MONOLINE MATTERS with Margaret Morgan | 11/12 May 2019
Review by Keith Bolton
The new location in the quiet village of Felindre was welcoming and had all the facilities we needed for a workshop. The weather co-operated and, although it was cooler on the Saturday, Sunday turned out to be warm and sunny. Weather isn’t usually a big issue for us, as ours tends to be an indoor occupation, but lunchtime on Sunday was a treat for the “Monoline Munchers” with a picnic outside.
We started the session with a control. We wrote out an alphabet of capital letters as we would usually do this, and then hid it away until the end of the workshop.
Margaret supplied us with a workbook, an excerpt from her published book “Creative Lettering”. This equipped us with instruction in the creation of a classical capital alphabet, as well as ideas for future exploration and examples of what might be achieved.
We looked at the Classical Monoline Alphabet and practiced the construction of each letter. We realised there was a lot to (re-)learn. Moving on we studied extended and condensed versions of the classical Monoline hand following the exercises in the workbook. Working carefully we re-established the letters in our memories and moved on to inter-letter and inter-line spacing.
Day one was a busy day.
Day two was project day, an opportunity to play and to colour in. We were reminded throughout the day of the need to keep the basics in mind and look at spaces as we planned the finished project.
At the end of the day we looked back at the alphabet we wrote at the start of day one and could see the progress we had made. Margaret’s workshop proved to be an opportunity to work hard at the basics and to look forward to adventures with letters in the future.
Find out more about Margaret Morgan’s work and tuition here