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January 6, 2016

Explore Lettering

“Typographical design should perform optically what the speaker
creates through voice and gesture of his thoughts.”
-El Lizzitsky

Have you ever thought about how often we are exposed to letters and words every day? Type can be with illustrations, photographs, or even become art on its own. A certain font chosen for the logo of a company can become it’s very identity. Letters spelling a child’s name on their precious stuffed toy makes it all the more special. A typographer (a designer who specializes in creating and arranging type) has the magical powers to STOP you in your tracks with LARGE, BOLD, and CAPITALIZED letters on billboards hanging on a brick building. Or they want you to float on the cloud of imagination while you read a book without the interruption of loud type.

Anonymous Silhouette (WIP?)

Example of hand lettering working with an illustration.

Many of the fonts we are exposed to may be seen in a digital format or have been printed from a computer, but almost all typefaces have been hand drawn one time or another in the beginning. Currently, hand lettering posters, t-shirts, greeting cards, etc. has become very popular. If you are a lover of words and art, take some time and cover a sheet of paper in words or letters that make you smile. Try to make each word or letter look different from your last and you may want to change to different colored pens or pencils. You don’t necessarily have to be able to read it in the end, but we challenge you to completely cover the sheet in letter forms.

“Typography needs to be audible. Typography needs
to be felt. Typography needs to be experienced.”
-Helmut Schmid

Front of Lettering Mug

Front of Lettering/Type Coffee Mug

To further embrace the opportunity to create your very own hand lettered coffee mug, please join us at the Decoy Art Studio for a 21 & up pottery painting workshop called “Lettering/Type Coffee Mug” on Tuesday, January 12th from 6:30 pm-8:30 pm. What? You are not a typographer? You do not have to be a designer to experience letter forms. So have no fear! We will have carbon paper to help trace the words onto the mug, and our instructor will take you step-by-step through the process of creating the cup pictured in this blog post. If you so choose to alter the artist’s design, it is completely up to you! It is going to be your very own piece of practical art to take home and enjoy.

Back of Lettering Mug

Back of Lettering/Type Coffee Mug

If you would love to learn how to create this wonderful mug on Tuesday, January 12th, 2016, please sign up for the pottery workshop at Decoy Art Studio in Beavercreek, Ohio!
You have three options to sign up:
1. Call the studio at (937) 431-4838
2. Book the “Lettering Type Coffee Mug” workshop on the www.decoy-art.com website by going to the following URL: https://placefull.com/clay-workshops—workshop-wednesday-series
3. Visit the studio at 1561 Grange Hall Rd., Beavercreek, Ohio.

Hope to see you at the Studio!

October 13, 2015

Free Sketching

“You can’t do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.”
-John Singer Sargent

Experiencing a dry spell of creativity or trying to work out an idea? If you are a writer, you may be familiar with a prewriting technique called free writing. For a set period of time you continuously write without regard to the topic, and it could end up being the words, “I don’t know what to write.” over and over again on the page. Think of it as exercising your brain, and you can also use this technique with sketching. 

A sketchbook becomes a booklet of possibilities that you keep by your side. Don’t be afraid to make random marks, doodles, patterns, or spread color around. Express your ideas using lines or words! Sketching is a great way to become more familiar with mediums you haven’t used before. Or doodle what you see in the world while you are on a lunch break. You don’t even have to “finish” a drawing. Paint a color and leave the page to draw something else. There is no rule that says you can’t go back to the painted page.

“Sketchbooks should be the one place without rules.”
-Marilyn Patrizio

A Page from College Sketchbook

Admittedly, I have never been an artist who regularly sketches, but it does help me work out the ideas rattling around in my head. Knowing I was going to be teaching a pottery painting class at Beavercreek’s Decoy Art Studio on Wednesday, October 28th, I broke out some paper and thought about what a 21-year-old & up group would want to paint for a “Fall To-Go Mug.” 

Fall To-Go Mug Sketches

Without worrying about making perfect drawings, I used my pen, Crayola watercolor set, Sharpies, and drawing pencil to figure out a possible design. Wanting to include at least one of the specialty glazes from the studio, I drew out a few ideas but ultimately was drawn to the complementary color (meaning any two colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel) combination of blue and orange. 

The final piece gives a nod to the fall theme without hitting you over the head with it. People will enjoy carrying this mug whether the season has passed or not. If you would love to learn how to create this wonderful mug on Wednesday, October 28th, 2015, please sign up for the Wednesday Workshop at Decoy Art Studio in Beavercreek, Ohio! The price is $30 per person and this includes the instruction, your mug, and use of the glazes.

You have three options to sign up:
1. Call the studio at (937) 431-4838
2. Surf their website at www.decoy-art.com
3. Visit the studio at 1561 Grange Hall Rd., Beavercreek, Ohio. 

Final Fall To-Go Mug

Hope to see you at the studio!