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| All pencil work except "City" as noted below, is artwork by Anne Rita Taylor, enhanced by filters. |
Last Saturday I led a presentation at the Houston Calligraphy Guild with a few techniques from Amity Parks workshop at the Legacies II Calligraphy Conference in 2014, called Graphite Techniques. Graphite, otherwise known as pencil lead, is a mixture of carbon and clay, not lead.
The #2 pencil is considered 2B or an HB combination. A hard graphite results in a light grey - H for Hardness. Soft lead is darker, B for Blackness.
My handout has the four techniques I demonstrated. We started with drawing shades with any pencil, from light to dark. This is called the VALUE of a color, so you learn how to vary your pressure while using a pencil.
Next was an exercise for a Cross Contour, that makes words pop and look three dimensional as you can see on my handout with the words JOY and PLAY.
Two tables were set up for hands-on play: one with graphite sticks. You can cover a large area with graphite, then use an eraser to write into it. A famous artwork using powdered graphite is “City” by Ed Ruscha, made in 1967, held in The Broad, a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles.
The other table had water-soluble graphite sticks. Also cover a large area, then write with a paintbrush wet with water. Or use the graphite as watercolor where I wrote: Believe, with the quote above.
A big difference is graphite can be erased, but the water-soluble graphite cannot be erased as easily. Water-soluble graphite mixed with water is an ink wash, like painting with watercolor except it looks like pencil markings. Fun to spray water on a quote made with water soluble pencil, comes out like this:
All in all, I think 40 calligraphers enjoyed a few techniques I learned in Amity Parks workshop. And I can’t wait to take her next workshop in March when she comes to Houston to teach Mixed Media. What do you think about pencil calligraphy?
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| Varied my writing pressure using a #2 pencil, plus brushed on water soluble graphite. |
©Anne Rita Taylor 2017
Wish I could have been there. Was moving to temporary living arrangements while my house is restored to pre-flood status & next is replacing the van. That's on Monday's list. Heading to ADA in Houston!! I love playing with pencils. There's so much you can do with them.
ReplyDeleteHoping it all works out for you! We had water up to our garage during the flood, did not get in the house, thankfully! I'll mail the handouts to you including one with an exemplar.
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