Art of Gothic Lettering

Morte d’Arthur, a poem by Alfred Tennyson

As we are learning the Gothic hand during class time, I wanted to give you a couple of resources and examples for you to use, in case you do some work at home. This website is a wonderful site that walks you through each stroke of a letter (in red), very helpful if you get stuck. Visit HERE.

I would encourage you to poke around this site there is lots of information about calligraphy in general there too. As we get into letter art, we see how the talent of medieval scribes and modern day calligraphists bring the letters to life! Watch this video to see what I mean.

 There is also a link HERE for the finished alphabet set in a PDF if you wish to download and print it yourself once at the website scroll down till you find a light blue banner and the button is over the top. Letfties don't despair this video is just for you!

This is a great video for those of you who are left-handed ah-ha so this is how it is done! (I finally found a video for you;o)

Here are some pictures of letter art I found on the internet. Aren't they just beautiful in and of themselves. Our project for our Book of Hours will consist of a longer writing, perhaps a verse, and an illuminated letter at the beginning.  You will have to decide what kinds of elements you will include. Will it have a scene? Knot work, flourishes, flowers, creatures? Will you decorate the letter or leave it plain? Where will you paint your letter with gold? Hopefully, I have sparked your imagination and you will have some ideas for our class time.