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Back by popular demand, our dear calligraphic friend, Mark Lurz, arrived on a Saturday in November, to present a workshop on Gothic Textura. His previous workshops with our Guild were Italic and Fraktur. Mark, a member of CAGT (Calligraphic Arts Guild of Toronto), has been a calligrapher for many years. He is looking forward to retirement this year so he can pursue his calligraphic interests.
The main concept of Gothic Textura is that it is definitely
NOT round but pointed.
Textura is a very structured alphabet and not free flowing like Italic. Some
of our members who used Italic, brushes or spontaneous lettering, found this
alphabet to be quite a challenge.
Others who had done Fraktur or Italicized Gothic were familiar with the sequence
of strokes.
Mark opened his "Bad Textura" file to show us examples of rounded letters which were too wide or tall. The fact that the file was labelled in Mark's excellent Textura, did not escape notice. Mark used one of his own cards to illustrate how Textura could better be used.The walls were also adorned with fine examples of Textura to inspire us along with some Gothic music.
The overall look of the page was more important than the individual word. "Do to one: do to all" meant that each individual letter e.g. "p" looked the same. This provided the rhythm of the letters on the page. Crowding letters together was also essential and contributed to the overall look. Each page had more black than white space; hence the name Blackletter. Even interlinear space was minimal.
To find the sign of good Gothic, Mark enouraged us to look for the overlapping strokes e.g. "e" and "o". Letters followed a specific ductus and often the pen moved in another direction but did not leave the page. Letter form was very disciplined and uniformity was necessary. Small triangles of white space lightened up letters e.g. "e".
Throughout the day, Mark took care to letter precise examples on our pages. He pointed out the unique shape of each letter.e.g. some letters were thickened with the pen. There was a tendency for us to leave too much space between letters or words. The counter space between the black vertical strokes was similar to the width of the down strokes. Developing a rhythm and keeping a one-to-one ratio helped keep an uniform look. The interlinear space, fairly small, was no greater than the x-height.
Capitals were usually quite ornate. They were double stroked or embellished. They served as ornaments to offset the Textura and fine lines. They were eye-catchers. In contrast to the miniscules, the capitals were large and wide. Although we did not have time to letter capitals, Mark enouraged us to try them at home.
His patience and positive attitude helped us realize that practice was the key to mastering Textura. Ever helpful and enthusiatic about calligraphy, Mark's workshop was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
