I've been fairly quiet on the blog front since the Seb Lester talk a couple of weeks ago, but in my defence, I've been working on revisiting a design I started back in June last year. While I liked what I'd initially come up with, I didn't think it was quite, "enough".
When I say enough, I mean the overall composition was fairly bland even though the Spencerian inspired letterforms were quite beautiful. That really was the only element of the original that I enjoyed looking at, but I felt like the rest of design was a bit of a let down compared to some of the other pieces I have in my portfolio. So I tasked to myself to recreate the piece, taking inspiration from various Spencerian and Copperplate examples in my personal reference collection.
Left: The original Peace and Light design. Right: The 2016 rework based on flowing Spencerian script.
For the rework, I wanted to draw inspiration from some of Jessica Hische's work and of Seb Lester's early lettering prints.
I've done pretty much the same as I did with my Clive Colledge print in that I tried to fit the entire design within a circular grid, I found it helps me to the overall shape nice and balanced.
The contrast between the Spencerian calligraphy and the serif type that sits in the centre was inspired by the sign for a Better Letters workshop that took place in Copenhagen:
I honestly can't remember when this workshop was, but the sign is gorgeous!
You can see the influence in the way the letterforms are shaped (my 'a' is slightly narrower) but my lines are heavier. I wasn't sure if I was that keen on the increase in line weight compared to the original but as a whole I'm happy with the visual, it also means that when I eventually print it, the ink will be less likely to dry on the screen in thinner sections.
Anyway, when print day comes, I'll obviously be posting photos of the process. There's a lot that I want to try, like gradients and marbling techniques, plus I got some new acrylic colours for Christmas that I'm dying to use!