Well. Here we are at the last knockings of 2009 and I am looking back on my progress and wondering what the heck I was thinking when, back in March, I first decided to set out on this journey. Until then my experience of using computers was limited to the very useful if mundane knowledge gained from a basic and then a more advanced CLAIT course that Gill and I took together. Things fell into place quite easily and with excellent instruction from the tutors I actually managed to gain certificates of competence. It was not long before I started to explore the more exciting and practical side of IT, computer graphics! For a while the scribe was lost as the geek took over. I learned to scan, reduce, blow up my work to immense proportions and was amazed at the detail one could see when magnifying a letter with an x height of 1/8″, to the point where the pixels give up the ghost. Try it. If you want to see how a letter is constructed there is no better way.
Flash forward to February ’09. The first real snowfall of the year and I start snapping away with my newly acquired hi tech gadget then find the video option is a bit more sophisticated than I thought and that I am able to film for about eighteen minutes before running out of memory. A whole new learning curve began. First downloading, then editing, publishing, sending to Youtube, adding the music then sitting back and watching “BEASTIE IN THE SNOW”. Two minutes of really amateurish stuff that took simply ages to process. To this day I can’t say that I have found many short-cuts to make things easier or quicker.
Anyway, Beastie’s debut has had 301 views to date so someone must like it.
Yes, you have guessed it. Browsing YT calligraphy I had found some very good instructional demonstrations but thought I could do better than some of the, to be honest, rubbish that is out there. And so “CALLIGRADOODLES” came into being, and now there are four. Between them, on various sites they have been watched by thousands of people. (Early in 2010, I am hoping to add 5&6 and 7&8, Italic and Old English Blackletter, though I am rather hoping that a friend of mine might save me some work and do 5&6 for me. Hehe. We shall see).
Then the fun really started. My love of calligraphy/lettering/letter form and a desire to pass on what knowledge I had gained over the years, suddenly had a new direction. Why not put it all on the wonderful worldwide web? I don’t recall how I plumped for this particular site. It was probably because it was free. A deep breath, here we go again on an even steeper learning curve. I didn’t know the difference between a URL or HTML and the mind boggled when it came to pasting HTML into my page. Anyway, here we are nine months on and this site has branched into a number of enterprises. Those I am mostly involved with are Calligraphy at Bill’s Space and just in time for the New Year, SCRIBES FOR PEACE is up and running. If you have not seen it yet, please have a look and add some PEACE to the page. Did you know that on Facebook alone there are hundreds of groups, some with hundreds of thousands of members, all dedicated to the cause of peace? Food for thought!
Some of you will know that Gill was admitted to hospital for major surgery in early November. Many thanks for your prayers. We are sure they have done the trick. Gill is not yet fully recovered, but regains her strength day by day. She gives a thumbs up and says, ” We are getting there “. Thanks also to Gill’s GP. To all at Luton and Dunstable Hospital, and Elizabeth Ward at the Watford General Hospital.
Thanks to all 4381 visitors from 53 countries, especially all you hard working people from the Teacher Forums. Once again I am going to ask for some feedback. If you don’t tell me what you think about this, that, or the other, I am dancing in the dark. To all the scribes in the making I repeat again…….. ……..Practice, Practice, Practice and more Practice.
I wish you all a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous, and of course PEACEFUL New Year.
Cheers one and all. Bill.
Oh. I nearly forgot. Keep watching this space.
BILL'S SPACE 