Letter Loving!

I am participating in Joanne Sharpe's online class entitled Letter Love 101.  She has set up a private blog for class participants, and posts a new lesson every day for the month of February.  She combines videos, blog post notes, PDFs, and even some of her own original art to inspire us.

Even before the class began, I ordered some new black markers that Joanne recommended for lettering on her blog.  I now have (what I consider to be) an impressive collection of black markers, and from our Yahoo group exchanges, I know that I am far from alone!

All black ink pens!!

Our "workbook" for class is a plain ol' black and white marbled composition books, which we have "dressed up" with duct tape and other embellishments.  For the first few days, I was less than pleased with my notebook, and even considered scrapping it and starting all over in a new one.  Today, though, I buckled down and "made it mine":

I even took a stab at "fancy lettering" for my Letter Love title, and was finally pleased with the results.

Back cover, featuring a gift of art from Joanne to keep us inspired

Inside front cover and first page

In the first lesson, we were invited to simply "play" with our markers, and create various alphabets in our notebooks.  In keeping with my "less than pleased with my work" mood those first few days, I had a slight inferiority complex over my alphabets.  After all, I am taking this e-course because I don't like my lettering/handwriting all that well! 

To show you how crippling a dose of "perfectionism" can be, I will confess that I thought about creating a "rough draft" composition notebook (to keep all my "ugly work" hidden at all costs), along with a "final copy" composition notebook (with work that I would think is "good enough" to share on my blog).

Seriously?

I got over myself, so you will see the good, the bad, and the ugly as I proceed through the class!

Joanne showed us how to create an inspirational sign for ourselves, which I chose to include in the notebook itself so it can go with me wherever I am doing my lettering. 

I had so much fun making it, that I made a second one!

It was fun to break out the colored markers after all of those black and white pages!

One of the perks of this class, by the way, is that I find it remarkably portable:  so far, I can take my notebook and zipper case of pens with me, and "letter away" wherever I choose!

Next, we played around with the word "art" in 20 different fonts.  I copied Joanne's interpretations of the font names, and then went back through and created interpretations of my own. 

I have to say that this exercise today really won me over completely to the class.  I could really see the possibilities for interesting lettering by playing in 20 different typefaces at the same time. 

I will continue to share updates on my progress through Joanne's class, but I highly recommend that you sign up for yourself (on her web site).  It's such an affordable class, with such broad applications, at such a "do-able" pace.  Once you purchase access, you can access it "forever". 

Love it!