One day workshops:

“With a Flourish”

Explore flourishes as letter embellishments and ornaments and the techniques used to create these expressive additions to letterforms. You’ll learn the basic rules of how to flourish, with many examples to spur your creativity, and exercises to practice techniques. Class details the basic strokes and possible variations and includes discussion of tools and materials. Using any script you like, participants will experiment with adding flourishes to a chosen letter or word with pencil, then follow with a nib.

Level: All

Material: ink, nibs, pencil and practice paper.

“Introduction to the Ruling Pen”

The ruling pen is one of the most fascinating and versatile tools in the calligraphic world. Many people have one, only few know how to use it- this workshop will show you how! In easy steps you will learn the basic way of handling the tool to create an expressive lettering style. This kind of writing springs from the sensitive balance of speed and control, and produces uniquely lively, animated letterforms.
Participants will be introduced to several types of ruling pens, and will have the opportunity to experiment with the great variety of strokes that are possible with these instruments. Thomas will show you how to invigorate your calligraphy with color by demonstrating his technique of blending different shades of ink within a single stroke. One tool- endless variations!

Level: All

Please bring a ruling pen (HAFF No 629, if possible; any old drafting tool should do, too); layout visual bond practice paper 14 x 17" or 19 x 24" and ink (no sumi), pencil and ruler.

“Beautiful Watercolor Letters”

In this fun, informative workshop you will learn several techniques for lettering using watercolors. You will hand letter models of outlined letters and then learn techniques for blending and manipulating colors, to create a beautiful illuminated capital.  Then, lettering with water, you'll experiment by adding watercolor dyes, working with different colors and controlling the movement of color by turning the sheet, creating a striking, expressive piece of lettering art.

Level: All

Please bring a thin waterproof felt tip pen, watercolor brushes, liquid colors (e.g. Ecoline, Doc Martin’s Tech), hotpress watercolor paper and a pencil.

Two-day workshops:

“The Alchemist's Kitchen”   NEW!

Have you been to all the workshops, gathered scripts, techniques and tools, but never learned the "spells" to turn these ingredients into a piece of fine art?
Thomas Hoyer is one of the few calligraphers with a masters in graphic design and who mainly works as a freelance designer.
Join him for a fun ride into the design world and let your mind run wild and stoke the fire of your imagination. Learn how to design a text, a word, the letters themselves. How to visualize a text's content. How to add emotion and expression to your lettering. How to twist and turn the usual into the unusual. How to use both sides of your brain. And, best of all: How to break all the rules you have ever learned.
This workshop is not about a finished piece but to create a "spell-book" filled with ideas for to browse through if you have a text you want to write but have no idea how to. Ideas that can be used with any script or calligraphic tool you are familiar with and with any skill level.

Level: Experienced beginner/intermediate (should be familiar with at least one script)
Length: 2 days minimum
Supply list: Your basic kit, and everything you like to work with. Some quotes.

“Ruling Pens Beyond the Rules”

Students will learn my freestyle method of using the ruling pen. This kind of writing springs from the sensitive balance of speed  and control, and produces uniquely lively, animated letterforms.
Because the use of the ruling pen as a freestyle tool presupposes a solid mastery of letterforms and a sense of rhythm and texture, this class is intended for students who have had some previous calligraphic experience. In this course, participants will be introduced to several types of ruling pens, and will have the opportunity to experiment with the great variety of strokes that are possible with these instruments. We'll begin by learning how to use the ruling pen to write a simple italic script. The participants will learn how to use the unique variety of strokes of the ruling pen to create a wide range of different textures.
Each participant will choose a word or a short quote which (s)he wishes to design.  The only rule is: There is no rule. This script will have no consistent baseline, no equal heights, widths, proportions  in the single letters; no equal width of the stroke.  Have fun!

Level: All

Materials: Ruling pen and ruling writer, but any sibling of them should work, too. A pad with practice paper, about 14" x 17". Smooth and rough papers. A few sheets of black paper. Any ink you like to work with (except sumi). White gouache. Ruler and pencil. Some quotes to work with.

"Ancient Chinese Secret”

Everybody loves Chinese lettering and characters!

