Calligraphy on canvas
Last weekend our Calligraphy Guild held a workshop for calligraphy on canvas. Now calligraphy can be challenging enough on paper with nibs, inks and guidelines, so dealing with paint, brushes, an uneven surface and writing in a straight line unaided was quite a task.
Firstly we laid down some acrylic washes on our pre-primed canvases. Then a fine spray of “Moonshadow Mist” in various colours was overlaid, some over stencils. (Those are the bottles in the above photo).
Moonshadow Mist is essentially interference powders (metallic, pearlescent etc) held in a suspension of walnut ink (brown when wet). When dry the powder rises to the top to leave a lustrous effect on whatever you have sprayed it on.
Next came some lettering – highlighted words from well known verses. As the canvas was wet, no leaning to keep hands and arms steady was possible. An added degree of difficulty to write with your hand up in the air!
Then more layers of acrylic paint and mist to partially obscure the words before the next layer of lettering went on. It was really foul wet and windy weather outside as well, so things were just not drying (crucial when you’re layering). In the end one kind soul went home to fetch a hairdryer to speed the process up. One hairdryer to dry a whole room of wet canvases was a slow process!
Using the local flora as stencils (both negative and positive shapes) gave added richness to the layering. Some of our members’ beautiful work below:
One of my pieces below still has quite a few layers to go, so will be a Work In Progress for a little bit longer yet. All in all it was a fun way to spend an afternoon in a room full of people who all love the art of Lettering. If you’ve got a canvas laying around and a bit of time to spare, give it a try yourself!
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Cindy, these are spectacular! I cannot get over the beauty of such layered words. Rich, deep, intense For such a challenging process you’ve produced some fab pieces. Paul Standard’s piece is amazing, how he knew when he had enough and not too much lettering is beyond me. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Thank you for your encouraging words on my first sale of a abstract canvas I so appreciate your taking the time to do so.
Wonderful post. Love all the layers. I’m not a calligrapher and I’m jealous! But I do spread paint around every now and then! Lovely blog!
Absolutely fascinating Cindy – I’ve never seen anything quite like this, and it is so very effective. Yours is looking beautiful – please keep us posted with the progress!!!
How clever to write with a brush and not putting your hand on the paint. The layering is so interesting. What a great way to spend a wet day even if it is hard to dry. Love the colours you have chosen.
Looks like great fun for a wet and windy day. Karumba was great – 30 years (!) since I last blew in there on a prawn trawler, those were wild and crazy days. It hasn’t changed much, though it (and me) are much less wild.
Oscar is incapable of the cold shoulder under any circumstances. Can you believe the cat sank her teeth into the hand of the nice lady from “Critter Sitters” when she came round before I left? Needless to say she was a perfect angel ater I’d gone and she realised where the food was coming from……….
Beautiful!!!! I have to learn to do this someday!
awsum..thank u sooo much
Hi
very nice job!
I need a help
I practice persian calligraphy using rib nib and when I try to calligraphy over canvas with acrylic ink-upss no way so what ink i can use?
Can you help me?
thanks
Hi Slava,
Not quite sure what you mean, but I always use acrylic paint watered down for work on canvas. Ink would be too runny and bleed I feel.
Good luck!