FMP (BA): Exercise - Dip Pens

Here I went back to trying out the "embrace your handwriting" idea and this time I fully concentrated on using dip pens. It has been a while since I used them so I was surprised to see how well my results were... In fact, they were much better than my previous attempts! I have been able to master the thick and thin strokes (unlike my attempts with the brush pens) which really made me feel good about my handwriting and my ability to use them.

I first started by writing some random words with biro just to get warmed up before moving on to try it out with my dip pen. On this page I used a pointy-ended one before moving onto using a more rounded-edged dip pen which worked a lot smoother. 

Annotations:

Left: So I decided to try out lots of words in my own handwriting with a dip pen, and discovered that I've finally mastered using it! Yay! This kind of lettering would be perfect for romantic quotes as it's quite elegant

Right: Just a little bit of practice with another John Green quote

Love this b!

Doesn't look right (the r) - make it lower?

Beautiful f!

Annotations:

R looks a bit strange, inconsistent b

Annotations:

Purely aesthetics? Just looks pretty?

Drizzle needs to be joined up

(rest of annotations are written in full below)

Reflective Learning - Summary

This exercise was a bit of an eye-opener for me because it made me realise that I'm not really good at doing long, calligraphic quotes. I just feel that they are kind of 'empty' and lack any feeling without some sort of illustration. I known that some designers are very good with their choice of words combined with this type of hand lettering but I can't really think of any other quote suitable apart from the one I've already done in a previous design.

What I can make from this situation is that, although t's good to do a bit of experimentation, that maybe I should focus more on the illustrative type than calligraphy. I'm slowly running out of time for this project and I want to concentrate on my strongest aspects, and I feel that I enjoy myself a bit more when I do something like my Nelson Mandela quote. Calligraphy on its own makes me feel as if the design as all too easy and I just put it on the page because it looks pretty. The "my thoughts are stars" worked because I did think about it but here in this exercise... I'm not too sure.

It's not that I'm saying that this exercise was useless, however. I do enjoy myself doing it and I think that it's good to practice but I really need to make sure I choose a suitable quote if I ever choose to use it. Besides, I've only done calligraphy for previous designs so I should look at other type styles.

What I can do now is take this into account in order to expand my knowledge of my skills and move on. I need to start looking for other quotes to work on! I shall keep on experimenting with this though but I won't spend so much time on it. 

Learning Outcomes:

[6] Developed skills of critical thinking, analysis and evaluation.

[7] Developed their ability to learn through reflection on practice and experience.
[9] Developed their ability to work with complex material, analyse problems and identify appropriate solutions.