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E S $ E N T i A I. W O o D C A R V 1 X G TECHXIQUES

idiosyncrasies of Philip Surey who drew ir originally, but it servcs wcll. The chunky shapes are suited to cutting in wood. He carve$ letters by short, stabbing strokes or by chasing. These methods give a curve to the whole lengch of the side of a straight member. This means that his serifs arc not as tapered as I cut them.

Spacing

You will noticc from your own cfforts that some of the letters look crowded and orhers zoo separate. When you design inscriptions you will see that the spacing is as important as the letter shapes. L followed by T could leave a vast space between them but they do not become entangled easily, whcrcas C or F followed by T could. If you gct them as close as possible without crowding them you will nced to gct a similar space between other letters. This space is something which cannot be measured mathematicaily but bas to be judged by eye.

Individual Letters

Next, you need to practise the individual letters using the thick and thin strokes. First, draw parallcl lines at about 35min (lV6in) intervals with about one-third of the letter height (11 mm, Viin) between each pair of lines. At the beginning of each linÄ™ carefully draw the letter that you are going to practise. Load your brush with gouache or your pen with ink or gouache and fili in the pencil letter with careful srrokes (Fig 15.3). The end of the pen or brush (Fig 15.4) is held ar 30° to the top linÄ™ and drawn srraight down to form a broad vertical stroke. By tilting it slightly one way or the other a thicker or a thinner linÄ™ is formed. Trial runs with the drawing implement on scrap paper give confidence.

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FlC 153 A lefifoot serif being edged out fi-eehand with a baba pen. NotÄ™ the angle of30° drawn above the lefi-hand example to i Hus tratÄ™ the tilt ofthe pen. There are ten strokes of the pen held at 30* to show the relationship between pen width and height of letter.

Fig 15.4 Ending the bottom lobe ofB on a practice sheet using a flat-ended brush with gouache. NotÄ™ the criticisrn of the As on the upper linÄ™. This is good practice.

Characteristic Aspects OF Roman Capitals

Although you can see their shapes dearly drawn here, it is worth pointing out certain characteristics of the Trajan capitals and the names of the parts of letters (Figs 15.5 and 15.6). Other points not covered by the photographs and drawings are given below.

The C and G are based on the D but flatccn

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