Appreciating and Creating: In Philadelphia. Part 1/3

The No'Easter just passed by and I was able to get a flight out on Thursday, March 22, 2018 to Philadelphia International Airport.  All  flights out on Wednesday were cancelled from Fort Lauderdale so I was concerned and felt fortunate that the storm did change my travel plans.  The flight was quick and my 4:30 out of Ft. Lauderdale landed around 7:11pm in Philadelphia.  I found the information booth, asked about the Train to Center City and I was guided to the signs to the platform.  I purchased a ticket from the kiosk machine which was $6.75  and  on the train as I saw when I was on board the price cash paid to the conductor is $9.00.

I came to Philadelphia for one reason:  To learn and appreciate  the craft of  a sign painter and learn Casual Lettering. Day one at the Better Letters Mike Meyer Workshop in Philadelphia hosted by Gibb Connors.

This student actually is a sign painter.

No pictures of me here I had them on my phone and posted them on instagram for day one.  I learned how to decode the shape of letters which was more difficult than I originally  thought.  The painting technique was tricky also.  The paint consistency has to be right too thin it drips too thick it tis hard to pull the brush.  Yeah.  The appreciation for the magic sign painters can pull off really started to grow  on day one.

I had a chance to wander around the city in the morning before the workshop and I took a few pictures.

These photos were taken in the Little Italy section of Philadelphia.  I am getting ready for day two here in Philadelphia.  Casual letters day.

Day 2 Better Letters Casual Lettering and Script.  Well, I was disappointed honestly.  This is why I came to Philadelphia  to get a grip on Casual Lettering and it was a disappointing day for most of the participants in the workshop too.  I say this only because when the people in class start cursing like "this sucks" as they are lettering you know they are not enjoying it.  Even people who do graphic design were struggling today and one person who is a sign painter did not get a handle on the script.

First no individual strokes are taught.  Just a demonstration and then you are on your own.  No booklet or paper or poster with the order of the brush strokes were shown either.  I spent the whole day trying to teach myself to get the Casual Letters to look okay.  I  asked Mike to please paint me a reference alphabet and I watched carefully to pick as many tips  as I could.  After that I did do better.  I did not do the script at all.  I didn't see the point in it when I could  barely get casual.  I think most people at that workshop needed more time with casual.  TWO hours was not enough time.  Here are my sheets of practice from the day. 

Morning practice.  I like my Q.  Mike came and painted his Q on my practice sheet after I finished mine.

Practicing the angle edge strokes.

End of Morning practice.

Afternoon on my own continuing to practice casual.

At 4pm I finished this alphabet and left the workshop an hour early.

After I left the workshop, I took the dirty Philly Subway to Center City.  I got something to eat at Hip City, a vegan place and ate sweet potato fries as I walked around the city.