WORDS AS ELEMENT: Part 1

  We accept Line, Pattern, Texture, Color, etc. as "Elements Of Art", and it was our purpose to make "Words" be one as well. Therefore, lettering would not "advertise" or "define" an idea. This time, lettering would be thought of as the major element in the composition. It might be a background, as shape makers or as exciting, visual text enhancing a theme as storytelling.

  The resultant painting, in watercolors, would employ whatever lettering styles, methods of printing and application which would express the content shapes desired. After a review of both pen and brush calligraphy, we were ready to begin.

  Watercolors were the selected medium permitting easy letter character printing with pens or calligraphy brushes.

  Applied letters were to be regarded as shapes: smaller letters to suggest distance and larger ones for more important placement. The letters would visually effect "texture", and their color and size would characterize their spatial relationships.

CLICK ON IMAGES FOR SMALL DETAILS.

  The multi-lingual class enjoyed utilizing foreign languages in their compositions, as well as "ordinary" English! In the left painting, "Tree" dominates the foreground with its dark trunk and outreaching branches. Poster, Roman, brush and split-pen lettering create curving leaf and background areas.

  In the right painting, lettering of different sizes create foreground grasses, bold flowers, and delicate butterfly wings. Pen and colored inks defined the smallest areas in Poster styles, and brush calligraphy boldly contours the plants.