Jim's May letters

Here are Jim's musing for May....

The letter 'U'

...select, change shape with 'perspective' tool, clone to cover the dark line at the bottom.

The bent nail under the lid of the box has come in VERY handy.

Ann's May letters

Kim Schoenberger - ALaW 2010 - RSTUV

I'm getting in early this month with my letters for May...

R - is best to describe in two parts; the left part of R is a rusted bolt and welded onto the right, is a rusted metal wall bracket / hook, liked those that were used to hold up the old style curtain pole (many moons ago!).

S - cut from a spring that come from underneath an older style chair

T - was a curious find at the tip, and I still am not sure what they were used for. I found them amongst computer parts, some were alot thicker almost an inch and non-rusted, others were singular and blue on one side and amongst them were different size E's as well. Upon inspection of the thicker T, I saw that they were several T's compacted together and when I picked away at them they separated into more T's....abit of h2o and wolla...rust!

U - is a U-bolt minus the bolt

and

V - has a slight over hang but as soon as I saw it, I just had to have it. It was part of a handmade tightening bracket of some sort someone had made for something, for what? I don't know. It just had the perfect V shape I was looking for. It was joined/welded at the end onto more metal and it was somewhat challenging to detach without damaging but after several attempts and Glen's help, determination prevailed.

Sue's May Letters

With apologies from Fiona who forgot to post them until now even though Sue sent them through early!!

Lilo's letters

I feel my brain is barren. . . so I decided to write my letters for this month in mirror writing. A little history. I was born left-handed and my father insisted that I learn to write with my right hand. I did! Years later in school I would doodle and found out by accident that I could write with my left hand but only backwards. Over the years much fun and curiosity followed this natural accident. I was a High School Teacher and would break the ice, so to speak, at the beginning of the school year taking a piece of chalk in each hand and writing at the same time in different directions. It worked and my students enjoyed seeing it. My backwards handwriting is identical to my regular writing. . . The top left is a 'd', next to it a 'c', below the d a 'q' and below the c an 'm'.

Steel, Paper, Pastels and Picasa

Well, as you can see this series is a progression from the previous set of letters. I am using the same materials with the addition of Mr. Picasa and oh how time flies with you are with Picasa.
This series are once again with the very same expanded steel segments, pastels for highlighting and picasa for drama.

Steel,paper,pastels

This series of letters are made from parts cut with a disc from an industrial product called expanded steel. You may remember it being used for industrial walkways. I love this stuff! And in it are all these letters using the same pieces of steel in each image to create a design around the letter.

In this series of 4 letters, I have used expanded steel, handmade paper as a background and pastels to highlight edges.

Noela's T

...select & enlarge only.

I like this delicate little fella - a real contrast to the other heavier letters I have been finding. This was just a scratch into the timber - honest, simple and a little mysterious.

Euan's 2nd set of letters, at last!!!

I have continued on my theme, with letters from classic cars. This time I have mounted individual letters from one car in different locations on another car of the same make. I love the interaction of chrome and rust also the play of the sun.

More letters from Margaret

Here are 4 letters...

These letters were part of the word "evolve" and done separately.I realized other words could be made combined in another sequence, they would form the word LOVE as well as VOLE!

(A vole is a small rodent resembling a mouse but with a stouter body, a shorter hairy tail, a slightly rounder head, smaller ears and eyes, and differently.) More than you really needed to know.

Drawn letters, watercolor, and doodles, which I love doing.

margaret

May letter offering

I thought I had done this! Don't know what went wrong. Anyway here are my May letters. I think the I works better than the J, as I had a real problem working out where to put the overlaid ruling pen J in relation to the printed one underneath. When all the letters are together though, it looks fine. I am really enjoying this little project. Till next month ...





Meg,
confuzed as always ...

JGR-May Letters

This time I was determined to be very neat and precise (ha!) as my other letters have been left-handed and somewhat 'scribbled'.  I used Photoshop and my concept was to be very 'clean' and modern. This is not my usual approach as I am rather addicted to spontaneous texture. I started with Q - very clean with the small text in the background: Words that begin with 'Q' - quadrangle and so on. R is similar with a smaller 'R' repeated for interest at the bottom. S made me think of my dh (Stewart) and then an inventory of family members whose first initial is "S". They are arranged in the order in which they came into my life so my older ds is first. Of course: my 'clean' approach fell apart here and I did try but could not resist some painted texture, which carried on to the last letter, T and of course my first thought was 'tenderhearted' so I added that in the background. I am really enjoying this challenge, everyone has such wonderful unique pieces. Thank you for viewing! 

