Since this blog is about chronicling my journey, I figure I should take a step back and tell you more about where my interest grew in lettering.
While I was attending Rochester Institute of Technology, I needed a way to de-stress from all the other heavy courses I was taking at the time. It was the dead middle of winter and my studio courses were very intense, lasting from 4 hours twice a week and still having to put in more time to complete the assignment courses. My friend decided to sign up for a calligraphy class and suggested I join. I came to one class and felt like I was learning the alphabets all over again.
Though calligraphy is different in many cases the foundations such as thick and thins, spacing and composition share the same principles. At times I thought it was very silly to want to sit and draw letters with a nib pen, and we practiced for a good two weeks before we moved went into the next steps in making projects and beautiful signs for businesses.
This class met once a week for about an hour and I found myself wanting to learn more, so I took the second half of the course the following semester, where hand lettering was introduced. My professor began to show us how to get involved in making signage for local shops and banners, however By this time I was in my senior year, and my focus began to shift on simply getting out of school. I was a super senior (5 years in) and wanted to move back to Jersey where the weather didn't change every hour and the snow didn't come up to my knees.
I eventually lost the momentum on focusing on lettering and calligraphy but I did keep all the resources. Sometime in 2013 I began to dabble again and started to look for more resources focusing on hand lettering. There were very few books and I still have some in my wish list from amazon, but I stumbled on Sean McCabe's free resource guide and began making time to practice.
My practice sessions are usually after hours from my day job and on the weekends. During the week I try to set aside at least thirty minuets a day and on the weekend anywhere from 2 - 4 hours at a time with mini breaks in between. While I practice my lettering, I am either listening to music, or a podcast, or an audio book. I've learned to use my time wisely, as it is something you cannot get back. I use a calendar for my day-to-day activities. and make a daily to do list.
Where are you in your journey and how did you get started?