For a very long time now I have enjoyed typography. Playing with fonts and lettering is the kind of art my extremely right-sided brain enjoys. I used to have a weekly routine of drawing out quotes and playing with words on chalkboards or whiteboards. I miss that routine and practice.
I have also signed up for countless modern calligraphy workshops, purchased many calligraphy pens, and have a pile of notebooks that would like to be filled with it. Calligraphy, though, has yet to become something I routinely practice. I think it is, if I'm being honest with myself, due to the stressful inability to erase mistakes. With chalkboards and whiteboards, I could take a cloth to one letter and try again without ruining hours worth of work. With calligraphy, you need it done right in one try. Maybe not the first try, but in a singular try. This is stressful for perfectionists like myself.
I do want to learn still. I miss the routine of playing with letters and quotes and think this is an opportune time to mix it up and challenge myself with a new format I have thrown such haphazard money and time at in the past. Consistency will be my new key.
I think progress will look like practicing letters over and over and finding a homogenous style for each. Success will look like getting some full phrases and quotes on paper without having to learn Photoshop to fix mistakes. If I get really good, I may use my new skill to make some things for my upcoming wedding, but we'll see how good I get first.
As I mentioned, I have well stocked myself with resources so far in my life, but not put them to good use. I have a box of nubs, ink, paper, and so forth that I will break out to start practicing. I also have in there instructions from previous workshops that I can use to refresh my memory. New resources I want to add to my list this time around include YouTube and blogs.
For instance, through a blog called Dawn Nicole Designs, I found free practice sheets and one YouTube channel that looks helpful so far. As I start practicing with these links, I hope to figure out what kind of resources online are most helpful and find more of those.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Monday, October 24, 2016
Childhood and Adulthood Learning Experiences
When I was a kid, I had a lot of learning experiences even outside of school. I remember one summer camp in particular when I did probably 90% of the craft projects I have done in my whole life. We rotated to different art classes including soldering and weaving. The soldering class' goal was to create pictures out of fragments of stained glass, held together by soldered metal. After that, I would go to weaving where we would make flat patterns as well as small baskets.
I remember, at probably 9 or 10 years old, being amazed how much we were allowed to talk in class. I had never had hours of art at a time and on top of that it was a summer program. Since we could talk, I remember kids helping each other a lot: watching another kid do something before I had to and getting new ideas from their strategies or patterns. I honestly don't remember any of the adults from that program. I'm sure they were wonderful, but I remember learning from written instructions and peers.
I am still going to summer programs! This summer I did a short program with San Diego Area Writer's Project dealing with peer editing and using mentor texts with students. I really appreciated that that particular program allowed us to try on new ideas as students before doing it as the teacher. I saw the value more easily that way and teach it more effectively now that I have seen both sides. They also balanced that with a good amount of resources that they shared with us that we could dig through. I love learning that way. Getting to practice as a student is invaluable, but then I got to dig like a teacher and find the pieces that work for me and my classroom and make it mine.
In both programs, I got to take action. I got to practice skills after minimal direct instruction. I always appreciate having written instructions or diagrams, as needed, but I don't learn well from auditory instructions, so the more written instructions and time to tinker I have, the better. I also ended both experiences with a product I was proud of - a craft or a piece of writing.
I remember, at probably 9 or 10 years old, being amazed how much we were allowed to talk in class. I had never had hours of art at a time and on top of that it was a summer program. Since we could talk, I remember kids helping each other a lot: watching another kid do something before I had to and getting new ideas from their strategies or patterns. I honestly don't remember any of the adults from that program. I'm sure they were wonderful, but I remember learning from written instructions and peers.
I am still going to summer programs! This summer I did a short program with San Diego Area Writer's Project dealing with peer editing and using mentor texts with students. I really appreciated that that particular program allowed us to try on new ideas as students before doing it as the teacher. I saw the value more easily that way and teach it more effectively now that I have seen both sides. They also balanced that with a good amount of resources that they shared with us that we could dig through. I love learning that way. Getting to practice as a student is invaluable, but then I got to dig like a teacher and find the pieces that work for me and my classroom and make it mine.
In both programs, I got to take action. I got to practice skills after minimal direct instruction. I always appreciate having written instructions or diagrams, as needed, but I don't learn well from auditory instructions, so the more written instructions and time to tinker I have, the better. I also ended both experiences with a product I was proud of - a craft or a piece of writing.
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