DOMESTIKA COURSE – HEBREW CALLIGRAPHY – BEGINNING THE FINAL PROJECT
This course is taking me longer than anticipated. This is partly due to having a lot of other things to think about recently, and also waiting for supplies to arrive. I have also struggled more than I expected with the letter forms. I have been used to doing my own script at a much smaller scale, and these huge letters with a different pen have proved quite a challenge! Larger letters show up every irregularity, too. I’m probably too much of a perfectionist but I do want it to look good at the end of the day!
Embarking on the final project
This is where the adventure really begins. The teacher has shown us how to work out a layout grid, and how to space the letters in a pleasing arrangement.
For the final project, she has chosen to write Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd.” This is quite a long passage to write in calligraphy, but a good choice because it is a very well known and favourite Psalm that everyone is familiar with. She has given us permission to choose another passage if we wish, and apply the same guidelines for the layout.
My chosen passage
After much thought, I have chosen a different passage, which is only two verses long. It is one of my favourite passages in the whole Bible.
Isa. 46:9-10: Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.”
The reason this is one of my favourite passages is that it is the proof that the Bible is true. No other sacred book of the world’s religions contains prophecy. Scholars reckon that about one-third of the Bible is prophecy, as far as the plain words are concerned, but if you include the typology and other aspects such as Biblical numerology, that percentage is much higher. These prophecies are not vague and open to alternative interpretations, like those of Nostradamus for example, either – they are detailed and specific.
Many years ago I attended a conference where one of the speakers quoted the work of Dr. Peter Stoner, a secular PhD in mathematics, who took just eight of the prophecies in the Old Testament relating to the first coming of Jesus, and worked out that the probability of these being fulfilled by one individual by chance, was so remote that in scientific terms this would be considered impossible.
The figure is 10 to the power of 28, or one chance in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
There are actually about 300 prophecies which Jesus fulfilled to the letter. There are many illustrations to help us get our heads round this. One of these is to cover the State of Texas with silver dollars to a depth of two feet, with one silver dollar being marked with a red spot. A person is asked to pick up one silver dollar and for it to be the marked one. The probability that they could do this at a first attempt is as remote as one man being able to fulfil just eight prophecies written about him hundreds or thousands of years in advance of his birth. It isn’t as if any normal man would be able to plan in advance to do all these things, either, because he can hardly choose when and where he would be born, or to arrange the occurrences surrounding that event.
Only God knows the end from the beginning, as set out in my chosen passage. For me these two verses are absolute proof that the Bible is true, because any in-depth study of Biblical prophecy entirely bears them out. I think this is absolutely mind-blowing – it blew me away 40 years ago and continues to do so to this day!
My initial layout
I’m afraid the following pictures are a bit faint, because at this stage they are only in pencil. I’ve tried to increase the contrast a little to make them clearer. The first layout was drawn in rough, in my pattern and design book which is conveniently marked in half-centimetre squares, which the teacher has encouraged us to use.
From this, I moved on to the paper for the final project, which is an A3-sized sheet of 300 gsm hot pressed watercolour paper.
I drew the grid as instructed by the teacher, and was able to use my draft layout to make the small squares and rectangles mark where each letter would go. Most of the Hebrew letters occupy a square but some are half the width. The letter shin needs a little more breathing space so I’ve given it a rectangle in each case instead of a square. The teacher also explained that we need to look at the juxtaposition of the letters because sometimes their shapes tend to leave too much white space between them, and they may need to be shunted up a little closer together. They may look too crowded without enough white space, in which a little more of a gap may need to be added.
It’s at this stage that these little details are mapped out, so that no errors are made once one takes up pen and ink.
Here’s my final grid.
After I had done this, I decided I didn’t want the paper to be stark white, so I tea-dyed it. It’s still a bit buckled, despite having been under some heavy books for a few hours, so I shall flatten it again before I begin writing. I deliberately wanted a blotchy, ancient appearance, so that the end result will resemble parchment.
It occupies only the top half of the sheet. I intend writing it out again underneath, in English.
Blackletter calligraphy
To this end, I’ve been looking into English blackletter calligraphy, and have discovered a simply wonderful website run by Jake Rainis. He is a professional calligrapher and his website is full of all sorts of fascinating information, including the history of this script and its variations. He also has free downloadable practice sheets and lots of instructions.
I have chosen the Textura script which is the most basic, and I have printed out the practice guide sheets. Today I started working on the minuscule (lowercase) script.
The top line of each sheet is printed. Lines 2 and 3 underneath have the same letters printed faintly, so that one can trace over them to practise. This is like the method used by the teacher of my recent Mandala drawing course on Domestika. The lines underneath are blank. He also has free downloadable blank practice sheets with just the grid. They are designed for the 3.8 mm Pilot Parallel pen. I intend making some more grids for a finer pen.
This is a lot more difficult than it looks! Like the Hebrew calligraphy, it requires lots of practice. The letters I particularly struggled with were “d,” “p” and “q” but when I realised where I was going wrong, things improved. It’s very subtle.
I think the blackletter script will go well with the Hebrew calligraphy, as it has a similar square appearance. The Pilot Parallel pen is superb for both scripts, with its clear-cut edges, and it’s a pleasure to use. The ink in the cartridges supplied with the pens is not waterproof unfortunately, and it does seem to bleed through the regular 80 or 100 gsm papers that I am using for practising, but I don’t mind about that. I have a bottle of permanent black fountain pen ink which I shall use for the final project, once I have sorted out how to install the Parallel pen nib onto my new fountain pen which has a much larger capacity, and is much nicer to handle.
It’s unlikely I shall finish this Domestika course by the end of the month (only a few days away) as I want to perfect my blackletter script before I attempt it on my fair copy. I have another Pilot Parallel pen on order which is coming tomorrow, with a 2.4 mm nib, falling between the two pens that I now already have. This will be the ideal size for both the Hebrew and blackletter scripts on my final project.
