Learn World Calligraphy : Book Review and Giveaway

"Learn World Calligraphy" is a recent release by author Margaret Shepherd.  She has written 16 other books on calligraphy so she knows her stuff.


The unique thing about this book is span of calligraphy styles presented.


- Greek
- African
- Thai
- Tibetan
- Celtic
- Hebrew
- Chinese and Japanese
and list goes on.

The entire book has been hand lettered in multiple styles, giving it a very artsy feel.  This allows you to get inspired just by reading the "How To".

Margaret also presents ways to incorporate lettering into your art projects, showing you historical pieces and ways you can duplicate and update them.  I can see a lot of applications in my work. Just being able to add Greek characters to our "ancient civilizations" projects in Grade 6 is terrific.

I especially loved her ideas for taking a word, writing it in such a way that it graphically represents the object or meaning.....way cool!

So the details: 

•  softcover
• 192 pages crammed with info, she actually super shrinked the index and credits so they are only 2 pages total
• lots of pictures and examples
• suggested retail $24.99U.S/$27.99 CAN

On to the Giveaway, if you are interested in winning your own copy of this amazing book you can leave me a comment on this post or email me at:  thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

I will make the draw on Friday so you have until Thursday at 11:59 pm.   The draw will be random based on time of your entry.  U.S and Canadian residents only.

Good Luck everyone!

- review/giveaway copy provided by Newman Communications, Inc.

"Calligraphy Magic" Book Review and Giveaway

So you've got the sketchbook, you're painting and sketching like mad capturing those summer memories, why not add some fancy lettering.

The gracious folks at FW Media have provided me with another book to review and giveaway.

"Calligraphy Magic" by Cari Buziak is a more technical manual.  I have only perused a few calligraphy books in my time and I must say I am quite happy to have this one in my collection.

Highlights:

- 15 alphabets showing you all the strokes (I love the versals)

- nice tutorial chapter to show you how to make all those calligraphy strokes

- like most painting/craft books it includes a chapter  on tools and supplies, usually I find these chapters redundant however in this case I really liked it.  It was fairly short and had some good tips, like proper care of your dip style pen.

- there is a whole chapter on ornamentation, gilding and coloring.  This was my favorite part of the whole book as I have always been fascinated with illuminated manuscripts.  The Celtic Knotwork instructions were great and I can see myself adapting this into a project for school.

- there is also 12 step by step projects for you to try.  I found the presentation of the projects a little formal. I think there are so many applications here it would have been nice to see some examples from contributing artists on how they incorporate lettering into their work.  But hey maybe that's an idea for another book.

- I was very interested in the chapter on how to create your own computer fonts as I would love to create a personal handwriting font

- practice papers for photocopying are also included

Like everything in life it just takes practice.


This is my ink box.  I don't do a lot of ink work but I love adding white ink details to paintings as well as metallics.

After reading this book though I realize how badly I want to be able to add that fancy lettering......so practice I will!

So if you are interested in this book you can enter the giveaway by leaving me a comment on this post or sending me an email at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

- giveaway open till Wednesday July 13th/2011 at 11:59pm.  The winner will be picked by random integer.

- open to US or Canadian residents only

- I'll post the results on Thursday

If you are interested in purchasing the book "Calligraphy Magic" you can check it out here at the FW Media Bookstore. 

It's on sale now but I also have a coupon code (40% off) for you:

               July 11CM

Good Luck everyone! 

(Disclaimer: Review copy provided to me by FW Media)