Practicing

The flower is one of the practice pictures I've done. I choose an intriguing black and white flower picture (what flower I do not know) and recreated the picture using microcalligraphy and some of my own interpretations. The second picture is one of the techniques I've wanted to analyze for the microcalligraphy drawings.

Technique #1 is the limited technique that can only really accommodate darker shades. It will be very useful for using in the darker parts of the structure. Technique #1 is done by changing the pen I was using. Different pens have different tip sizes, and that’s what I was utilizing to do this first shading. It will also help with the intermediate shades if used in combination with another technique. It will not accommodate for the lighter shades.

Technique #2 utilizes the changing of the letter spacing. This technique is very handy to use and it’s quite easy. Letter spacing also does not require the changing of, or the manipulation of shape of the letters themselves. It keeps the works in tact until the darker shades are reached – for those, a different shading process would be more ideal in order to maintain legibility. This technique is useful in light shades, but does a poor job with very intermediate shades.

Technique #3 has the obvious limitation of size within the drawing parameters. This was by far the most surprising technique. I expected that the larger the size of the letters, the darker they would turn out. It is indeed the opposite. The larger the text is, the lighter the shading appears. Again, with the limitations, it might only be useful in a couple of instances, and even then, it’s only helpful with intermediate shades and darker shades.

Technique #4 was useful in proving a point that the upper case and lower case letters do not make a difference. This is handy in that the case of a letter can be chosen to help with the shape of the picture, line, or curvature that the letter is supposed to follow along with. There may be a small difference, but it’s really not noticeable from my standpoint.

Technique #5 is specific toward shaping and not so much shading. In the aspect of shading, a darker shade can be created by using cursive writing, while a lighter shade is characteristic of print. As seen with part B, this technique only really works when the letters are touching. The Curvier letters do not really make a difference. The style is useful in that the cursive can create definitive lines in the art. These lines are connected. Print can create lines of shading. So the outline should be done in cursive.

Technique #6 is another size description. In this case the size makes a difference in the opposite effect. The smaller the letter size, the lighter the shading (per unit of space). It will help in areas where text size isn’t as important, such as the background.

Technique #7 attempts to vary the width of each letter to see how it affects a line. As one would expect, the thin widths are darker, and as the letters widen, they become a lighter tone. This doesn’t reconcile with white areas, or light gray shades. The style is much more textured, but it is harder to read, especially with the darker areas. It is a good technique for the grays.

Technique # 8 was a play on the 7th technique. The singular width of a letter is opposite of the earlier affect. It actually has minimal shading affect and more of a contour affect. The lines used make a useful contrast of curvature rather than a shading device. It will probably be used to help create a focus point in the final artwork.


This is a picture that I have done to practice the techniques. It is a man and it encompasses song lyrics from songs that came up when I shuffled my music collection.