But to learn how to create and understand them would take you years of intense studies. In this informative and fun workshop Thomas Hoyer will share his specially-created alphabet that works almost like a secret code. Participants will learn how to form letters with oriental-style brush strokes using sumi inks. With words of your choosing, you will create your own handlettered piece on rice paper, in the Chinese tradition.
On the second day you will learn more about varying and designing your letters and how to “cluster” them to more complex looking letters.

All Levels

Pointed brush, between No 4-8, and sumi ink, or a PENTEL Color Brush  (black or any other color), layout visual bond practice paper, glue stick, rice paper

“When Black Letters Blossom” Part I

The Middle Ages were a time of ascetic restraint and fervid spirituality–a time when the Church encouraged a renunciation of worldly pleasures in favor of concentrated devotion to God. This attitude, pervasive in all areas of medieval life, found calligraphic expression through the black letter alphabet.
During the renaissance, humanist scholars rediscovered the philosophers and writers of antiquity, and ushered in an age of new ideas. As people became more interested in the reality of the present world than the promise of the afterworld, the influence of the Church began to diminish. As a reflection of this renewed interest in material concerns, the calligraphy of this period became more richly ornamental. Black letters evolved into lacy, flourished fraktur. Some initials of that time appear as an arbour covered with wild proliferous vine.

In this workshop, students will begin by learning a simple form of black letter in order that they may better comprehend its transition into Fraktur. After learning the Fraktur alphabet I will show the students a more decorative alternative for the upper cases and everybody can design a short text or quote.

Level: All

Material: Broad edged nibs, ink, grid paper. Good paper, ruler and pencil for the final piece.

“When Black Letters Blossom” Part II

After the blossoms come the vines. This class is intended for students who have some previous experience with the basic letterforms of the Fraktur alphabet. Lushly accented with vines and flourishes, the fraktur alphabet offers calligraphers an exceptional opportunity for creative embellishment:
- Little variations in the letterforms of a text enrich it and make it look more vivid.
- Big initials with overly flourished parts give the the whole piece an aristocratic look.
- Spacious ornaments around the text put it in a delicate texture.
Students in this workshop will learn various techniques to deal with these three elements. Afterwards they learn how to develop a Fraktur monogramm with two or three letters.

Level: All

Material: Broad edged nibs, pointed nibs, several inks, grid paper. Good paper, ruler and pencil.

“How to Design New Letterforms”

Each of the 2x26 letters is based only on a definition; there exists an infinite possibility of letterforms.  Despite this limitless potential for new alphabetic shapes, after 2000 years we are still primarily influenced—and restricted—by the model of the Roman Capitals.  This workshop will focus on liberating the imagination to conceive new “faces” for our familiar alphabet.

We’ll begin our exploration by considering the established definitions of each letterform. We’ll ask ourselves, “What makes an A an A?”  These questions alone will begin to open our minds to the prospect of new forms. Following this discussion, I will provide a series of exercises to help spark the students’ imagination, and encourage the realization of each person’s own individual vision. Nobody should fear that (s)he has no skills. I will demonstrate several different ways to help your ideas come to life on the page. You will be surprised at how many forms and images will come into your  mind!  In addition to the calligraphic tools it will be possible to work with a pencil to draw the new letterforms.
Surely the new forms will be unique, probably they are unusual and perhaps they are less legible than the classic letterforms to which we are accustomed. Thus, they will be ideally suited for monograms, logos, initials, titles or the main word in a quote. I will leave it up to the participants to choose their own themes for the final class exercise.

Level: Intermediate

Material:

“Expressions of Contents/Reveal the Picture Within”

Every text possesses a wealth of possibilities for design. Because of a calligrapher’s nearly endless freedom to fashion new letterforms, the magic juxtaposition of content and script is one of the most exciting—and challenging—aspects of the creative process. This individual interpretation can be supported by choosing the paper(color), the tool, the color and the alphabet.
First, we will break down this complicated task into simple steps. We’ll begin by exploring the properties of the letterforms themselves, using a basic italic script: How can a single letter or an entire alphabet change its form? Further questions follow: What happens when we do the same exercise with different tools? And, finally, how might we use color as an expressive device?
Next, the students will have the chance to use these various interpretive elements to endow a nonsense word with a particular emotional quality. Then every student will think of his or her own meaning for the nonsense word. Following the exercise each student will share the work with the class and they will play a little guessing game to determine the meaning. Finally, each student will choose a word or quote of his or her liking and render it so vividly that it pops off the paper!