Calligraphy Art Works: Building A Cathedral, part 2

John 3:16 cathedral calligraphy piece

Greetings once again and long time,no post! I must extend apologies for my long hiatus. The last several months have been busily packed with selling out,packing and moving to a new location,but now that all the initial settling in processes have been completed,we can now get back to where we left off....building a cathedral! In the last episode,we had explained the basic premise of the piece and introduced the "hit or miss" trial and error techniques,completing the statuary located at the bottom of the capital section. So,without further adieu,we will get back to work laying down the frameworks of the portal door and the larger full bodied statues located around it. First,we will look at the initial penciled layout drawings to see the portal as it appeared in the 2nd dimension and then we will explore the build up process involved in it.

Fig.1 - Two slightly different views of the penciled layouts

The photos of Fig.1 show the basic overall view of the planned border designs for the inner and outer layers,even if they are poor quality pictures....which I apologise profusely for as I did not have a high quality camera at the time. The "cross and acanthus" stylings of the border were of course based on foundation patterns found in the various portals of Rheims Cathedral in France. In Fig.2,you will see a much better close up for the design patterns,along with the position and designs for the statues and their bases.

Fig.2 - Close up of border patterns and statues

As we can see,Fig.2 thankfully makes up for the optical shortcomings of the previous pictures! Here,we can see the cross patterns on the outer layer of the border and the double rowed acanthus patterns of the inner border. The layouts for the statue and its base is apparent as well. Now that we have established what the border will look like,we are ready to apply the gesso and get it built up. For the thicknesses,I settled on 5/16" for the inner and 3/8" for the outer. You may be wondering how I worked out those serious and definitive sounding measurements....and,it is ok to ask! I did not use any complicated architectural formulae or meet with the Antient Rosicrucian Order to consult the Philosopher's Stone. Nor did I follow the footsteps of Nat E. Dred and "gimme ganja"(from the 1980 show "Fridays",for all you old timers),and to that,I will answer with "No,no,NOOO,no"! I simply took a ruler,got down about eye level and made the decree across the land that "hitherto and henceforth,the measurements shall be 5/16" and 3/8". When I began laying down the gesso, I was using a fine tip steel nib on the dip pen. I figured out quickly that it needed to be gooped on to the paper faster,so I changed over to a broad tip and it worked out nicely. In Fig.3,we see the progression of the gesso and a nice view of the patterns. There are also little markers present to show the position of the statues within the inner border.

Fig.3 - Initial application of gesso on the border

The Figure 3 photo gives us the visual of the cross and acanthus patterns. The crosses in the outer layer were not so hard to put down,however,the acanthus leaves were a different story. For these,a fine nib was used and the gesso was applied by pushing it into the border then "pulling out" with the nib to stretch and shape the leaves. It was done repeatedly to layer it and and give it greater depth. To achieve the desired aesthetic of the acanthus,a few things are needed at this point:
1). Good to excellent lighting - to do fine detail work on miniature pieces,it is absolutely necessary!
2). Magnification - use a good strong magnifying glass for the pieces mentioned in

point #1. I used a 5X magnifying lamp in conjunction with 1.75X reading glasses. Do not overwork or strain your ey
3). Very steady,almost surgical hands - The placing and shaping of some parts of the piece were very exacting and required slow,deliberate work. You definitely would not want to attempt a piece like this while having a blockbuster hangover!!!
4). Not just a lot,but "A LOT" of patience - Pieces like these WILL(!!!) test your

might! I can attest to the fact that many times,only an inch(or a fraction) of progress may be achieved after the result of up to several hours work. If your thing is instant gratification or having the overwhelming need to "see where you have been",then projects like these will not be your thing!

Now that we have been bludgeoned with the tire iron of wisdom,we will uncross our legs,stop levitating and move onward with the project! In Figure 3,we laid down the foundation of the border and in Figure 4,we will see placement of the first statue with its base....

