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White ink is so nice.

My desk and work area.

So I spent most of last night with ‘B.’ We had a good time. After I fill up a whole sheet or four of small letters, which I use a C-2 nib for, I do some larger specimens with the 1/2 inch Coit folded nib just for a little fun. While the strokes and the technique are similar for both the large and the small letters, it’s a whole other ball of wax. First of all, the Coit nibs only hold enough ink for a single stroke. The smaller C-2 nib can hold enough ink for 3-4 whole letters. I think this is some diminishing returns equation, I don’t know. But it requires you to slow down and think of which strokes you’re going to execute in which order. The larger nibs also require more forearm and shoulder movement rather than just finger and wrist.

These pieces are one page of Capital B practice, and a couple of my favorite large Bs. I probably should have used some line rules for the smaller Bs, next time.

If 13 is an unlucky number then so should the letter “B” be. Because it looks like a scrunched together 13.

“Hi, what’s your name?”

“Bob.”

“Get the fuck away!”

– Mitch Hedberg

I’m pretty sure I’m learning this all wrong. I’m looking at books as reference, but otherwise I’m just doing what feels natural and what looks right. I know I’m blending styles and techniques. I know my method is less than methodic. But I know I’m enjoying it. I hope I don’t have to relearn a bunch of stuff later on to correct myself. Hopefully I’ll do the important learning along the way. For now I’m happy just looking into how the ink sits on the paper and the variation available in the ‘stroke.’

You can see in this piece I started playing around with white ink. White ink is strange in that at first it appears very light, and darkens as it dries. I did a few practice pieces on kraft and the white ink was all but invisible when it first went down, but dried out nice and opaque. The Speedball Superblack is still my favorite. The finish on it when it dries is quite nice. I had bought a couple felt tip calligraphy pens along with the ink pens, but I don’t like them so much. It’s basically a flat Sharpie. It’s the way the ink interacts with the paper (and itself, which might sound weird but it’s true) that I find so cool, and you can’t get it with a felt tip.