Happy New Year 2013

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RELAX !

Best wishes to all with the hope you have have a chance to do so!

RELAX and REST if you can and if you have to work well I understand since myself I couldn't bring myself to spend more than a couple of days away from designing!

Share this with a friend if you know someone who needs to chill out?

Celebrate Christmas

Wishing you all a merry Xmas and Happy New Year !

I''ll be taking a break until the end of the week.

Search the archive and enjoy older posts!

One Xmas Bauble

its a png you can download and resize it have fun and merry xmas to you all

Mayan Neon

I thought I'ld comment on the "Mayan Apocalypse" and at the same way show what Gimp's  NEON filter can do.

For Xmas a Present

Print or save this resize it if you need to and cut it for the kids or yourself to use for xmas crafts.

this is a png file and should have a transparent background

A Christmas Star

Need to give the kids something to do?

Get them to save and resize or not as you wish this xmas star stick it onto cardboard or something and get them to make ornaments or cards or whatever.

Enjoy!

A Final Xmas Star

I may do and upload one last ecard and then take a break for a week over Xmas.

See you in the New Year.

Folks there's a paypal tipjar ... if you enjoyed the art this year or used it ... a little contribution towards my wifi modem fees would help?

i suggest you use the internal frame to outline text or another smaller picture?

Beloved 2012

Copyright Julie Vaux 2012

You can buy gifts for Xmas or Valentine's day or any romantic occasion at Red Bubble where this design is available on cards and clothing.

Not Sheldon

Why a Big Bang Theory Theme?

Cafe Press has something they call a Fan Portal so I thought I would try my hand at some "official merchandising" since I do watch the show and felt this idea allowed me to make use of irony playing off an infamous Sheldon quote.

If you know any Big Bang Fans please let them know about this ?

You can view products with this image at NOT SHELDON

Since I'm testing the  waters with this design I havnt added the whole range of CP products yet mainly clothing so far.

Agape

Agape is a recent design of mine.

You can buy gifts cards and other items using this design at Voxy Visions

Copyright Julie Vaux 2012

Enjoy and share the url please !

Xmas 2012 e-card One

yes you can print this out for your own use

Evolving English

A great read for typographers and bibliophiles with its many illustrations of English books and varieties of English written and printed from Saxon times to this century. Look for it!

Vespasian Psalter

The #Vespasian #Psalter is one of the oldest extant books with old English text.

The scribe who created this psalter or hymn book of Psalms added what are called interlinear glosses between the lines of Latin text.

Despite the Roman name this is an English illuminated manuscript probably created about 750 ad somewhere in Kent perhaps in a monastery in Canterbury?

The scribe has created a work both beautiful and functional limiting ornament to the titles and headers and writing the main body of text in a strong clear hand with well spaced lines.

Support me via PayPal.me/JulieVaux 

Or PATREON PLEDGE ME

 http://www.patreon.com/JVartndesign

Japanese Typography Example - ZI

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed Japanese typographers whether they are working with romaji or kanji fonts use color more than the chinese?

This image is based on the character zi or ji in an archaic form but a fairly well known textbook anyone who's read up on the history and development of chinese characters would have come across.

Some of the most playful and bold  Japanese typography I've seen appears in anime opening titles.

I admire traditional calligraphy too but perhaps Asian typographers really need to get over the black can express the five colors cultural bias they learn in calligraphy classes or from doing sumi-e?

Characters can have color and not be folksy or vulgar!

SHARE

If you have enjoyed visiting Glyphika 

please consider following us and sharing this url on social media ?

Thank you.

A 3D effect created by Inkscape.

How can one enhance 3d letter  illusions further?

I added flex metal over button.

Your turn !

A Spiral was the start for this image!

A spiral generated by Inkscape was the start of this image.

Then I added a braided ring and joined those two objects.

Next step filters! The latest version of Inkscape has a filter called Dark edges  which I used over another called Felt. Have fun experimenting with these two to create your own texture effects!

BE TEST

I've been testing one of my favorite decorative fonts again!

The word BE in Angelic War.

Every single one of these 8 variants were created in inkscape an open source SVG editor which has an option to bmp and png file format  files.

Have you tried Inkscape yet?

More curvy hebrews!

More curvy hebrew!

Rashi which was originally developed for hand writing notes and commentaries is to my eye more elegant than the square forms. While both have been used as a basis for fonts I think Rashi is more calligraphic?

Curvy Hebrews!

CURVY HEBREWS!

Yes the Hebrew Script does have cursive forms!

Study this diagram and then visit the next post for more images.

Sonia Delaunay Artists Are Designers

Sonia Delaunay was a painter and designer of fashion and textiles.

She  pioneered and supported the use of swimsuits with patterns.

but she was also a painter and a textiles designer!

You may have heard of her husband Robert Delaunay?

She cut back on her painting after ww1 to the 1960s cos of the need to support her family after her income from Russia was cut off by the Revolution.

Yes she was another one of those fabulous Russian Jewish artists / designers who moved to France or Germany first to study and then to settle.

Want to read more about her work ? Try this excellent book!

COLOR MOVES: ART AND FASHION BY

SONIA DELAUNAY 2011

matteo de Leeuw-de monti and petra timmers

Shigeo Fukuda and Dachshunds

I just had to share this! Enjoy!

