17th December: Learning Brush Script

I love lettering.  I love its elegance and beauty, and I enjoy the form and shape. Playing around with words and letters is something I can do that feels artistic and that I can still accomplish, without needing to actually be artistic.  I have no talent whatsoever in that area, but I've been writing ever since... well ever since I learned to write, and playing with letter shapes gives me some structure that feels more natural.

With this in mind, I signed up for a brush lettering workshop and last week, I popped along to take a class with Quill London.  They offer a range of workshops, but I have seen a lot of brush script around lately and so I was keen to have go, and potentially be able to incorporate it into my scrapbooking one day.

The format to the class was very similar to the calligraphy workshop I took at the beginning of the month.  We learned how to manipulate the painbrush, we practise on lots of geometric letter forms to get the hang of it, and we repeated drills in different letters to learn how to switch between thick and thin lines.

The alphabet style was generally simpler, although we were encouraged to morph it into our own as we gained confidence.  For me, that means more loops and joins, as I like the look of loopy writing, and it's akin to my natural handwriting.

Once again, all materials and equipment were included in the class, and so it was lovely to be able to take home brush and ink to practice.  We were also given a couple of sheets of really quality paper and encouraged to try a couple of bigger projects at the end of class.  It was nice to see how much we had all progressed in a couple of hours, and I'm looking forward to having another go once school breaks up.  Altogether it was a great experience.

Kisses xxx

P.S. This post is one of an ongoing series I'm writing for Advent as part of Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class, which is all about capturing festive memories through journalling and pictures.

P.P.S. Last day of school!