When letters become art...

You'll probably be aware I have a bit of an artistic streak. I've had a go at many different crafts and blogged about my attempts at stained glass making, knitting and flower arranging - to name but a few.

Today, I had a go at lettering.

I've always enjoyed playing with letters - drawing them, copying different fonts etc. When I was 18 and retaking my A-levels before uni, I remember carrying an art book all the time for free periods, when I'd reproduce my name over and over again in different types and colours of fonts. Since that time, any lettering has been limited to handwritten place names for posh dinners at Christmas.

Until today; today I got to play with the letters and add a bit of art too!

The creative retreat day was being held as a pilot course by Jo Leatherland, university chaplain and teacher of art. The idea was that we would meditate on scripture, see what we felt God was saying to us and take those words as the basis of our lettering attempts.

Bear with me while I take you through the process of why I ended up with what I did...

I'd gone with a weighty heart. There is so much dire stuff in the news at the moment that I'd been feeling overwhelmed and fearful in the face of so much human suffering. The first scripture that tugged at me was Psalm 18, verse 6; 'In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.'

Fine, thought I - but it's not really me in distress. Scared, yes, distressed, no.

I flicked to Psalm 23 - The Lord is my Shepherd. 'Do not be afraid, for I am with you' - verse 4. Trust me, I heard whispered. (Psalm 25:2 'O my God, in you I trust'). There was another phrase in verse 5, about a cup overflowing with blessings which struck me hard as a visual image, so I jotted down all the things I'm thankful for, given that there are so many folk in the world who aren't as blessed.

And finally, Ephesians 3:15 - 'Be rooted and grounded in LOVE.' If only there was more love in the world...in the Middle East, in Ukraine, in Sudan, Iraq...

(As you might be able to tell, I'm a great 'flicker' - I open my Bible to a page and trust that what I need to see is there. I'm not one for memory verses and the like, though I sometimes wish I was. It'd make it a lot easier to find stuff you need sometimes...)

Anyhow, I'd found my scripture. Everyone warmed up by copying some alphabet fonts, and then we got creative. Now me, I can't just do letters - I have to get pretty round them too. Jo had laid out loads of beautiful, full colour ideas sheets and there were a couple of things I saw that sat well with the texts I'd felt drawn to. I did a couple of black-and-whites first...

Then added colour... I used watercolour pencils but took the colour straight from the lead with a brush rather than colouring first and washing over with water afterwards. I also added some artistic 'splatter' (technical artistic term!) but it doesn't show so well on the photo.

This next one is not an entirely original idea, because on the ideas sheet was a fabulous tree with lots more swirls and leaves and the entire page filled with text. Because my scripture was 'Be rooted and ground in love', I adapted the idea to suit... No colour wash on this, just colouring in.

And then I got onto the overflowing blessings... Here's the black-and-white...

And here's the rather crinkly-looking coloured version that I finished off at home! (Note to self: remember to use a cartridge/watercolour paper for works with larger areas of wash!) It's mainly watercolour pencil wash, with highlights of fineliner pen. And of course I had to get a rainbow in there somewhere, didn't I?

There were some lovely pieces created by the other folk attending, but I got so engrossed in my own creations I didn't take photos as I'd planned to. Suffice to say that they were all very different, all very personal, and all very beautiful because of the heart that had gone into them. I had a great day and would've loved to have had longer, but my appetite is whetted and I've got an idea to reproduce one of these for a present in the near future...

So. There you go. Letters becoming art...

Have a good weekend, scribblers!