Which sample do you like best?

 

Aha! You have just learned something about letters and lettering. And you didn’t even need to take a class!

And now here is my video. I think it will explain itself. I hope you enjoy watching the progress of the project for my class.

PS… I could have done a different design that would have gotten a “better grade”… Teacher had some critiques that I may take into account if and when I’m create version #2. Stay tuned.

QUESTION:  What sort of project are you doing this week? What new thing have you learned?

‘Tis the Spring of Souls Today

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey
This is the third attempt at this piece. I’m still not happy with the italic lettering, but if I keep trying I’m sure I will be able to make a really good version someday.

 

 

Spring is the time of year that causes me to feel “burst-y” with enthusiasm, joy, exuberance and hope. The dawning days of spring are subtle but unmistakable. The snow piles recede before the relentless golden orb that warms the ground. Spring buds of crocus and daffodils push the moldy dirt aside with a fragile beauty that belies their sturdy and intense imperative to grow. Cold and nearly dark mornings are clamorous with raucous bird chatter. There is no doubt that spring is breaking. Winter’s solemn grip of icy silence is cracking before the pressure of resurgent life.

It seems so fitting that as spring elbows its way to ascendancy over the cold and dark of winter that we celebrate the glorious truth that Jesus, crucified, dead and buried for three days, rose to endless and powerful life. What magnificent work our God has accomplished!

Our God is not a dead god like Buddha or a solitary and remote god like Allah. He is not an imaginary man-made god of stone like Ashtoreth or Ra. Our God is the true and living God. In His mysterious three-in-one Personage, He came as a man to dwell among us. As the Man Jesus, He lived a perfect life. Jesus suffered an ignominious death at the hands of His own creation. He chose to die in the place of sinful man under the Father’s righteous wrath against sin.  He laid three days cold and dead in the tomb until that glorious morning when in His eternal power He broke the bonds of death and rose to triumphant eternal life. He has given that life to those who believe this. What a gift I have in Christ Jesus! Eternal life. Fellowship with Almighty God. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

 

I pray you will ask God to give you His rich mercy of eternal life in Jesus this Resurrection Day.

 

This is one of my favorite hymns. Can’t you just hear the happy people singing on Resurrection Sunday morning?!

 

QUESTION: As we celebrate Resurrection Day this Sunday won’t you join me in the praise of our wonderful Savior?

Pretend for Real

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

“Let’s pretend” is a phrase I used a lot when I was a child. I grew up in a quirky old house that had low walls and wide pillars on the front porch. One of the pillars had an old hook nailed to it. Coated by years of paint, its purpose was obscure, but we neighborhood kids, in repeated times of “let’s pretend,’ used it as the reins of an imaginary steed. Sitting astride the wall, kicking our heels and clinging to the hook we rode into amazing adventures.

Several trees marched along a lava rock retaining wall that angled upward from the front corner of the lot to the much higher back. We used the wide spreading branches of the old apple trees to be forts. By using boards scavenged from the decrepit garage, we laid walkways across the gap between the ever-rising sidewalk and the tree branches. Thus we were able to enter “tree houses” and pirate aeries. “Let’s pretend we’re pioneers” would lead to gathering weed grasses as “wheat” to make “bread”—mud “loaves.”

We used “The Green Thing” (an old green bedspread) as a theater curtain, a queen’s cape, a “coffin drape” for the “dead” heroine at the pretend “funeral.” My friend Mary’s un-used family garage was the venue for all sorts of “let’s pretend.” We would drape ourselves in friend Betty’s teenage sister’s old prom dresses as we performed dramatic stage shows.

The hours and days were happy as we played various versions of “let’s pretend.” It never really turned us into wild west Pony Express riders, jousting knights or rugged pioneers. And we were never movie queens. But in those games we took on a different “life” and played out imaginary life events. For a while we were able to be different than our usual selves. We tried out how it might feel and be to have that “pretend” life. Pretend is a tool that plays a vital role in a child’s development into adulthood. Imagining lets us inhabit and try out different realities. It makes us aware of what being someone other than ourselves might be like.

Now that I am a grown up, I regularly face the need to forgive another person because I think he or she has wronged me. The tool of “let’s pretend” has helped me come to a place of genuine forgiveness and healing.

When I have been wronged (or think I have) my sinful inner attitude of anger and bitterness builds up a wall of resentment that breaks my fellowship with Jesus and ruins my relationship with the offender. No matter how justified I think I am in my indignation, the Holy Spirit faithfully prods me to repentance. The Lord’s Prayer is convicting when I am honest before the Lord.

 

I am practicing my italic lettering. Just had a super lesson from the Calligraphy Guild’s president, Shelby. Learned so much, but as you can see, I’m not there yet!

