Incredible! 3D Street Art You Have to See to Believe

It's not exactly calligraphy, but it is artistic expression

Renowned Street Artists like Edgar Mueller and Manfred Stader produce really incredible art on paved surfaces all over the world. Many of their works are just too unbelievable to imagine. Some of Edgar's and Manfred's artwork include Turning River Street into a river:: Johnnie Walker Taipei:: Illusionary Car:: Painted City in Berlin:: Pavement Art Telecom:: Street art 3d - Ford Mexico:: Architecture Biennale Venice:: Reflection in a well:: Need For Speed:: 3d-Billboard in Hong Kong:: and Champions League Paris

Another incredible artist is Julian Beever who has made pavement drawings for over ten years. He has worked in the U.K., Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany, the USA and Australia. The pavement drawings have included both renderings of old masters plus a wealth of original inventive pieces of work. His incredible talent includes rendering of old masters, large pastel portraits in homage to or in obituary to the famous, and anamorphic illusions drawn in a special distortion in order to create an impression of thee dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint.

He has a skillful and playful talent and uses his illusions in a variety of ways. Sometimes he even interacts with the art to make his street art’s design part of the work itself. Clearly, his artworks are as much intended to entertain himself as it is to excite and amuse the crowds that gather around them. His other street graffiti includes renderings of master artworks and pastel portraits.

Kurt Wenner is an international master artist who interprets Renassance classicism with a thoroughly singular voice. The scope of Wenner's work is not confined to a canvas or limited by a frame. His visual illusions with street painting has made him famous and has difined some of his artistic expression as "lived in" rather than observed.

This artistic form has not had the exposure it deserves. Thankfully, with the advent of the Internet, many of these artists are being discovered and receiving the attention they justly deserve. You will almost certainly not have had much contact with street painting until now. For many of these artist, street painting is their profession which they have been exercising for years.

Starting a Calligraphy Business At Home!

Do you have a Talent at Scribing & Lettering?

Expand your talent by Selling your Calligraphy Work!

Some people are natural born scribers while others develop the skill over time. Some take classes, study with experts or some learn on their own. As a special gift, you can turn this talent and hobby into a business for yourself. The possibilities are endless! Addressing envelopes for wedding invitations or Christmas cards. Developing your own cards to have printed and sell. Artistic ventures for individuals. Customized art work, lettering and signage.

Hand Calligraphy brings a warm, personal feel to others. While computer-generated lettering may be uniform-looking and suitable for some events, I believe that talent at hand-lettering makes a much stronger impression on others. People seek this kind of specialized talent and service. So much is performed by computers these days, that it is becoming harder to find those who offer this service. Be one that does and capture the market in your area! You can read more of the story about using the calligraphy alphabet for a business here.

The Definition of Calligraphy

Calligraphy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Calligraphy (from Greek κάλλος kallos "beauty" + γραφή graphẽ "writing") is the art of beautiful writing (Mediavilla 1996: 17). A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is

"the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner" (Mediavilla 1996: 18). The story of writing is one of aesthetic evolution framed within the technical skills, transmission speed(s) and materials limitations of a person, time and place (Diringer 1968: 441). A style of writing is described as a script, hand or alphabet (Fraser & Kwiatkowski 2006; Johnston 1909: Plate 6) .

Calligraphy ranges from functional hand lettered inscriptions and designs to fine art pieces where the abstract expression of the handwritten mark may or may not supersede the legibility of the letters (Mediavilla 1996). Classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may create all of these; characters are historically disciplined yet fluid and spontaneous, improvised at the moment of writing (Pott 2006 & 2005; Zapf 2007 & 2006). So, many calligraphers are as happy with "jazz" as "classical" for musical analogy and represents differing emphasis between artists.

The use of the Calligraphy Alphabet continues to flourish in the forms of wedding and event invitations, font design/ typography, original hand-lettered logo design, religious art, commissioned calligraphic art, cut stone inscriptions,memorial documents, props and moving images for film and television, testimonials, maps, and other works involving writing (see for example Letter Arts Review; Propfe 2005; Geddes & Dion 2004).

The Western Use Of The Calligraphy Alphabet

Western Calligraphy

The Calligraphy Alphabet is used throughout the world in many cultures. This article describes some of the uses in the western world. Main article: Western calligraphy The Historical evolution of Western calligraphy^[1]

Western Calligraphy

Calligraphy is recognizable by the use of the Roman alphabet. The alphabet came from the Phoenician, Greek, and Etruscan alphabets. The first Roman alphabet appeared about 600 BC, in Rome. About the first century we can see Roman square capitals carved on stones, Rustic capitals painted on walls, and Roman cursive for daily use. This trend continued into the second and third centuries using the Uncial, however writing withdrew to monasteries and was preserved there during the fourth and fifth centuries, when Roman Empire finally fell and Europe entered the Dark Ages.

At the height of the Roman Empire its power reached as far as Great Britain, when the empire fell, its literary influence remained. The Semi-uncial generated the Irish Semi-uncial, the small Anglo-Saxon. In fact, each region seemed to have develop its own standards following the main monastery of the region (i.e. Merovingian script, Laon script, Luxeuil script, Visigothic script, Beneventan script) which are mostly cursive and hardly readable.

The raising of the Carolingian Empire encouraged to set a new standardized script, developed by several famous monasteries (Corbie Abbey, Beauvais,...) around the eighth century, it's finally the script from Saint Martin de Tours which is set as the new Imperial standard, named the Carolingian script (or "the Caroline"). From the Carolingian powerful Empire, this standard also conquered neighbouring kingdoms.

Summary: The use of the Calligraphy Alphabet in the Western World has developed from many styles and forms descending from the ancient art of "beautiful writing".

Method of holding the brush when using the Calligraphy Alphabet

The Chinese method of holding the brush

There are various styles and techniques used to hold the brush when used to develop one’s use of the calligraphy alphabet for artful writing. I have provided a brief description in the following paragraphs of two different genres or cultures.

How the brush is held depends on which calligraphic genre is practiced. For Chinese calligraphy, the method of holding the brush is more special; the brush is held vertically straight gripped between the thumb and middle finger. The index finger lightly touches the upper part of the shaft of the brush (stabilizing it) while the ring and little fingers tuck under the bottom of the shaft. The palm is hollow and you should be able to hold an egg in there. This method, although difficult to hold correctly for the beginner, allows greater freedom of movement, control and execution of strokes. For Japanese calligraphy, the brush is held in the right hand between the thumb and the index finger, very much like a Western pen.

A paperweight is placed at the top of all but the largest pages to prevent slipping; for smaller pieces the left hand is also placed at the bottom of the page for support.

In China, there are many people who practice calligraphy in public places such as parks and sidewalks, using water as their ink and the ground as their paper. These skillful artists use very large brushes with this technique. Although such calligraphic work using the calligraphy alphabet is temporary, they serve the dual purpose of both being an informal public display of one's work, and an opportunity to further practice one's calligraphy.