Fig.4 - Doorway statue on base

In Figure 4, a nice close up is presented of the full bodied doorway statue standing on a semicircular,tracery embellished base. It is worth noting here that the doorway statues are not connected to the paper in any way other than the bases upon which they are standing. To further examine this part,we will simply go from the bottom up. If you look closely at the base, it is hollow,just as it appears to be. To get this effect,the general traceried shape of the base was laid out on a one inch wide strip of thick backing paper. From there,the shape was cut with an X-acto knife and then folded into shape.The top was also cut from the thick paper and the corresponding parts "glued" into place with drops of gesso. Once dried, multiple layers of gesso are brushed on the paper,both inside and out. This insures that the core of the fibers in the paper are soaked and once it sets up,will increase the strength many times while still having a degree of malleability,afterwards,the traceries are built up and carefully detailed. The statues involve an equal part of imagination and skill at manipulating the gesso. From the original drawing,we see that the statued figure is looking in earnest to a far point and holding his hands out from his body. To begin the figure,basically cut out a silhouette shape of the statue from the backing paper.....i.e., head and general body shape with even the hands,etc. Coat the paper well with gesso and let dry,bending and shaping it to an approximate concave shape(think of it as the concave form of the back part of the head and body). After gluing the paper to the base in the desired position,begin globbing the gesso on and carefully shaping it as desired. For detailed work on the statues,refer to the described statuary section of Part 1 for this article. It will describe all the basics for working the gesso through its stages until the finished product is achieved. This piece contains 6 full bodied statues around the doorway. Whether you are doing 6 statues or 60,the process is the same once you get a comfortable feel for the techniques......wash,rinse and repeat until done!

Fig.5 - Doorway with full statuary

Figure 5 gives us the full application of the gesso and the piece ready to paint. The top "Spire" section is not shown here as it merits its own explanation. What you see here is the result of about 3 months work! It is not for the faint,but fortune(in one form or another) always favors the bold!

----The Infamous Spires----

This brings us to the last construction part of this section. Actually,this is the first part that I worked on when beginning the project. As mentioned early on in Part 1 of this article, when I had began the piece,I had absolutely no idea on how to do it or what direction to go in.....other than a cathedral. The spire section at the top of the capital was what nearly broke me. Pretty much everything that could go wrong was seeming to go wrong and I could readily find no solution to any of it. The spires on top of the main portal of Rheims Cathedral are extremely ornate and complex,as well as indescribably beautiful! My first task here was to try to copy them in miniature....somehow! Not knowing if the gesso would be hard to see once on paper,I mixed in some red food coloring. Of course,the gesso was too thin and was always running. I did not yet know the dynamics of the medium and was becoming fast convinced that it would never work for sculpting. The biggest frustration I initially experienced was that the gesso would not readily build up enough to be of any workable thickness. After continually having to wipe up the runny red gesso bleeding across the paper,I came to the point of having to decide whether to declare the grand experiment a failure, toss it in the can and move on to something else. It was the closest I ever came to giving up on any piece I ever tried. Yet,from somewhere deep inside,the OCD ravaged maniacally mad inventor came out and the idea of using paper surfaced,with trying to get the gesso to thicken. The last attempt turned it all around and kept the cavalry charging on it until it was finished!

Fig.6 - Beginning attempt at the spires

Figure 6 shows the mess made from the thin gesso and botched attempts,though the ones pictured were the best ones up to that time.

Fig.7 - The improved Spires

Figure 7 shows the last incarnate for the spires,made from paper and built up with gesso to get the desired appearance. The photo on the left side shows the "ready to paint" capital. The photo to the right gives a good picture of a half gesso/half drawing,just for the purpose of comparison.

----Painting The Old House----

After the application of gesso is completed,the next step in the course of things is to apply the metal work and paint. To get the low down on what types of paints and metals are used,I again refer you to the latter half of Part 1 of this article. It explains in detail what was used and how it was applied. The letter "F" here underwent a full makeover when painting the piece. Rather than the flat red letter "F" before,it was built up with gesso for a raised appearance and leafed with copper. It was actually quite a struggle to decide whether to do the letter in gold or copper. I finally settled on doing the tracery around the letter in gold and the letter itself in copper.....a decision I am happy with! Again, I hope this article is somewhat helpful with your own art endeavors and will provide some kind of direction or even inspire you with your works. I will finish this part of the article with pictures of the finished capital. Tune in next episode when we will attempt to buttress the old girl up!!!!