Georgia Angelopoulos
Victoria, Canada
A01 — Beautiful Byzantine Lettering
One-Day Class, Sunday, July 26
All Levels
Lettering, Design
We will be studying the unique and rich style of Byzantine capitals used in manuscripts and icons. Looking at the Greek forms for inspiration, we will use these to design Latin forms to write in English. These ornamental capitals often share the same stem, forming unique and abstract patterns on the page. Letters are also stacked one on top of the other, and often minuscule forms nestle in amongst the large letters. Composing a piece of writing in this style is like making a puzzle where each word can be arranged differently and there are a great variety of forms invented to make the letter patterns work. We will be finding ways to use the capitals legibly on the page, but also exploring their abstract potential and texture using edged pens, Speedball B nibs, and various tools to create monoline forms.
Supply List
- Graph paper (preferably one that takes ink well such as the Westwind pad)
- Tracing paper or lightweight layout paper
- A few sheets (11” x 15”) of hot press and cold press paper of your choice (ivory and/or colored)
- Slant board
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Flat lead mechanical pencil (1.8 mm and/or larger)
- Favorite edged nibs ranging from small to large
- Speedball B nibs (I will have a wide range of Speedball nibs to share)
- Fine permanent marker
- Ruling pen
- Parallel pens
- 0 or #1 round brush
- Flat brushes if you have some
- Favorite inks or gouache
- Mixing brush
- Palette
- Pen
- Rag
Georgia Angelopoulos studied History in Art at Athens, Greece and at the University of Victoria. While she enjoys historical research, writing articles on the development of letterforms, the manuscript tradition, and calligraphy, her impulse to be a practitioner is strong. She is an active member of Victoria’s Fairbank Calligraphy Society; she teaches calligraphy internationally, contributes articles to their journal and is their Archivist. Her work was selected and featured in several publications including Letter Arts Review and Bound and Lettered. She has also contributed to The World Encyclopedia of Calligraphy and Mastering Calligraphy.