Online Workshop (registration closed)

Advanced Blackletter with Luca Barcellona

Having previously taught his “Journey into Blackletter” course for the Society of Scribes, Luca Barcellona—one of the foremost practitioners of blackletter today—now returns with a follow-up class that focuses on the fraktur form and its variations.

The world of blackletter, or so-called “gothic writing,” is incredibly wide and varied. The forms of these letters lend themselves well to beautiful and imaginative variations. In the previous “Journey into Blackletter” course, we studied textura, starting from the individual letters, to the variations in weight and proportions, up to the creation of a balanced text block.

Now that we have learned the basics, we can start having some serious fun! We will venture into fraktur—blackletter’s evolved Renaissance form—particularly focusing on capital letters, which lend themselves to more decorative aspects. Starting from simple models, we will explore different variants—in particular those developed in the last century—and we will delve into those details and tricks that make the letters of each calligrapher unique, drawing on the teachings of the masters who have contributed to refining and perfecting this style. For those who want to deepen the study of blackletter and its most “hidden” rules.

This is an advanced course, particularly suitable for those who had taken our previous “Journey into Blackletter” course, or who have sufficient experience.

For the duration of the class, students may submit their work to the instructor for brief comments and guidance.

All live sessions will be recorded and made available for students to review online until February 20, 2021.

Dates: Three Saturdays, December 12, December 19, and January 9
Hours: 11:00am to 1:00pm Eastern Time
Price: $100

MATERIALS LIST

A convenient list of supplies specifically for this class is available at John Neal Books → view

Paper:

• One pad of A3 or larger (approx. 11" × 17") layout paper, or other good quality paper. Some good examples are Canson Bleedproof, Canson Pro Layout Marker, and Borden & Riley #37 Boris Marker. The paper must be translucent enough to lay guidelines underneath (no more than 120gsm). It must not be extremely smooth/glossy and repellent, or too rough, or  prone to bleeding or absorbing. It must be capable of producing sharp letters.

• A few larger sheets of similar quality to work with larger tools.

Pens/Pencils/Brushes:

• 6-mm Pilot parallel pen (blue cap) with black or dark ink cartridges.

• 3.8-mm Pilot parallel pen (green cap)

• Automatic pens, size 4 and 5

• 3-mm broad-edged nib (and other widths as you prefer to use)

• Two 2B pencils, rubber bands, and a 2H pencil.

Ink/Paint:

• One bottle of black ink—Pelikan 4001, Parker Quink, Higgins Eternal, or Mont Blanc (bring a fountain-pen thinner ink and avoid “Calligraphy ink”)

Short and long texts for your exercises