Workshop: Bister Inks, by Amity Parks

Description

2 Day Workshop – Int/Adv Level

Location:  Freemasons’ Grand Lodge,   2921 Glenwood Ave.,  Raleigh, NC 27608

Note: See below for Supply List.

This class will be spent learning a broad edged pen version of a chunky Roman capital alphabet. This fun and bold hand has a more casual and contemporary look than its more formal cousins. We’ll practice the pen manipulation that allows for dynamic stroke transitions. The boldness of this lettering style creates lovely textures and white spaces.

Once we’ve learned the alphabet, we’ll add some color. This hand lends itself to fun color blending when spaced tightly, as the bold strokes stay wet and allow for bleeding from one letter to another. We’ll play with a powdered ink called Bister from Belgium to get some gorgeous and transparent color effects with our lettering. Finally, we’ll get out our pencils and add some graphite effects to our lettering to really make it pop.

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Supply list:

1. Variety of Broad-edged pens in medium and larger sizes. (I highly recommend a 1/4” 
   automatic pen #3-A) Speedball C-0 nib will also work, but not as well. And one or two sizes bigger and smaller, but not tiny.
2. Ruling pen or folded pen, pointed brush or a couple of your favorite writing instruments (for a variety of marks)
3. Mechanical Pencil .3 or .5 with H or HB leads and a white eraser
4. Ruler- see-thru plastic ruler or triangle for ruling lines (clear plastic with gridlines if you have it) or a 12” steel ruler
5. Small round pointed watercolor brush #1 or #2
6. A few small budget mixing brushes
7. Bister Ink Powders- Yellow, Red, Green and Blue. Available at John Neal Booksellers in the US and from CLAS in the UK They go a long way, so you could share with a classmate or two if you want to save money. I will provide some to use in class and will have small sets of the four colors of powders for sale during the workshop.
8. Walnut Ink- (or Natural Bister, which is the same thing) Mixed
9. Palette- I recommend a 24 well Cell Culture plate available from Amazon. Or any palette that has a few small deep wells. A palette with at least 8 narrow but deep wells for mixing and dipping small amounts of ink. I will have the cell culture dishes for sale as well if you can’t find them online.
10. Paper- Strathmore 400 series drawing paper or Strathmore Printmaking paper or similar for practice, and a few pieces of nicer papers like Arches text wove, Arches HP watercolor, or Canson in white or very light colors. A few sheets of budget watercolor paper like Canson XL for experimenting wetter. All paper can be cut down to smaller sizes (around 11” x 14”) for transport.
11. Words/Texts that have meaning to you. Several short quotes or a longer text you like.
12. Writing board (piece of Masonite or similar, with a few sheets of paper taped to it for padding) to work on that can be propped at a low slant and something to prop it with.
13. Usual supplies: Water container, paper towels, x-acto knife, small cutting board, notebook for notes, apron, pillow for sitting on if chairs are low, reading glasses if needed.