The never ending exercise

The five letters exercise is coming to a close. I still have to adjust the high contrast and I should be done. This has been one of the most enlightening thing I’ve done so far. It taught me to look at letters or more precisely what I should be looking at in letters. It frightening because now I can’t look at type without analyzing it and it makes reading subtitles of a movie a whole new experience.

“sadness” is what we feel having concluded this exercise

Carving

The idea of stone carving was daunting at first but in fact it’s a lot more fun than I thought. Even-though I really enjoy it I am still wondering why we are learning stone carving. Anyhow, it’s nice to get away from the computer for a while and make letters that don’t need to have absolute perfect outlines and the curves can be wobbly and still be beautiful.

Initially I thought that straight lines would be easier to carve than curves but in fact it’s the other way around. Another surprise is that one might think that you really have to hit hard with the hammer but in fact the stone comes off quite easily. It’s a slow process and you need a lot of patience. If you rush it you will mess it and it’s crucial to leave it when the natural light is getting too dim. Unfortunately I can’t show you my own work at the moment. I hope you’ll enjoy these pictures of my hard working colleagues.