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