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Backpacking with Yukimi FOC Summer Workshop 2013 by Joe Boissy “Grab Whatever You Find in Your Garden

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Backpacking with Yukimi FOC Summer Workshop 2013 by Joe Boissy “Grab Whatever You Find in Your Garden Backpacking with Yukimi FOC Summer workshop 2013 by Joe Boissy “Grab whatever you find in your garden. These are wonderful writing tools!”. That’s what the supply list said. It turned out that these “found objects” not only can produce great textures on paper, but they get you closer to Nature figuratively and literally. Welcome to the world of Yukimi Annand. For 5 days in Berkeley at I-House, we were thrilled to have Yukimi guide us in this virtual backpacking tour exploring new ways of lettering and texturing, using Nature as our primary inspiration. This is not a transcript of the 5 day workshop. This is more notes of a personal journey that my classmates and I had through play, stamp, dab and write, building calligraphic expressions and exploring the lettering arts through the nature surrounding us. Yukimi put together meticulously for this workshop an excellent 16- page guide “Text and Texture, Expressive Calligraphy”. The very first paragraph says it all: “In this class, we will make experimental textures with strokes and calligraphic marks. The textures we calligraphers make with strokes and marks have specific character. The order of strokes and marks to form letters and writing text with them are very systematic process. And we all express our feeling with the meaning of the text in the process.” I had never met Yukimi before the workshop, but we have been “friends” on Facebook for quite a while exchanging comments and messages. I always admired her work and was eager to learn more from her. I was even more thrilled when she told us the minute we started: “During this workshop I will ask you to do a lot of exercises and will teach you many techniques. However, I encourage you to add and create your own exercises and techniques and share them with your classmates”. For me, that was an open ticket to go at it and see no boundaries. The workshop was very well structured with a clear objective for each day. Day 1 thru 4 explored a variety of tools and techniques from balsa sticks and other flat tools to monoline tools to cola pens and other folded pens to brushes and found objects. Sumi ink was the predominant medium, with occasional use of walnut ink and some watercolor. Day 5 was for cropping and adding the finishing touches and final assembly. By end of Day 5 anyone wandering into our classroom would have been stunned by the quality and quantity of this art show with beautiful pieces of textures and compositions. Everything was explored and tried. We had only 2 constraints. Time was one and we often found ourselves at closing time with many more things to try. But after all, it was a good time to pause, take a break, recharge and come back with new fresh ideas. The other constraint was space. Because of the limited space, Yukimi recommended an 8 1/2 x 14 format which turned out to be a decent size. We also had a shared separate table to experiment with larger formats. Yukimi herself works in a fairly small format and when she finds a “gem” (a very special texture or a unique composition), she reproduces it on a much larger scale. Below are a series of experiments or techniques that were explored with some superb results of original and unique textures. The Magic of the Balsa stick Take a small Balsa stick and dip it in Sumi ink. Use it as a simple flat tool with the broad edge for thick lines and the corner edge for thin lines. Start creating your own alphabet style balancing harmony, consistency and rhythm. The magic kicks in when you start experimenting by varying the width of the lines and partially lifting the stick so that only part of the broad edge is touching the paper. More magic comes when you discover tiny imperfections in the wood giving each stick its own special effect. When you are ready, start working Marks with the end of a piece of balsa or with much larger balsa sticks on larger pieces of paper basswood varying paper from rice paper to Arches MBM. You will see new things and explore many shades of beautiful strokes. Balsa marks on rice paper Multiple balsa/basswood stamping for texture Going Flat Despite going flat (as in flat tools), the idea was still, as in most exercises, to write letters, to create your own alphabet. Of course, you can play it safe and write any hand that works with a traditional broad edge nib. But you can also be more adventurous and start really exploring what flat tools can bring; you can accentuate the nice contrast between thick and thin lines. You can balance interesting white space or negative space to merge shape and meaning and adjust overall stimulating texture to reflect the meaning of the text. All that provides a good foundation that you can use later in any lettering project. Using the “C” word “C” of course stands for Composition. Yukimi had prepared a series of examples with good, better and great compositions. Although there are guides to creating a good composition, there are no rules. Some guides and tricks can help you get started, but then you are on your own, especially if you are looking to create your own unique composition. Contrast is good, repetition is not good, but then it depends. Open (breathing space) is good, but where do you want the eye to go next. Balance is good, too much of the same is not so good, says who? Where is your focal point? Wait, do I need a focal point? I am not so sure… Bottom line: Composition is a journey and to make it a successful journey you need to enjoy it, at every stage, every corner you turn, and every obstacle you face. The more you enjoy this journey, the more your composition will be great. Folding and Ruling Folded pens, ruling pens, cola pens, they all share the same passion: they embrace ink with open arms and they let go when they touch the paper. It is up to you to see how much they let go and exactly where. Yukimi’s direction were simple yet powerful: play with letters, bounce letters, change direction and shape, and don’t forget to look at the overall balance of the page. Where you place your letters is important, where you place your next letter is even more important. The results can be fascinating and are always surprising. Monoline Drama Who said monoline is boring? The fact that you are dealing with a tool that offers one thickness simply means that you have to play with other parameters to bring life to your page. If done successfully, this play can bring unique value to your composition, combining the constant line created by the tool with the overall shape of your story. Some argue that it is in fact easier to create a nice composition with a monoline tool because you don’t have to think about the thickness of the line. It is what it is and you now have to work on your letters, their structure, size and direction, and the overall shape and texture created by stacking all these letters together. This is what I like to call the monoline drama, referring to the dramatic (read theatrical) effect that it can produce. David Winkler’s monoline composition Monoline composition Nature Objects How close can you get to Nature in your writing? One technique suggested by Yukimi that seems to be both effective and unusual is to use writing objects from Nature. We are not talking about bamboo pens or reeds, but anything that you grab from your garden, from pine needles to ash sticks to dried or green weeds or seeds, stones, pebbles, anything that you can hold in your hands. Dip it in ink and start making marks. The result is not only unexpected but somehow difficult to control which makes it even more interesting. You are using nature to create patterns and textures found in nature. All the exercises used with the traditional writing tools are repeated with nature tools revealing new shapes and effects and sometimes rendering the page more challenging to balance. Slide Effects During the entire workshop we had a series of nice breaks/ surprises. Yukimi had collected a series of theme based slide shows that she gladly shared with us to ignite our creativity and broaden our perspective. Those were little gems that she had built over the years representing many facets of calligraphic mark making. Some pieces were of her own work, others were of many artists around the planet or photos of her students work from prior workshops. Those slide shows sessions were truly inspirational and also a powerful booster to our imagination and creativity. Creating Tones The vast majority of the exercises were done using plain old sumi ink. Only occasionally we would use other inks (walnut ink) or some color (mainly watercolor). However, we had real fun playing with a different type of color: varying the tones of our writing by watering down our sumi to different levels, or writing with water and layering additional writing on top with ink. This can create a variety of effects depending on the tools you are using for water or ink. Another interesting effect was combining walnut and sumi ink to get a variety of tones. Adding Color Random vs. Random Throughout the 5 days, one rule remained constant: We were writing something. It wasn’t random scribbling on paper, although it might appear like so.
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