Around the Corner

Open any book of quotations, and you will find a lot of G. K. Chesterton. He was a master of wit, and there are so many quotable sayings in his writings. Most of them are long, though, and difficult for a quick calligraphy project. This quote spoke to me at this particular stage of my life, and I decided to try to do something with it, even though my paper was only 9x12.

It says, "There is one thing that gives radiance to everything. It is the idea of something around the corner."

Chesterton was an inherent optimist. I think it shows in this quote, and it is a sentiment I share.

The quote is lettered in a very chunky Italic. It really is too chunky for my taste, but again, I was limited by the size of my paper, and by the size of the pen. I used a Parallel Pen on Strathmore multimedia paper. You can see the hint of shine in the gold acrylic paint I swirled around it, and the center is a graphite rub. The Parallel Pen is wonderful for a spontaneous project, since there is no setup or cleanup involved. I keep one filled with Higgins Eternal ink for quick projects like this.

I also wanted to try a new calligraphy style, something more modern. Since I was already working with Chesterton quotes, I chose another one, and again lettered it with the same parallel pen. The script is (very!) loosely based on John Stevens's Latina. My practice paper was thin, and not conducive to the gymnastics required to do this script justice. I would like to try it again on better paper. It was fun to play around with.

These were fun to do, if not serious attempts at refined calligraphy. What a wonderful way to spend an icy afternoon! If I get around to redoing these, I will post it here.