Nov 2022 from Mary + Block printing No. 2 + Scrap

This is a very cool parrot - although I do not know if it is a parrot or cockatoo or some other tropical bird. I love-love-love the way the address is in the rectangle.

And there were more birds inside. And more little drawings. I need to interview Mary about her feelings towards lettering and illustration. Remind me to do that, Mary. Should we call them interviews or interrogations? (That is the coffee asking.)

Block printing post No 2

I hope these are legible. I just wrote them really fast - so there are places that are not very exact. Let me know if I need to post larger images of these. There will be some larger images coming up when we talk about individual letters.

With many (many!!) styles - I encourage people to just work on the letters that are all straight strokes. I do put J and U into the mix - because they are mostly straight. The non-straight letters that are either - entirely curved or mostly curved will be discussed later. 

We will go over a variety of options with these letters first.

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And just because I started a *label* for the random scraps that I am throwing away - here is one that you may ignore - unless you are very disorganized and would like to feel better about being a disorganized person. If you are highly organized - I apologize for the attitude expressed by these words - it's more of a joke than a whatever you call things that are not jokes. I do not remember where I found it ---

It says: Disorganization is merely the sign of a very healthy individual trying t do more in a short period of time than those lazy obsessively tidy types can think of nothing better to do than straighten objects in drawers and stuff like that which only feeds on their own egos and makes them think they are better than those of us who are truly gifted.

I actually love to organize drawers - so, I must be some kind of hybrid. Or mutant? 

2 Leslies + Scrap + Block printing No 1

Leslie has done so many fun envelopes with her coffee stamps. The cup of coffee in the middle of *George* is very clever - and once again - the swoopy g's are lovely.

I have no idea how she did those double stroke letters on my name below. Seems like she would need two different sized broad edge nibs. 

As I recall - I have mentioned that we are going to talk about block printing - during the week between xmas and new years.

I was sifting through my stacks and found this little rough draft (below) - and threw it away - after taking the photo. I still like the sentiment - but my days of doing pretty little sayings are probably over. The only reason I posted it was to announce that I am going to talk about block printing for a few days. Maggie and I had an email conversation about block printing. It is also known as manuscript (as opposed to cursive - and cursive is also know as script). The terms for lettering/writing/penmanship can be confusing - especially the word *printing* - which is why I call it block printing.

The very quickly (carelessly) written saying - was done to figure out the spacing. For me - it is a scrawl - never meant for any eyes - other than my own. I am only posting it because it illustrates that even when I am mindlessly scrawling - I have some *good quirks.* They may not seem *good* to you - but I will be showing what it is about my quirks that I like better than some other quirks. 

These letters are mostly narrower than a square. I do not have any polished exemplars to show *perfect* block printing. I just wrote some things on notebook paper - and will post them tomorrow. The purpose is for you to look at your own block printing and see if you would like to ditch some of your quirks.

This is long enough for today.

 

It really is an appropriate sentiment for penmanship.

It says: 

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us. Helen Keller