This too shall pass

[salman.khattak]

These are not the best examples of their sort but I wanted to share them anyway.

I was in a situation where I needed to get this done rather quickly. The arrangement, choice of lettering and execution was done in about two hours. The lettering was done in one go without any practice - and it shows (so please be gentle).



This piece was done as a companion for the Urdu version done in Kufic script - I had plenty of time to get this one done but still managed to mess it up slightly :-) No excuses there. BTW - the curvature is an artifact of the camera - the verticals are all straight and parallel in the original.



Salman

[dgford]

That Kufic is superb ! The great contrast between the strong patterning of the Kufic and the delicacy of the arabesque ornamentation makes it a complete statement. Visually balanced with that compelling horizontal format makes it very desirable even though I can't read the Urdu script.

In the first piece, I like the lettering of the vowels. I let you rest with that as a complete sentence !

The non-joining in the other letters I find distracting --- even irritating. " Noli me tangere" ! Also, the strong back-tilt of all letters S make them look as if they are marching onward with backs arched and bellies out!

An interesting point is that the decoration bits that drop down in the spaces between the words, imo, seem to contribute to the broken quality yet in the Kufic they enhance the overall composition. Why do I think that?

Aren't you pleased that I have been "gentle" !?

I am so glad that you posted these as it shows tht calligrapgy is calligraphy -- in whatever language.

Geoff

[salman.khattak]

Thanks for the gentle feedback Geoff - I was in two minds about putting this one up but I'm now glad that I did.

The 's' is particularly bad - not least because I did it incorrectly - here's a comparison of what it should have been to what I actually did (sorry for the poor picture, my printer/scanner has crossed over):



After I messed up the first 's' I had no choice but to do the others the same way. I had no more paper nor time to do it right. I'm now regretting that I let it go like this :-(

The decoration was my rather clumsy attempt to link the two as a pair.

How would you recommend doing the English version?

Salman

[dgford]

Salman --- you were very gracious in reaction to my "gentle" crit.

The decoration in the first one could stay quite happily with attention to two points:- (a) Use a slightly wider nib to visually match the Kufic (b) get rid of the gaps in the letter strokes and let them join, thereby sitting happily with the second piece. Then the decoration would be a textural contrast.

Here is a suggested alternative for the letter S --- it has a steeper bottom stroke and has a cross-over middle portion, and therefore tends to stay narrower. What are your thoughts? (BTW, I prefer the top of your first letter S.)

Geoff

[salman.khattak]

Geoff - the first one is what it was supposed to be like but I messed it up and was stuck with the portly soldier shape.

Thanks for the narrower 's' - I like it much better and it fits well with the other letters. I'll have to give this another try for my own satisfaction.

S.