"Heart Walls I" (final)

($200.00.....11" x 14"......Mixed Media Wall Series.....Presented on a 2" Cradled Board)

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." (Proverbs 3:3) This is it! The first in this series is done. But I am taking a break from this type for a few days.

This was a very experimental piece for me, and there were a few challenges. I almost threw in the towel the day before I started the lettering. But wisdom prevailed and I decided to wait until the following morning to make the final decision. Once I saw it again with fresh eyes and some sleep, I decided to press on until the lettering was done.

The brush lettering in the top right hand corner stabilized everything for me, along with the decision to do white lettering. So the point in sharing this is to give encouragement to those who love to experiment and feel like they've landed in the weeds. The truth of the matter is that every single piece is like that unless you've worked through the issues with a particular style with all of the techniques and materials.

After all of the struggling, I have made some decisions concerning this series. I will be leaving a portion of all of the pieces completely untouched. In watercolor in particular, that does give the final piece a freshness that cannot be achieved any other way. I have also decided to do white lettering in all three pieces. The same techniques for creating the texture will also remain the same.

So just by making those decisions, I can feel assured that there are enough common denominators to keep the series coherent. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Heart Walls I" (draft 5)

(draft 5)

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." (Proverbs 3:3...NIV) Not quite there yet, but the lettering is coming along. The process really slows down when it's time to add lettering.

Nothing has changed about the background today, but the informal versals can take a while. And rather than trying to speed up and try to get it all done this morning, I thought it might be instructive to let my lettering friends see a bit more of my process.

I generally begin laying in these types of versals by laying tracing paper over the piece so that I can see the shapes in the background. I then begin to write the letters with pencil first so I can erase and change things as I go along. The beauty of these letters is the fact that there are no descenders or ascenders to deal with and they can be expanded and compressed to fit into any shape.

After feeling satisfied with the spacing and slant, I then transfer the letters to the actual piece by scribbling on a plain sheet of tracing paper with a graphite pencil. I then slip that underneath the tracing paper with the lettering and go over it again with a pencil, checking to make sure it is transferring.

After this step, I go over all of the letters with a pointed pen loaded with the color gouache of the final lettering and simply fill them in with no pressure on the pen. And that is what you see on the part of the quote I still need to finish. I then erase the initial graphite.

And this next step is the most important. I check the slant and spacing one more time. In this case, I did remove several words and rewrite them in white gouache right on the original. Because the surface has been prepared for lettering, I can simply take a brush dipped in water and remove anything I like. After all of the adjustments were made, I began to build up the versals with a pointed pen and Bleedproof White gouache.

I may also need to go back and beef up all of the letters one more time. The best way to do that is to spray the entire surface (2x) with spray acrylic coating and then prepare the surface for lettering again. This keeps the pen from digging into the previous layer of gouache which can be very frustrating. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Heart Walls I" (draft 4)

(draft 4)

Some lettering has been added today, but there is more to come. The quote you see today is in Spanish and may be hard to see. It is meant to be background lettering. The English translation will be included tomorrow and easily read. It is Proverbs 3:3.

My decision to do all of the lettering in white was to bring calm to the very textured background. No matter what the lettering style, white can do wonders to bring calm to the piece. Of course, it will look strange and not well integrated if there is not white in the background texture.

Lettering or any other visual helps to solidify a piece like this where the texture is actually the main feature. Lettering and walls seem to go together. They appear in all kinds of walls...either in a graffiti style or a printed sign. I particular liked the Spanish word "escribelas" since it means "to write". It is very similar to the word "scribble".

So even though all of the lettering is not visible today, there is enough there to convey the sense of calm and add meaning to the piece. But just as a recap...there are still shapes and a range of values in the wall texture that provide the foundation for the piece. Lettering that is simply written on a solid piece of paper or a background with no shapes is immediately thrust into the category of graphic design. If the piece is to be classified as fine art, it is better to have actual paint, techniques of layering, shapes, values, and color. Not to mention the fact that it is far more interesting.

The medium used for the lettering was Bleedproof White Gouache. The large word was written with a pointed brush and the small script was written with a Leonardt Principle Nib. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.