"Psalm 100" (draft 6)

(draft 6....18" x 24")

Today I realized that I had forgotten just how much longer it takes to do lettering on a large piece. What you see today is my lines ruled with a white charcoal pencil and the roman versals written in skeletal form with a pointed pen. I need several days to finish due to other obligations so the final will be posted on Saturday (I think!)

You can now see where the piece is headed in the final stage. For my lettering art friends, I always write my versals in a skeletal form first just to make sure it reads and flows well before building them up with a Mitchell #6 nib and also a pointed pen on the smaller letters.

When writing free form letters like this, it really does help to draw in some free flowing lines first. It is also a good way to emphasize some of the words by making the space in between the lines larger. I am pleased with the flow, but the real test is after they're finished.

There is a lot going on in this piece, but I hope you can see how the black areas ground the piece and by adjusting some of the other values and toning down the texture, the piece tells the viewer where to look. The focal area is framed in by a band of textured areas with an outer frame of black, but just on three sides. It's a very interesting division of space.

And for my glass friends, a two layer kiln fired piece of glass is a very nice inclusion in a mixed media piece, especially if a part of the glass is transparent. In the case of the glass made for this piece, there is a totally transparent band in the upper center of the glass that magnifies the lettering from an old bible which says "The Book of Psalms". All of the text pages in the piece are also from the psalms. Keeping the main thing, the main thing keeps confusion out of the eye of the viewer.

There are also many "echoes" in this piece as well as a full range of values.  Another thing to notice is that well placed shapes of black and white plus other colors works every time it's tried. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.