Hand-drawn Fonts.

I'm in this month's Computer Arts projects waffling on about why I love a hand-drawn letterform. You can probably imagine what I'm saying, but the frustrated writer in me is particularly proud of this line:

'Where a neat and symmetrical slab font might be a robust march, a script typeface is a ballet, controlled and learned but full of expression and surprises'.
(I'm repeating this line because it's mis-printed in the article - they wrote 'serif font' instead, which doesn't make sense!)

Here's the article next to the original artwork.

I'm in the next issue as well, the Illustration edition, talking about being a pen-and-ink perv. Again...

http://www.computerarts.co.uk/home

Glad to be of service, guv'nor.

My friend Carl Rosati (see some more pictures here.) lifted my spirits tremendously the other day. He sent me a print in the post - a gorgeous new screen print in gold and black, soon to be framed - with a note explaining that he'd recently read my Computer Arts Projects tutorial on vectorising hand-drawn lines (Not only that, he's also written 'please dunt bend' on the packaging. What a gent.)

I was chuffed to discover that someone had actually taken the trouble to a) read it and b) act on it. Furthermore, the bloody thing had made sense. Wow.

A smug old man once said 'those that can't, teach. Those that can, do'. A more enlightened and less sanctimonious old fella recently said, 'those who can, do both'. I might not be hurtling up and down the corridors of universities as much as I used to be, but it's good to know I've still got some tutoring skillz.

Here's a download link to the original article:
http://www.inkymole.com/download/CAP124.tut_illotext.pdf

And here's more of Carl's magnificent work. Don't you love the beards and the little eyes?

Computer artist.

I'm in this month's Computer Arts Projects mag, showing you how to create very analogue-looking lettering with sneaky digital means, in a more-complicated-than-it-looks tutorial.

It's nice to see big close-ups of nib hitting paper, but when Nick rang - in a spooky Facebook-related telepathy incident - and asked me to contribute an article, I couldn't help thinking, 'eh? me? I'm all ink and mess, mate.' But actually, I do use my digital artillery more than I realise, and writing this article threw a big 50's-style interrogation spotlight on exactly what processes I do use, and the steps they involve. Cheers to Nick and Julia for asking me to take part.

If you live on an island surrounded by newsagent-eating sea monsters, you can download my tutorial here.

I'm in the July issue of Computer Arts too, so watch the shelves! Or even better - subscribe!