“Drawn to Letters: a Dutch approach”—workshop with Elmo van Slingerland

Phan

“Drawn to Letters: a Dutch approach”

A 4-week lettering workshop with calligrapher and type designer Elmo van Slingerland.

Dates: November 23, 30 and December 7, 14, 2022

Time: 7:00–8:30 PM (CET)

Format: Online over Zoom (recordings will be available, along with additional homework feedback recordings)

Tuition: €135

Click here more information and to register (you must accept cookies to view).

This workshop is intended for students who already have some experience with calligraphy/letter-writing and would like to learn more about letter drawing. We are going to draw letters, but the calligraphy pen will never be far away. It is always there—physically, or in the back of your mind! Namely, our trusted calligraphy pen is always a good basis to fall back on.

We will discover what is possible with drawing letters through several interesting exercises: we will sketch, analyze these sketches, and further develop them. We will use different materials, such as pens, pencil, nibs, brush, gouache, and/or watercolor and we’ll look at different applications. Do you want to make a work on a sheet of watercolor paper or do you make a drawing for reproduction?

Classes will be held in English via Zoom. Live sessions will be recorded for online viewing for up to two months after the last day of the workshop.

In the week between each live session, students will have time to practice, ask questions on the class forum, and submit assignments online. Homework feedback will be provided in supplemental video recordings each week.

About the instructor

Elmo van Slingerland studied graphic and typographic design at KABK in The Hague and subsequently taught for its Type and Media program.

As a type designer, he worked on font production for the Dutch Type Library, and his original typeface, Dorian, was published by DTL.

As a calligrapher, he is widely regarded as one of the finest in the field. His works have been acquired by several lettering arts repositories, including the Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum, the Berliner Sammlung Kalligraphie, the Karlgeorg und Maria Hoefer Archiv of the Schreibwerkstatt Klingspor Offenbach, and the Harrison Collection at the San Francisco Public Library.

He has taught calligraphy and lettering workshops around the world. He served as a judge for 2018 Letter Arts Review juried issue and his works are used as exemplars in the instructional manuals Kalligraferen by Frank Blokland and The Golden Secrets of Lettering by Martina Flor.

(Images are taken from previous in-person and online lettering workshops taught by Elmo)