The Glorious 25th of May!

Hello friends! 

Welcome back…unless this is first time you’ve read one of my posts, then, hey! How ya doing and most importantly welcome!! 

Tomorrow is The Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May and I’ve got a new piece of hand lettering art to share with you this week. Truth, justice, freedom, reasonably priced love and a hard boiled egg! Is a quote from Terry Pratchett’s brilliant Discworld novel Night Watch. Sir Terry was a genius and is my favourite author second only to Tolkien.

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Bag End and Beyond

Hello my friends!

Lets travel back a couple of weeks…

Incase you didn’t know March 25th was chosen by Tolkien as the date on which The One Ring was destroyed, defeating Sauron forever and finishing Frodo’s quest!

It’s known among fans of the author as Tolkien Reading Day. As I’ve mentioned before J.R.R Tolkien is one of my two favourite authors (the other being Terry Pratchett). Celebrating the 25th and Middle Earth can be as simple as picking up a book and reading or creating a piece of art, writing some poetry or just watching the movies…I know some of my fellow nerds who spend the day in their awesomely recreated costumes!

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Mothers Day World Turtle

Hello friends! 

This coming Sunday is Mothers Day (in the UK) and one of the things I’ve always done is make something for my mum, I decided a while back that I wanted to paint her something which evolved into a new World Turtle illustration, that I want to share with you. 

This is the fifth World Turtle and my growing collection now contains Spring, Autumn, Winter and Valentines illustrations and now I can add a Mothers day one too!!!

So this painting features not one, but three World Turtles – a mummy and two hatchlings! As its a mothers day themed painting I wanted there to be a lot of pink and flowers – so its kinda incorporating all the colours you’d find in a bouquet. Foliage wise the trees and bushes are in bright shades of green.

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I would rather spend one lifetime with you

Hello friends! Welcome back…unless this is first time you’ve read one of my posts, then, hey! How ya doing and most importantly welcome!! 

I’ve got a new piece of hand lettering art to share with you this week. I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone is a quote from Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings. Tolkien’s works are filled with many a wonderful quote…although I’m pretty sure this isn’t one of them.

**I did check the books but couldn’t find it so I assume it was made up for the movies.**

Something I’m trying to improve with my hand lettering is allowing the words to flow together and get in each others space as opposed to just being in straight lines. Although I like the cleanness of using straight lines if its quite a long quote for these shorter ones letting the words nestle into one another looks way more interesting…but it takes a little practice.

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Valentines World Turtles

Hello friends! 

This coming Tuesday is Valentines day and I decided a while back that I wanted to create some love themed art so this week I wanted to share a new illustration with you. My growing collection of World Turtles now contains Spring, Autumn and Winter illustrations and I thought why not create a Valentines day one too!!!

So this painting features two World Turtles – As its a love themed I wanted the colours to reflect the theme of love – using lots of reds and pinks. Foliage wise the trees in vibrant shades of green and help to create a heart in the negative space between the turtles.

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All We Have to Decide

Hello my friends!

This week I thought I’d share my first hand lettering post of 2023. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us is a quote from J.R.R Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring. Professor Tolkien’s books are an endless supply of wise and beautiful phrases, that I really love turning into art.

**spoilers ahead** 

This particular line is said by Gandalf the Grey while the fellowship are in Moria in the movies, but actually it takes place in Chapter 2 of FOTR: The Shadows of the past in a conversation between the wizard and Frodo Baggins before Sam gets caught eavesdropping and the hobbits leave the Shire.

**okay no more spoilers**

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Festive hand lettering

Hello friends,

Happy December!

As we’ve finally entered the festive month I though I’d share some Christmas Carol themed calligraphy art!

Something I’m trying to do is create a collection of festive themed art – I have a lot of art up around the house and have decided it might be fun to create winter pieces to go in each frame for the holiday season.

Two of my most favourite carols are O come all ye faithful and The Holly and the Ivy, which I’ve turned into A4 sized pieces in traditional festive colours. 

I love Christmas music – not necessarily the pop stuff, but the old school carols and folk stuff and having it on in the background while I’m making last minute gifts or decorations is always lovely, ideally I really like to have festive music playing in the background as soon as it hits December 1st.

Anyway that it for this week! I hope you like my festive hand lettering. I’m thinking of maybe trying some tutorials for calligraphy next year. Would anyone be interested in that?

And as always thanks for reading and happy December.

Autumn World Turtle

Hello friends! 

A couple of weeks have slipped by without me posting – they flashed pass so quickly its unreal (I don’t know how some weeks can disappear in the blink of an eye and yet some days can last a lifetime)

This week I wanted to share a new painting. Back in July I posted the finished watercolour painting of ‘A World Turtle’ and thought, why not do a turtle for each season!

As its autumn I wanted the colours of the foliage to reflect the time of year – November here is a bit nippy but the trees are beautiful as they change colour. I’ve even tried to include little piles of leaves that have been swept together – even if they look like bushes!

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Home is Behind

Hello my friends!

This week I thought as I’ve not posted any calligraphy art for a while I thought I’d share this one. I very much consider Middle Earth to be my happy place and the works of Tolkien have long been one of my favourite things!

So the actual song Tolkien wrote isn’t actually sung in The Lord of the Rings, part of its last verse is sung in The Return of the King, by Pippin. On the soundtrack of the film, this track is named Edge of Night and Billy Boyd sings it beautifully.

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