Casual, Playful & Inventive Caps (Peter Thornton: 2.5 day)

Skill Level: All. Familiarity with Roman Capitals would be helpful/useful but not essential and a small ‘optional’ pre-set project will be offered.

Learning how to write/draw Roman Capitals Letters can be quite intimidating with their insistence on exactitude and sameness — often producing a feeling of cold authority and formal dignity.

However the needs of the modern scribe are often of a more personal and non-threatening nature, requiring the letters to carry warmth, charm and some individual character/input, which will be the main focus of this workshop.

We shall begin with the humble pencil with its freedom, forgiveness and fluidity and its great potential for experimentation. Throughout the workshop we shall learn, in a simple, logical and gentle manner, some of the FORMS open to us, as well as the ‘understanding’ of the reasons and factors that will give our work unity and a certain ‘freedom’, rather than an uncertain frivolity.

There will be much personal and sensitive tuition throughout with students encouraged to proceed at THEIR own pace. A feature of the workshop will be to bind many of the exercises and projects into a small ‘sampler’ book as an ‘aide memoire’ of our time together.

Supply List: Layout paper plus any better heavier/toothier paper (Arches Text Wove or Laid or Fabriano Ingres or similar); HB and 3B pencil; 4B or 8B Derwent Wash pencil; small pointed brush; palette; Tape or Brause or Rexel nibs; w/colours of yr choice; Black and/or Walnut ink. Optional (these will be available to borrow): needle, embroidery thread, awl, 2 bulldog clips and bone folder.

About the instructor: Peter Thornton has been an enthusiastic full-time professional calligrapher for over 40 years, teaching throughout Europe, South Africa, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada and the US. He has taught at over 20 International Conferences as well as holding week-long Master Classes in the UK, Germany, and Belgium. His book, Alphabetically Speaking, will soon be followed by a sequel on the topic of Layout and Design with an emphasis on textural variations.  He still firmly believes that letters want to be burdened with affection and not perfection. He is currently living in Tennessee with his wife, Sherri, and their 3 cats, and spreads his time between his work, the vegetable garden, cooking, and when time permits, fishing.