Online Workshop (registration closed)

Roman Minuscules: A Refined “Foundational” Hand
with Elmo van Slingerland

The “Foundational” hand gets the Roman capital treatment.

When Edward Johnston introduced his “Foundational” hand as a starting point for learning calligraphy, he had chosen a style that resembled the modern book typefaces that would be familiar to his students. Thus calligraphy and typography came full circle: Calligraphy evolved into typography, which influenced calligraphy’s revival.

But in the hands of calligrapher and type designer Elmo van Slingerland, the Foundational hand is not just a basic beginner’s hand. It’s a living hand that holds its own against the more common italic.

While Johnston based his Foundational on a tenth-century Carolingian minuscule, these letterforms would later evolve during the Renaissance into humanistic writing, which sought to relate the minuscules to the more sophisticated forms of the monumental Roman capitals.

In his years of teaching, Elmo has incorporated deft flat-brush moves and pushed the broad-edged pen to its limits in order to show awed students worldwide how Roman capitals can be restored to its full elegance. Now he uses these same sensibilities to show how you can turn “Foundational” into an elegant script that rivals not just the beauty of calligraphy’s italic, but that of modern typefaces.

In this three-week class, we will look at different possibilities to write the Roman minuscule. Attention will be given to the shape and line quality, refinement, and pen use so that you will learn to write these letters with elegance and great form. This class is for intermediate/advanced students.

For the duration of the class, students will be encouraged to share their work to a private online forum for the instructor to offer brief comments and guidance.

All live sessions will be recorded and made available for students to review online until January 16, 2021.

Dates: November 21, November 28, and December 5, 2020
Hours: 12 pm to 2 pm EST (New York Time)
Price: $100

MATERIALS LIST

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

Broad-edged pens: ±3mm, and some other sizes, smaller and bigger. Use nibs you are familiar with. I prefer Speedball because of its flexibility, but that is my personal preference. For smaller nibs (± 1mm), I prefer Mitchell. 

Paper: layout paper, preferably A3 size or 11 x 17 inches, such as Daler & Rowney, or a similar brand, as long as the paper doesn’t bleed. Water-based black ink (Higgins or Pelikan 4001), as long as it doesn’t bleed or spread. 

A pencil to make notes. 

Rag 

Optional materials for producing completed works:

• A sheet or two of good paper of your preference, such as Ingres or watercolor paper

• Watercolor or gouache

• A simple palette

• A brush to mix paint

• Water jar