When I get going in my outrage, I rehearse all the bad actions to myself. Thankfully the Spirit nudges me to stop and choose a different path. God desires me to be like Himself.

Jesus completely forgave those who put Him to death. He has forgiven my sin entirely.  So His desire that I forgive as He has is not unreasonable. Thankfully, He has made me a new creature in Christ Jesus and is in the process of conforming me to the Savior’s image.

So here is where “let’s pretend” comes in. When I am pondering and praying about my anger and resentment, I can use this “thought exercise” to change my response.  I can pretend that I like the person who has “done me wrong.” My imagination can help me pretend kind and Christ-like actions. As I pretend, my view of the “offender” changes. I can see what may have motivated the offending action. And the amazing thing about pretend is that it can help develop a new path, a new way to behave.

Of course, I will have to choose that path. I will have to make a conscious effort to forgive and let go of resentment. But imagining what a good path looks like or how a right attitude will feel helps me choose the God-pleasing, obedient response of forgiveness. The Holy Spirit is faithful to give me the strength to choose this good way.

Part of what helps me forgive is knowing that God will judge fairly in the end, but right now, My part is to choose to forgive, even if the offender never apologizes (or cannot). The Final Judgement will set all things right. I want to be right with God on that day and so choosing not cling to my bitter unforgiving attitude is the only thing I can do. And, joy of joy, my different, Christ-like attitude is not pretend! The Holy Spirit is making it real. He helps me give real forgiveness. And He works real healing in my inner man.

QUESTION: What are you clutching to your spiritual chest? Who do you need to forgive? Can you begin by pretending how it would feel to be living in harmony rather than sinful discord?

Make Your Mark

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

Learning a hand-written alphabet requires careful focus on each mark as it is made. The shape, direction, weight and placement of each mark is critical to the letterform carrying its intended meaning. I’ve just finished a lettering workshop where I spent 2 days learning the basics of a new-to-me alphabet. It is called “Bone” lettering because the strokes and shapes of the letters resemble a bone, being widened at each end. It required careful attention and lots of work to learn the new skill of twisting my pen as I made each mark to form the letters.

This intense scrutiny of mark-making stirred me to think and remember a conversation I had years ago. “Uncle Jerry” (my son-in-law’s uncle), along with his wife, had come to Central Oregon to visit us. During the drive back to Portland Airport he pointed out that all humans are “mark-makers.” Mark making is a distinct human activity that is one of the things which distinguish humans from all other living creatures. Jerry declared that with two simple strokes he could convey his entire cosmology. Can you determine what he believes by looking at the marks?

 

Think of it. We communicate our thoughts to other humans using our voices to form words. Those sounds can, and usually do, correlate to marks we make to record our thoughts in a more permanent fashion. As others look at those marks, the meaning we intended is conveyed to the reader of the marks. In ancient times, the marks would be pictorial as people used sticks burned to charcoal or minerals ground to powder to create images –marks- to tell others something of importance. The hieroglyphs of ancient Egyptians, the cuneiform wedges pressed into soft clay, the inky swirls of Sanskrit brush strokes all carry meaning from the minds of those who made the marks to those who read them then and now-even after millennia have passed. Whether the marks are pictorial or letter form, the maker of the mark is sharing abstract thoughts.

Consider these marks. Any guess as to their meaning?

When I made the marks to form these words, you were able to read my marks and think what the writer of the Psalm nearly 4000 years ago thought and wrote. I was able to share what was in my mind by making marks on the paper and showing you the result. The words are ones that were in the mind of the Psalmist (probably King David) four millennia ago! And even more amazing is that the thoughts are actually the thoughts of God Himself, communicated to us—David, me and you and all other readers of this Scripture.

 

Because we are made in the image of God, we are beings who are able to communicate with one another. We can do this by forming and speaking words. But we can also make marks—write or draw—the thoughts of our minds and people yet unborn can and may be able to think and hear from us. God has given us His own thoughts. He actually wrote them with His finger when He delivered the tablets of the Law (the 10 Commandments) to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The Holy Spirit inspired men to write as He moved them, and thus God continued to direct the mark-making, meaning-giving, wonder of words.

 

Here we are, millennia after the marks were first made, able to read and know the mind of God. As we look at each mark on the page, whether on the lightweight page of a printed Bible or on the glowing screen of a phone, the meaning comes unmistakable over the ages. And if you like writing by hand as much as I do, you are able to make marks that put down those very words right there in front of yourself. God’s thoughts, your writing, and your heart’s thoughts all tied together. All because of marks!

QUESTION: Are you finding meaning in the marks on the pages of Scripture?