Gotta love Google!  This information came my way and wanted to share.  If you haven't tried Google Docs - TRY IT!  This clip called Planning a Wedding is very enticing.  Gosh, I wish Google Docs - Template Gallery was available when I was planning my wedding.

Monoline SamplesCreative Studio Group is a group which meet one evening a month to do an art project.    All of the supplies are provided - I just love that!  Show up and do some art with someone elses supplies.  Ahhh! 

So tonights topic was "Monoline Magic".  We had loads of fun and created some funky letters using a micron.  Then added a bit of color which really made it P-O-P!  I was hard at work up until the very last second.  I didn't want to quit, but it was already 9:30pm.  Then the commute home is another 45 minutes. 

Monoline with Gel PensI walked away with two monoline pieces for my blog.  Definitely got my creative juices flowing.  Looking forward to more creative doodling. 

One of my routine activities is watching Food Network. I am passionate about cooking (and calligraphy).  One day, while visiting with my mother and grandmother, we were watching - guess what - Food Network.  It was something about a wedding cake competition.   Honestly, we were chatting and sort of watching t.v.  Then a van with a familiar logo flashes across the screen.

You know that nano-second in your head when something has provoked a slew of random thoughts.  Well, mine was, "how do I know that logo?  OMG!  I did that logo.  [outloud]  Mom!  I did that logo.  It's been several years ago, but that's my work that just drove across the screen." 

I must say that I felt famous for that moment in time. 

No, not triplets, just three requst for poems and vows which use the exact same layout - OH MY!  It's not often I get back to back requests which I can use the same template.

So these requests all came the last of December, and finished up the last request mid-January.  The layout is one from the Alan Furber book, "Layout and Design for Calligraphers".  Tried and true ideas that can get you through even the most challenging of requests. 

These layouts are right aligned, which I like.  All three used a pointed pen variation, which is my favorite!  NOTICE the change in color and lettering style?  In lieu of a title, I used this idea for visual interest as well as to convey the emotion of the piece.

"We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow worm." -Winston ChurchillA dear friend from dinner club had asked me to do this quote for her a year and half ago (6/2008). She was patient and never bugged me about it. I didn't have a deadline, so it wasn't a priority. *The artists out there know what I'm talking about.

All my ideas didn't seem right. I never felt ready to execute the final. Then one day, in a paste paper workshop (12/2009), I created this piece. I thought to myself, "This is it! This the glow worm poem."

I finally felt as if I had the right paper, the right colors, the right everything. Once I was ready to put the pen to the paper ... the ink repelled. No matter how much Blair spay fix I used, (the paper was saturated) ... the gouache repelled. I went over and over it - and over again. Patiently let it dry. The gouache seemed to finally stay in place. Much rejoicing!

This is the final photo. Paste Paper. Lettered in gouache. Pointed pen variation and Foundational variation.