A man of letters

My friend and colleague Christopher is a writer and, lately, an artist: he makes letters by hand. He does beautiful work.

He creates letterforms using various media. He used pen and ink for the names above, and a brush pen for the names below.

Sometimes he digitizes his lettering to work with it further, as he did with this club logo.

And he takes commissions, like this one.

Sometimes I meet up with Christopher for after-work drinks near his Fountain Square office. I always look forward to his messages on the chalkboard at his company’s entrance.

I admit to some jealousy over Christopher’s skill. I used to draw letters by hand when I was a teenager, and was moderately good at it for a self-taught guy who worked mostly with a No. 2 pencil or a Bic pen. But I can’t touch this work.


Comments

8 responses to “A man of letters”

  1. Christopher Smith Avatar
    Christopher Smith

    What a lovely art form calligraphy is, expressive
    in so many ways not just in the art form but in the written word as well and your friend Christopher is very accomplished what a wonderful gift he has.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      A gift, plus lots of practice! It’s fun to follow Christopher on Instagram and see what new stuff he’s lettering.

  2. christopher. Avatar

    Thanks so much for the kind words, Jim. Let’s Imbibe soon.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Absolutely!

  3. pesoto74 Avatar

    I would guess that his is becoming an increasingly rate skill. Schools have pretty much given up on teaching any kind of penmanship.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Which I don’t understand. But times do change.

  4. Bernie Kasper Avatar

    Very cool, my wife does all the calligraphy at the hospital she works at, she says it is a lost art, And don’t get me started on kids not being taught cursive anymore !!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      My great-grandfather was a sign painter, hand-lettering signs all over my hometown. Handmade letterforms used to be big business!

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