Byzantine Illuminated manuscripts

#byzantine

For a change I thought we could look at some Illuminated manuscripts from the Byzantine tradition from the  10th and 11th centuries.

You might want to compare these to late Roman mosaics and frescos  and also to Ottonian and Carolingian manuscripts.

Support me via PayPal.me/JulieVaux 

Or PATREON PLEDGE ME

 http://www.patreon.com/JVartndesign

Save NSW TAFE Art's My Trade

ART's My Trade is the slogan of the Save Art in TAFE campaign

If you know anyone who lives in NSW who isnt already supporting the campaign against funding cuts please ask them to check out the various online Facebook and Tweets and to look up for local Art Events and Demos! Thank you !

Pantone the 20th Century in Color

This is a fantastic reference book and also one you can read just for the pleasure of viewing the various designs patterns and objects the writers selected as being representative of various decades.Yes color swatches are included!

HOPE

Just something I've been playing with as I try to combine various filters.

Copyright j. vaux 2012

thinking with type

THINKING WITH TYPE

Thinking with type 

a Critical guide for designers, writers, editors and students

Ellen Lupton 2nf 2010 edition

Need ideas for your self or students?

Read this book  for yourself when going back and reviewing  basics will refresh and inspire you and recommend it to students who need a good solid introduction to those basics. Or just study and enjoy it as an example of a well designed text book!

AGAPE

AGAPE
is my latest design!

Copyright Julie Vaux 2012

You can view many products with this image on them at

my CafePress Shop

Please come and visit !

The Winchester Bible

THE WINCHESTER BIBLE

Most people associate Romansque and Gothic art in England with castles and cathedrals rather than paintings since most mediaeval wall paintings were painted by by Protestant or destroyed in the Civil WAr of the 17th century or by other fires and events.

However there was an English tradition and several styles of painting that survive in some illuminated manuscripts.

One of the most famous of these is the Winchester Bible from the 12th century which can be viewed at the Cathedral library of that city.

Many general histories cite only Franco-Flemish examples usually the Book of Hours by the Limbourg brothers but people were producing books all over Europe.

Illuminated mansucripts are labor intensive tho. Analysis shows six different artists working on the Winchester bible and many of the illustrations are only ink drawings clearly meant to be colored later.  Artists scribes and  book binders they all had to be paid and while ink is cheap the best ground mineral pigments were expensive. Hence the decline in Illuminated manuscripts when printing was introduced.

Even in China and Japan where there was a cultural preference for hand copying as having status demand for print triumphed.

However perhaps some day soon we may have online bibles that are full textual linkages and illustrated and as vividly beautiful as works like the Winchester bible?

Book of Hours Three

Book of Hours Three

Gothic Scripts in context

Both of these pages are from books of Hours from French workshops.

The first one reminds of me of the earlier English styles from the Winchester school and the second has well I picked this one ot show the binding and covers.

Art books discussing illuminated manuscripts have a tendency to use photos that emphasize the illustrations over ones that give you an idea of their setting and context within the page unless the book is a modern reproduction of  a whole work.

The use of ornament as a frame to emphasize text is also something web and ebooks designers should consider.

How should we balance white space, text, and decoration, to make text both legible and lovely?

Book of Hours Two

Book of Hours Two

Gothic Script in context

I have wondered lately why most of the best illuminated manuscripts were produced in workshops in France and Flanders and i suspect the answer is WAR.

The Wars and Revolts in England and the Hundred years War between England and France was probably a factor.

England had thriving workshops in the 12th and 13th centuries and the major workshops in France and Flanders were not in areas effected directly by the wars.

Plus a book of hours was a small portable item easy to pack and move unlike a church fresco or mosaic or a stained glass window.

This  particular Book of Hours was produced in Bruges which is now part of Belgium. The illumined sections are restrained and elegant.

Contrast this image with my previous post on the Bedford Hours.

This Book of Hours is called the Arnhem Book of hours.

Holland was still part of Flanders.

Note the use of white space in both books and the balance of the framing ornaments to the text sections and illustrations. Enjoy!

In the Next post I'll look at some French works.

Books of Hours One

Books of Hours

Gothic Script in Context

An illuminated Book of Hours was THE status item in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Many aristocrats and rulers delighted in commissioning and collecting them.

One of the most famous of them of that of the  Duke of Bedford.

I've chosen these 2 pictures cos I hope they illustrate the following

1) The relationship of picture in text in illuminated manuscripts

2) the size of the originals

3) the use like modern web pages of framing to emphasize section

4) gothic script in its original context

Enjoy this and the next few posts in this series.

Hello Visitors

Hello casual visitors and web searchers. A reminder!

I'ld love to have more followers! Bookmark my blog please? Thanx!

Inkscape Now Does Metallic

Inkscape's latest version includes filters for metallic SFX.

I've tested it for you ! Now go have fun playing with this yourself!

Brush Work and Lettering

BRUSHWORK
And Lettering

A few examples of  lettering  done with a brush not a pen.

Arabic is usually written with a pen however in China they use brushes.

a more typical use of chinese brushes

to shape strokes fine and broad for both letter shapes and the curves of the flowers

A close up of an asian style brush in use

but the angle  and finger position actually isnt all that different from western brush lettering.

The major difference is the angle of the board

Something to think about?

Has the use of a flat screen thats vertical effected modern lettering style and design and digital typography?