Activity 7: Lettering, Line & Balance

Presenter: Pat Southern-Pearce

Pat’s activity will take its inspiration from Manchester’s skylines: a fascinating mix of old and new, complex and diverse, dark and light… all jostling in layers and bands… and underpinned, everywhere, by the shapes and patterns of windows bouncing light from glass and sky. It’s too easy to lose an hour searching, bemused, for just the right spot to settle and draw. In Manchester, just look up: it’s all there for the taking…

This short structured session will be skills-based with sketching through windows and lettering and line worksheets for practise. There will be some individual support.

Participants will:

• be based high up in Manchester’s acclaimed School of Art with panoramic views 
• work on: fluid line, sensitive line, continuous line, varied weights of line and in different colours of line
• draw through different windows, across two pages, on one page & off centre,
• practise: letter formation in different fonts, sizes and pens, stretching and compressing words to fill shapes, looking with half closed eyes to pick out darks, picking out architectural detail and pattern such as windows, being selective so as not to overcrowd and working quickly for looseness without losing focus
• leave white space for breath and to allow for lettering
• add: dates, titles and thoughts to pages: creating a visual diary to look  back on, re-read and remember.
• use different pens, coloured pencils, gel pens, bros: all sorts: but no paint
• have a laminated font card to slip inside a sketchbook for later reference and to take away plus a selection of different pens & coloured pencils to try out on the day