Calligraphy | Skip Allen Paints

Hey Friends,

Normally, I wouldn’t be writing about something personal, but heck, my 70th birthday…drum roll please…is tomorrow. I can remember as a kid, I thought 40 was ancient and gosh, nobody hardly made it to 70. And here I am; it happened so fast.

As you know, I am teaching at DAA in the Holiday Open Studio class; well, I just finished my week. I taught calligraphy in Corel Painter. Since it is my 70th…drum roll please, and I am practicing calligraphy, I thought I would make a birthday greeting for myself. Sounds sad doesn’t it…poor baby has to make his own card.

The first thing I did was compose the verse. I enjoyed that. I’m not a writer and I struggled with the last line, but I like the sentiment. I don’t view 70 as the end but continuing the journey. There is always a new block to explore.

Photography is my next exploration. OK, I have taken photographs for a while, bought a number of camera and lenses, but never really learned to take pictures other than point and shoot. I am going to spend some time with my camera and learn a few things. I bought a new camera that is way too fancy, so I have a lot to learn. I know you want to know what I bought…it is a Nikon D810…and I think it is pretty slick.

But, I digress. I was telling you about my birthday greeting that I made for myself. Elaina is teaching the second week of Holiday Open Studio. Her class is about making a blackboard card for the Holidays. I figured a black card would be perfect for my 70th…drum roll please. So I started making my black image. I created a nifty brush to do the calligraphy and I was ready to start. The blackboard idea had lots of texture in it, and that made my letters look funny. So I abandoned the blackboard, but kept the image black.

Keeping it black and slick is a mistake. It now looks like the text screen at a silent movie. Oh right, you guys don’t remember those. Well, take my word for it.

This is a long lead to this silly image. I hope you like it.

My birthday greeting to myself: