Drawn Capitals


In my recent online class,
I learned about the idea of drawing letters with a broad-edged nib, something I had never done before.
While it’s painstaking (especially when you first start out) to build up letters in this way,

I’ve come to realize that there is a lot of flexibility in the variations you can make.
These images are of some of the Roman Capital variations I’ve started playing around with.

Pen drawn Trajan variation giving a distressed, weathered look to the lettering; drawn with a Speedball C4 at 2cm (about 3/4″); with gouache on Arches text wove paper.
Sans serif capitals variation drawn with a Speedball C5 at about 2cm (3/4″); with gouache on Arches MBM paper. Quote from the Mary Oliver poem, Roses, Late Summer.