I’m working on two things this week: 1) learning letterforms, and 2) improving hand control.

I’m starting with a classic humanist typeface: Caslon. I found a specimen book from 1734 and started copying a few letters at 144pt on some sketch paper. For the first two letters I used a straight edge, protractor, and circle template. I couldn’t find my french curve, so I just eyeballed C and D. I then practiced the letter A about 10 times (then I made the charcoal rendering above from memory).To work on line control, a friend recommended making points on a piece of paper and just practicing drawing straight lines from point to point. The lines are about 18 inches long. I also made sure that I did not rest my hand or arm on the paper. It is surprisingly difficult to execute well.

And then I got tired of drawing letters so I gave myself 3 minutes to sketch up Mr. William Caslon with a big fat graphite crayon.