Here are my latest four letters. I am feeling similar to Linda...looking forward to my next alphabet as it will be more varied and be more creative. I've started playing around with it.

Letter samples from Jean

Going through boxes in my studio I came across the many paint samples I've saved over the years from Kmart's Martha Stewart paint line. I also found my copy of "Brush Lettering" by Marilyn Reaves and Eliza Schulte and thought I would finally put brush to paper. I like the contrast of the black letters on the color samples. I cropped them to a more square format but haven't decided if I will actually crop the samples.

Noela's 'S'

My next letter is 'S'.

...select, select bottom section, flip, clone, lighten.

I think as we are two thirds of the way through the challenge, I'd best refresh the memories of those who are not sure of what I'm doing.

I started with an old painted hand made wooden box which I found at a garage sale a few years ago. It currently sits on my bathroom vanity and is empty but it could hold all manner of treasures.

I took dozens of close up photos of the painted surface and the raw timber inside which had some stamped markings, then set about using 'photoshop' to create letters.

The letters don't exist on paper yet - only in cyber space, and as we near the end of the first alphabet I'll need to print them out and come up with some serious 'book' ideas. Any suggestions??

Une lettre par semaine - Avril / A letter a week - April

Bonjour,
Hello,

Voici donc un "M" réalisé avec une "Cursive Gestuelle" que je suis en train de travailler en cours... IL y a du boulot ! Pour les spirales, j'ai utilisé le papier dans lequel j'avais perforé la spirale... comme un pochoir...


Here is an "M" made with "Gesture Cursive" I'm working in progress ... THERE has to work! For the spirals, I used the paper in which I punched the spiral ... as a template ...

Et un "N" sorti tout droit de mes premiers essais de calligraphie, il y a fort, fort, fort longtemps... ma première année... Alphabet "Foundational Hand"... Il s'agit d'une écriture utilisée pour les besoins d'apprentissage... Le fond est réalisé avec les mêmes peintures pour rester dans la même gamme de couleurs, mais j'ai ajouté la technique du film étirable...

And an "N" straight out of my first attempts at calligraphy, it is very, very, very long time ... my first year ... Alphabet "Foundational Hand" ... This is a script used for the purpose of learning ... The bottom is made with the same paintings to remain in the same range of colors, but I loved the art stretch film.

... Un "O" qui vient d'un alphabet que j'aime bien, d' Arthur Baker... Là, j'ai séché, alors j'ai juste tracé le contour dans une couleur sombre...

... An "O" which has an alphabet that I like, Arthur Baker ... Here, I have dried, so I just traced the outline in a dark ...

Et un "P"  d'un alphabet "semi Onciale Irlandaise"... C'est irlandais, ça ne peut pas être mauvais... ;) J'ai encore utilisé une perforatrice pour avoir un pochoir... Ca tient la route... Simpliste... mais à garder en mémoire à l'occasion...

And a "p" an alphabet "semi Uncial Irish" ... It's Irish, it can not be bad ... ;) I still used a punch to have a stencil ... It holds the road ... Simplistic ... but to remember the occasion ...

Passez une bonne journée,
Have a nice day,
Callie

Elaine's April Letters

I am amazed that there are so many different techniques that can be used to create letters. I thought I would have run out by now. It is great fun, but as far as colour goes I am looking forward to using lots more of that in the 2nd alphabet!

Week 14. R - EW
Cola pen filled with red gouache and silver acrylic gouache.

Week 15. W - EW
I wrapped string around a piece of wood to make a W-shaped stamp then printed it using acrylic gouache. Second W stitched with red thread using a sewing machine.

Week 16. Q - EW
I used a compass and gilding mix and then laid down artificial silver leaf. The red gouache marks were also made with the compass.

Week 17. C - EW
Using the silver acrylic ink bottle dropper I wrote onto a black and white photo. Red paper highlight.