Klee exercise, pt 2
/The next step in STEALING from Paul Klee’s watercolor “Once Emerged from the Gray of Night” was to work out the text. I decided to go with the Lichtenbergian verse.
First, I created a grid and printed it out so I could figure out letter spacing.
Here are some things I learned while doing this:
in Klee’s work, the diagonal slash of the R’s and K’s is a simple corner-to-corner diagonal of the enclosing square
he used a serifed I; I think I shan’t
his level of precision in the lettering is not 100%, but close; he appears to have used a straightedge and a compass, but it looks like the curves of R’s and P’s are free-handed
as I began drawing my letters, I was a little nonplussed at the impossibility of centering every line; in checking Klee’s work, I found that his grid on 16x22 blocks was not a regular checkerboard like mine — it was as irregular as each line called for, allowing for centering
Lettered:
Now comes the hard part: painting.
WHAT IF I MESS UP?
Don’t be stupid: it’s an exercise. I’m not here to create art, I’m here to learn what I can by using Klee’s strategies (or at least what I perceive those strategies to be).
And what’s the best way to get over that fear of messing up?
START.
More to come…
