This exercise is all about font.
Firstly I had to draw a list of words in a descriptive way.
Next I had to use my computer software to choose fonts that matched the words. Fonts are a strange and foreign area to me, I’m not exactly familiar with importing fonts and having a wide variety for different tasks. I decided to stick first with default fonts just to try and understand the more subtle differences between them.
Then I repeated the exercise looking at a font library and learning how to download and install them.
I think it was worth doing both. The former definitely helps to come to terms with the more subtle differences in more neutral fonts.
I printed out both sets. I don’t really know how coloured pencils work, in fact I don’t even own any! But I borrowed some and traced the words.
It was fun to pick the colours. One thing that I didn’t intend but noticed afterwards is that almost all of the colours I picked for the opposite words were contrasting colours too, that made me confident that I had picked pretty sensible colours.
Finally I had to draw the words free hand using a variety of suitable colours and materials.
For a quick rundown:
Big: I pasted on thick black cardstock.
Small: A thin dip pen.
Fat: I used acrylic paint in a rich madder colour, applied thickly. I wanted to try and get that globule like texture you see with thick acrylic paintings.
Thin: A simple fineliner.
Fast: I used a sanguine pastel. My logic was that it’s a medium very useful for fast expressive sketching. I ran my finger along it to smear it in a way that mimics a speed blur effect.
Slow: A cerulean blue watercolour.
Fun: Neon marker.
Boring: HB graphite pencil.
Calm: Soothing green paint, text written in negative with white gel pen.
Mad: I wrote the text in water, then used a dropper with a crimson ink to splash into the water. This one wasn’t as visually impressive as I hoped.
Josh Robbins OCA Learning Log 