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Modern Moves & 20th Century Masters with Carl Rohrs
Two opportunities: a FREE lecture & a full workshop!
Free lecture
Friday, April 13, 2007, 7 a.m.-9 p.m.
PCC Sylvania, CT 212Don't miss this great opportunity to hear on of the most knowledgeable calligraphers and educators take us on a visual journey exploring the works of many great calligraphers.
We’ll view some of the most original and powerful writing from the nooks and crannies of the twentieth century to help us to discover our own vision and style in the twenty-first. Take it from someone who loves to be startled. These men came up with new ways of using hands centuries-old as well as their own completely original styles that have been hiding from you for 50 years and more -- some that retain the marvelous feeling of their time and some that look as fresh as today.
Carl Rohrs has been a freelance lettering artist and sign painter for over 25 years. He’s been teaching lettering and graphic design at Cabrillo College since 1984 and workshops for unsuspecting calligraphy societies around the country and in Canada and Europe for what seems like a very long time, too, and has managed to keep the splashing of ink on students to a minimum.
Full workshop
Saturday & Sunday, April 14 & 15, 2007, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
PCC Sylvania Campus, Room CT 113
Maximum 20 students
$100 PSC membersCarl insists that the basic moves we'll start with are the bedrock of modern calligraphy, so newcomers will be enlightened, while the refinements of those moves will give the pros plenty to chew on. The portfolio of work by the past masters will provide nearly endless inspiration for all.
Contemporary calligraphy is a combination of thought, touch, tools, technique -- and inspiration. So, we’ll be exploring some of the SPECIFIC techniques for making modern letterforms with flat pen, flat brush, pointed brush and ruling pen. At the same time there will be a whirlwind introduction to the work of my favorite 20th Century calligraphers, and your handouts will contain a healthy sampling of their unusual letters, which will supply us with a forest of inspiration for using the moves that will be covered.
We’ll be concentrating on the flat pen and the unusual effects that occur as the pen loses contact with the paper, bounce, angularity, compression and new ways of dealing with terminals, but will also squeeze in time with the flat brush and the incredible control and texture it offers. Then comes the pointed brush, the most fluid and expressive of tools, and we’ll focus on how to make pointed brush lettering look like its tool and unlike any other writing, from perpendicular strokes to the swelling feather-shaped beauty of parallel strokes. Finally, a quick look at the ruling pen’s whole reason for writing, which is also about subtle paper contact, but approaches the paper with an attitude like a pointed brush.
All these tools and techniques can be used to interpret and steal from the following gentlemen -- Ray DaBoll, Walter Brudi, Rudolf Koch, Alfred Linz, Oldrich Menhart, Herbert Post, Helmut Salden, George Salter, Ernst Schneidler, Villu Toots, Georg Trump (and others). Most of them were type designers, most of them were teachers, all of them were calligraphers of startling originality. Take it from someone who loves to be startled. These men came up with new ways of using hands centuries-old as well as their own completely original styles that have been hiding from you for 50 years and more -- some that retain the marvelous feeling of their time and some that look as fresh as today. We’ll combine things we like from their work with those modern calligraphy moves to expand our own repertoire of styles and flavor, and help us find our own unique paths. What we want to do is use some of the most original and powerful writing from the nooks and crannies of the twentieth century to help us to discover our own vision and style in the twenty-first.