American Calligraphy #12: Irish letters

ABCs of the USA: The stories behind America’s most distinctive calligraphy styles. 

People with hyphenated identities have a lot of company in America. Here, for instance, there are more people of Irish descent than in Ireland itself--seven times more! This goes up even higher on St Patrick's Day, when it seems that the whole US is Irish. 

Generations of Irish immigrants have cherished many customs from the old country, including neighborhood pubs. Like ethnic restaurants everywhere, they declare their origins with logo designs in their own alphabet styles. All over Boston, where I live, green and gold signs welcome in a convivial crowd of celebrators wearing green. Many of them will spend the evening watching the broadcast of their favorite basketball team, the Celtics of course. 

But celebrating national customs is not just about the Irish. Every immigrant adds to American life, enriching the tapestry. By celebrating each others' holidays, writing in each others' letters, we make our world.  

Links to whole alphabets from earlier in this blog: 

• Project (with Celtic border to print out), March 17, 2013: 
• Celtic color and line: Sept 19, 2013: 
• Super Celtic March 16, 2013. 
• Some Celtic initials to color in: 

For more borders and capitals, see George Bain, Celtic Art: the methods of construction. 

Also, see borders in Borders for Calligraphy: and read a chapter of insight and instruction in Learn Calligraphy. 

 

An Abecedary to Color: Z

Click here for a full-size page
to print out and color in.  

Z* is for Zoë, Zack, Zelda, Zappa, and zowie!  
And Z is for ZOO.  So here are a group of animals who are happy to pose on your last page of letters.  You can color them in with natural colors or choose some outlandish combinations. Try contrasting colors that make the zebra stand out or pick related ones that help him disappear.  


Thanks for taking me along on this colorful journey from A to Z. Time for a nap.  


-----------------------------------
This letter reminds me of a family story.  My father was born in England, naturalized in Canada, and finally  became an an American citizen.  He used to describe how border agents liked to trap people like him--for no particular reason--when they crossed over.  They'd ask the suspect to spell something out loud, and catch them up when they pronounced Z as Zed. He had erased everything British from his speech while a teenager, then cleared out his Canadian "eh" and "hoose" in his twenties, but this one always tripped him up.  

Abecedarium to color: Y

Click here for a full-size page
 to print out and color in.   

The letters on the Y page span at least a thousand years, from the Book of Kells to Art Nouveau.  Each one has had its own moment, with its own special materials and colors and context.  
  
The Celtic Y I have colored in here is adapted from an upside-down A, with coils added along its ends and its central join. You can keep an eye out for letters that can take on a new identity with a simple flip or rotation.   

Abecedary to color: X

Click here for a high-res, 

full-page printable to color in.

 X , this week's letter, lets us think about symmetry.  Many letters, especially the Versals based on Roman capitals, are symmetrical along their vertical or horizontal axis.  Or both, like the letters I, H, O, and X.  

This illustration comes from Learn Calligraphy,
by Margaret Shepherd, Random House.  page 91. 

If you are fascinated by symmetry, you can did deeper here.  Just as M C Escher's work [see V and W above] left people disoriented about the visual experience, Arthur Loeb's lifetime of study restored order to the many different kinds of symmetries

Abecedary to color: E

Click here for a full-page, 

high-resolution printable. 

These E s are older than 300 years.  The six letters here show the different forms of E, as well as the many kinds of decorative vinery that the illuminator can choose from.   

COLORING TIPS:
The last E on the page is derived from one of the earliest books printed in South America. I included it because I studied with the researcher, Antonio Rodriquez-Buckingham, when I spent some years at school learning about rare books.  (Here’s what I learned; there is no end to what you need to know about rare books.)  

I included this E to remind you to read the notes I’ve provided on where I found the letters.  They can point you toward color ideas. 

But I also want to remind you that Europe and England are not the only sources for beautiful old letters, nor does North America have a monopoly.  Letter designs in the New World come from all the Americas.  Anglo-Americans should remind themselves that the founding of San Marcos University in Lima predates Harvard by 85 years; a printing press was established in Lima 54 years before the one in Massachusetts. 

To reinforce the Peruvian 
connection, you can borrow from the distinctive blue, turquoise, and golden- yellow color scheme of the distinctive ceramic tiles.  (Though they originated in Spain, and then were brought to Lima, they are now more generally found with an online search for “Mexican tiles.”)    

Abecedary coloring tips: D

Warm! ☀︎

Cool... ❅

Print your page out on paper that adds a background color of its own.  For a striking effect, combine orange, pink, and yellow on pale yellow.  Or, if that feels too hot in late summer's muggy weather, create a cooler effect with deep blue and fuchsia on lilac paper. 

Abecedary to color: D

Click here for a full-page, 

high-resolution printable. 

The letter D is shown on this page in a wide variety of its forms, from sources as old as medieval manuscripts and as new as Ben Shahn's 1930s posters.   

Abecedary Coloring Tips: C

Create your background with a wash
of blue watercolor, or find a free image
online to print out. (It’s courteous to
check the copyright status of any
image you use and cite your source
whenever it is requested).

You can print out the full page
of six versions of the letter C.  

You can reinforce your letter’s decorative motif with a background of color and texture.  Here, at right, a wash of pale blue adds the illusion of depth to the fishes who form the letter C. 

Abecedary to color: C

Click here to print out the full-size page.

Here is a page of the letter C. These are complicated!  You can use a lot of different colors, preferably with small points for detail.   

An Abecedary to Color: B

Click here for a full-page,
high-resolution printable. 

Here is your second page of  capitals to print out and color in each week.  Try your favorite colors; then check back in a few days to see this week's "Abecedary Coloring Tips." 

Abecedary Coloring Tips: A

Monochrome involves
two tints of the same color
or two similar colors.

High contrast uses two
colors from opposite
sides of the color wheel.   

There's no single, magic, correct choice for coloring the letters.  Try out both high-contrast and monochrome color schemes to decide which you like better.  

  

An Abecedary of Calligraphy Capitals to color in: A

Click here to print out 
the full-size page.    

These capitals are free for you to print out and color in.  They first appeared a book I wrote and drew for Macmillan Publishing, Capitals for Calligraphy, which explains how to design a single letter and use it on the page.  Starting with these designs for A, I plan to post one page per week, giving you 156 letters from my collection of thousands.  Enjoy! 

Answers to FAQ: 

• Abecedary is an antique word for “alphabetical collection.”  
• The letter pages are copyright free for your own use.  Use them in your calligraphy projects.  
• In the comments section, ask me anything.  

If you like historical lettering, check out my Pinterest board Beautiful Letters from the Past.

223 Celtic color and line

Use water-resistant ink for the outlines so the interior colors won't dissolve it.  

I liked the fresh, unexpected quality of yesterday's Celtic Line alphabet.  So I took it a little further, with extra coils and some touches of color.  I call it Celtic Line and Color.  You can take it from here. 

176 Breezy

Breezy is a kind of half-uncial style, with tell-tale Celtic letterforms like a and t.  Keep it light, about 6 pen widths tall.  This is nice, sweet, and elegant for invitations and place cards.  

Calligraphy Project for St Patrick's Day

You can print this out as a border for St Patrick's Day quotations, or  find a version with guidelines for practice at margaretshepherd.com

Celtic letters are the perfect medium for Irish thoughts.  Use the typical color scheme of gold and green. You can create your own interlaced border, based on principles explained in the classic book Celtic Art: The methods of construction.  Or print out the border from Learn World Calligraphy shown here.