jackie no. 3

done quickly, kind of wonky, sometimes wonky is more playful than drawing a perfect square, notice how the overlapping lines of the marker don't even matter, another layer of wonkiness makes the original wonky look fine. white gel pen used to make the perforated edge on the black border. the address is wonky. nothin' wrong with a little wonky. jackie never complained.

jackie no. 2

another one in the happy birthday series. sharpie markers, outlines, touching letters, bouncy lines. compare this one to kathy no. 10 below. same stamp, but this one has a big first name/small last name. one piece of confetti is trying to dot an *i* that does not need a dot

jackie no. 4 (of 10)

quick choppy letters. did all the green strokes first. too much space between the i and the e, so i tucked the davis in between. sometimes poor planning is more interesting. and that's weird how the A has two yellow dots and the C has none. sharpie markers and zig zags on the outline. wacky.

jackie no. 1

the next ten envelopes will be from the jackie series. she no longer lives at the address on the envelopes. there will be a couple hundred envelopes in this series. this style is done with a gel pen on a translucent vellum envelope. i call the style "two wrongs do make a right" because i double stroke every part of each letter and neither of the strokes are right, but they give a nice base for the dots and cross hatching.

improved king envelope

here it is with some shading to make the letters pop. scroll down to feb 24, 2010 to see the before version. the pale blue *wilson* hardly showed up on the first scan, so i went over it a couple times.

my mailbox

this arrived yesterday from my penpal, chuck. i love the stamp. that particular hopper lives just one block from my house at the des moines art center, where i teach. my classes include art for the intimidated and penmanship.

my address is no longer 430 is now 420 44th.

kathy no. 10

wish they would reissue this stamp. outlining is a go-to technique to add a little extra to simple lettering.

easy script

quick version of an envelope with the king stamp. tomorrow i will show the same envelope with shades and outlines.

i used zig markers

writing on the wall

since i can't figure out how to load an image off Flickr, i'll post a sample of my wall writing. next to envelopes, my favorite thing to write on is the wall. the bird houses are actual wren houses, to give you an idea of the scale. i use those little bottles of acrylic craft paint because they come in so many colors, therefore, no mixing required. i have purchased two sign painter brushes with long bristles, called liners (i think). i make preliminary sketches on the wall in chalk, paint, let it dry, brush off the chalk. quick, easy, fun. only one rule: don't start with a white wall. if i can't put in white highlights, i don't think it ever looks right. as my friend mary says: that is just my opinion, but i am right.

kathy no 8

while most of the envelopes in the kathy series are addressed to kathy at 430 east ohio in ames iowa, a few have other addresses. this one has a much longer address that was fairly close to her actual address at the time. it was a long address and since this set of envelopes was hand delivered, it did not matter if the addresses were correct, hence, the east ohio, ames, iowa address. i would not expect the postal workers to deliver an envelope that looks like this. however, it would be fine to address it this way and then have a little

why is the envelope such a big deal? reason number 1

no picture today because i have been reminded by my fan club to mention why the envelope is such a big deal? even if a person does not like their name, it gets used daily and they have a bond with it. seeing your name written artfully is just plain fun. the contents of the envelope may be very important, but a beautiful envelope conveys the message that the guest is just as important as the event. and, face it, how much fun is your party going to be without guests.

one of my favorite stories about the magic of the artful envelope is about how the most unlikely

envelope no. 7

another from the kathy series. i used ZIG brush markers, wrote kathy in pale blue for the sky, schneider in med green for the land. i added some shading on the green letters and added some darker green plants growing out of schneider. landscapes offer a very easy layout for any envelope. one does not need to be very literal in the execution. the horizon is horizontal, the growing things can grow in any direction. half of them are plants, half are covering up the quirks in the lettering. the style is a quickly done graffiti

envelope No. 6

the *kathy* series of envelopes was done for fun. i did not use any guide lines, i rarely did a practice run. i simply took markers and whipped out the first idea that came to me after i looked at the stamp. in other words, this is a layout. what i see that is working pretty well is the flourishing. i like the intersections and all the major stems seem to be pretty parallel. what i was not focusing on and what suffered as a consequence was each letter in the name. the *c* in schneider is too big and the *d* is way too small. we could find many

envelopes 4 and 5

two more from the kathy collection

for kathy

another envelope from the kathy collection.
the action in the stamp inspired action in the lettering. one of my go-to design techniques is repetition.

envelope no. 1

one of kathy's birthday envelopes

old school communication

this is a blog about envelopes