Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Two Versions of a Favorite

Some of you are familiar with a print I did a few years ago that started out as a Mother's Day gift for women at our local church (giclee prints now for sale on Etsy, by the way:)


Some time later, I had a commission to do the same quote in two parts, so they could go on either side of a family photo, and to adapt it to the taste and decor of the client. I spent a lot of time trying different versions because the client is a good friend and I really wanted it to be "right". It's an interesting challenge to make things balance when the quote doesn't divide right in half and the words worth emphasizing are not evenly distributed either. Pretty sure I'm not the first calligrapher to want to rewrite something to better fit - the first family tree I did I really, really wanted to move a few kids to another family.
But I think it was successful in the end.

You can see that some things are similar, like using capitals for emphasis and contrast, and fairly clean and simple letters. Both are written out in gouache on backgrounds done with "saran wrap" technique on watercolor paper. (Arches 90 lb. hot press)

No comments:

Post a Comment