Last Two Chrismons: Baptism Shell & Fruit of the Vine

Alpha & Omega Final!

More Final Chrismons!

Final Advent Chrismons

Beginning to complete the final calligraphic Chrismons for Advent. Stay tuned for uploads as I finish each one!

Revised Christ Monogram

Flowering at last.

Alpha & Omega Revision

Here's a revision of the Alpha & Omega Chrismon - this time as a logotype. The bouquet of flowers stands in as an ampersand and cross, while being created and supported by each opposite. The whole idea in the first place, I think. :)

Chrismons in Ink

This week is devoted to inking up many of the Chrismons I've been commissioned to create. These will all be scanned in and cleaned up in Photoshop - things like smudges and dust and distractions that take from the overall piece will be delicately removed with a fine tooth comb.

The only one of these I'll need to redraw is the Easter Lily - I've got the leaves right, but the flower itself needs to be redrawn.

Inking a final in calligraphy is so rewarding, but tricky. It's an instantaneous process and one really has to warm up, loosen up and quietly focus before things really start to flow. I've had far more practice with a pencil, and to some degree, feel my pencil sketches are always better than the final work. But devoting this job to strictly to a pen and ink final, instead of a more graphic touch as in Adobe Illustrator, has been a real labor of love so far. It's a look I want to develop more and more and there is an elusive trust between your hands and the tools (paper, timing, ink, nib) that is so fine, so delicate, so instantaneous. It's broken very easily. But when you're in it - MAN, there is nothing like it. It's flow. It's god. It's trust. It's love.

Halloween Pin-Up Kickstarter Project

Friends! I have arrived at the pinnacle of my Calligraphic career having been dubbed a "Naughty Calligrapher" at last. Check out the project I'll be involved in - a Halloween-themed pinup coffee table book. I'll be painting live luscious models with all kinds of calligraphic phrases and more. Watch the video to see my hands in action (on paper.) And if you've got the energy in the form of green paper - why not fund!?

Chrismons

These are the first sketches I'm developing for a set of Advent logos called Chrismons. The client, a beautiful and thriving church here in Atlanta, has commissioned me to create 11 marks within the theme "Rethink Advent."

My goal here for each overall look is that each have an interpretive, explosive expansiveness - each in a state of flowering growth and movement. That they are regenerative and ever-changing, expanding and evolving. There is no fear, nothing wrong or bad, no judgement. It's all beautiful.

Very exciting, because I've been trying to reframe Christmas these past years also. These will be part of a booklet the church is putting together and they'll all be calligraphic. I still don't know if I'll draw them with pen and ink or within Illustrator, and maybe I'll do a combination of the two. Who knows?

But they are fun. And it's been very refreshing to revisit these themes, now that my own idea of God has changed so much recently. I am beginning to feel a little more peace about my past. It's still all very good. All of it.