Working on Ideas for I and Zero

 Working on Ideas for I and Zero.

Its #Inktober soon and I have been sketching some ideas for inktober logos and also for ways to make ZERO more than just a modified O

I started with pencil roughs and then I went over the outlines with an .4 Artline feltip 

Next I will either tidy them up with Gimp or Procreate or Inkscape.

I might trace over them or look for a font with a shape similar to my sketches and use filters to modify the form until its like my sketch but better. Another issue is whether to make them solid black or stay with outlines or use heavier outlines. I'll show you some more sketches over the next month.

ENSO for Inktober

 One thing you might want to consider for #inktober is doing #Enso. 

These circles of #ink on paper are excellent brush practice for calligraphers and painters and if you do a particularly fine one you can use it for contemplation as it is a symbol not just of enlightenment but also of  MU. 

I have some done digitally up on my Patreon JVartndesign if you'ld like to check them? 

This one was done by Hakuin a Japanese Zen Master. Note how the ink has soaked into the paper giving a simple circular brush stroke texture and depth. Try some for yourself. Any thick paper. If you don't have Asian brushes use a brush tip marker or a watercolor brush with a long tapering point.

If you don't have actual ink its fine if you want to use paint instead! 

Just have fun and practice! Let the ink flow !

more inktober ideas

More inktober ideas 

Inktober Soon

This is the initial pencil sketch 

I will post each stage as I refi n e and finish this design! 

Copyright J. Vaux 2020 

Roman Numerals in the Middle Ages in Europe.

 Roman Numerals in the Middle Ages in Europe. An Example.

Religious manuscripts frankly outnumber secular manuscripts but I wanted to use this image while I'm thinking about typography and number to remind people how long roman numerals persisted.

You may see numbers in modern "Gothic" fonts but until the Renaissance and beyond Roman numerals were still quite commonly used in inscriptions and paintings and illustrations. 

This may be partly because the basic maths text for many centuries was Euclids Elements in a LATIN translation yet ironic both Latin and Greek used an acrophonic system to write numbers.

And why when 10 starts with a D in both Latin and Greek we switched to the Roman practice of writing 10 as an X is a mystery when the Romans sensibly used C for Centum 100?

The curious case of Zero

 THE CURIOUS CASE OF ZERO.

This is the Gwalior Inscription from India which has the oldest known example of ZERO.

There are other inscriptions from various cultures in which zero is represented by a blank space or a dot but the Indians were the first to use zero as part of a number system consistently. 

Their use rapidly spread across Asia and North Africa and reached Europe via the happy accident of an certain Italian Mathematician visiting Algeria and discovered their use.

This is what Fibonacci wrote about them.

Roughly translated from the Latin Nine figures of india ... sign ) that arabs call zephir 

Zephir contracted in popular usage to our modern zero.

However a point who else has noticed when typographers design fonts they don't always give as much attention to the numbers as the letters?

This is 0 on my keyboard.

This is O 

0 - O 

About the only difference in most fonts and calligraphy manuals too is that the 0 is narrower?

DIVERSE MONGOLIAN !

 One of the many reasons we should support #savemongolianlanguage is the diverse responses Mongolians calligraphers and scholars have made over the centuries to continue to found and develop the best forms of script to represent Mongolian a Ural-Altaic language.

Yes that many! Modified Tibetan and Old Uighur! Square styles. Cursive styles. Using Cyrillic or European alphabets. But always experimenting to change letter forms to match Mongolian not change Mongolian to match other scripts. Or force instruction in other languages. 

One scribe even created Galik an script variant designed to be able to use Mongolian letters to write Mongolian, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese! 

Perhaps Chinese education bureacrats should consider teaching Mongolian script to local Han settlers ?

Mongolian is also unique in being the only vertical script that unlike Hangul, kana, or Sinitic characters, runs top to bottom and left to right.