Lettering on a Canvas Painting

A Christmas project began like this with a cute purchased painting printed on canvas. Wish I had painted the original - isn't it cute!

Though I do a lot of pointed pen calligraphy, I had never really done much with pointed brush lettering. After lots of study and practice I set brush to acrylic paint to canvas painting. To complement the cute painting, I wanted it to be looser than my usual pointed pen script style. I took the knowledge I gained from playing with the flat brush with calligrapher extraordinaire John Stevens at Cheerio in September and applied it to my pointed brush practice.

I was pretty well pleased with the lettering of the quote across the skirts, and with most of the names. Here is a close up of the first pass of the lettering across the skirts, with chalk pencil guidelines still in place.

But, phooey! I didn't like the second name. Looks a bit crowded upon itself, and too far from the first name. I was able to make the correction, totally removing that name and re-lettering it in a better position. Can you see the difference?

Here it is! "All done!" as my grandson says. The names and the quote on this painting represent two sisters and their daughters. When I was sure all the names were correctly spelled, I sprayed the canvas a couple of times with clear gloss acrylic to set the newly added lettering. What a fun project!

If you like this, check out my Keep This Ticket blog to see a painting I donated to help some talented young boys get to the NAMM show in California.