The Blackboard Artist workshop
September 2019
A one day lettering workshop that I attended in central London. The day consisted of learning the techniques of blackboard writing, from concept to finished product. It was hosted by the talented Michael Tilley otherwise known as the Blackboard Artist and his team.
It was my first time attending this type of workshop and I’m so glad I signed up for it. I was part of a small class that all had brilliant individual mentoring and support all day. From the detailed intro and demos to the supply of materials and tea.
We were free to pick any foodie theme for our blackboards, the only requirement was that it must have an image. I'm a sucker for desserts so I gravitated towards the sweet stuff.
We started with an initial sketch for the content of the blackboard and how the layout might look.
These images show the foundation layers for the board, from calculating line spacing, drafting the font and images in pencil and finally filling in the shapes in pen. This was a new process for me, usually I would have eyeballed the spacing between words, individual letters and the empty space but having a dedicated method to figuring this out was (and has since been) very helpful.
I'm happy with how my first attempt at blackboard art turned out, particularly the cakes; the highlights make them look super delectable. If I were to do the same board again I would use two fonts with more difference between them and also work on the spacing between the lines. Although the words are defined they are all a bit jammed in together.
