Here's a thing. I did this a couple of weeks ago, posted it on IG, and it received a very positive response. I was very unsure of it, and I remain unconvinced by my own work.

It's a quote from a lovely Nancy Kerr song, Fragile Water - it's a song which uses the ancient Orkneyan legend of silkies - creatures who lived as seals in the water but shed a skin to walk as humans on land - as a metaphor for the very modern issue of gender fluidity.

I wanted to break the usual linear presentation of lyric, and allow a transition from black on white to white on darker shades. I also felt that echoing the age-old nature of the legend with insular half uncial was appropriate.

The brush strokes were a shape I hade very much in my head, like falling ribbons. Looking at it now, I wish they were bolder and broader.

It was done with gouache and watercolour, on Sauders Waterford Cold Pressed. Brause nibs, folded pen for some of the swooshes, brush for the others.

I'm interested in what people think. It's a different sort of composition to me, and I might return to the song, and the form at some point. I'd be as inclined to refine technique and execution as much as anything else.

Feel free to dig in.

Here are Pratchett's immortal words, in uncial. Done with a Soennecken 2 1/2 nib, on Saunders Waterford. It's black gouache, and I added a little vermillion to the tip of the nib for the 'O's. I didn't want them to stand out just look slightly shaded.

As ever, a lovely choice by u/mshades

Feel free to offer CC.

I am struggling to transcribe 16th century secretary hand. If anyone can help please comment or message me, I will happily pay for a transcription.

God made only water, but man made wine.

- Victor Hugo

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I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.

- Hafez

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No issue is so small that it can't be blown out of proportion.

- Stuart Hughes

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Age is not an accomplishment, and youth is not a sin.

- Robert Heinlein

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This piece is built from loose repetitions of the word “nothing.” I wanted to form a cross-like structure (acedia means spiritual fatigue, emptiness), and the three repetitions are meant to echo a trinitarian structure.

Any feedback or discussion is always welcome!

Nothing’s worse than saying goodbye. It’s a little like dying.

- Marjane Satrapi

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I can't seem to avoid the bleeding of my 1.5 parallel pen on this or any other paper... Any suggestions from more expert scribes?

I even slightly modified Rustica to avoid having more overlapping lines, but to no avail.

Oh and forgive the spelling errors in the second picture. I swear I had an A in English in school.

There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it.

- Gustave Flaubert

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The past is past, the future unformed. There is only the moment, and that is where he prefers to be.

- William Gibson

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I am self-teaching myself Rustica at the moment, but I will look into an actual course in the future. I know my weak points are spacing and layout and shaky vertical elements, like in the last line, but I have no idea how to improve. Besides practice of course, but one must practice intelligently.

When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.

- Matt Groening, Futurama

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I'm new the blackletter, and use this super simple version to get a feel for the basic shapes.

No matter where you go, there you are.

- Buckaroo Banzai

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These are the first and last pages of my Apostles creed which I've just finished.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

- John F. Kennedy

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Trust everybody, but cut the cards.

- Finley Peter Dunne

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I know people on this sub always come up with excellent resources so I will ask the question here.

Who is the best modern calligrapher at practicing rustica? For brush romans for example Edward Catich is regarded as an authority; is there someone similar for rustica?

I love looking at manuscripts but I acknowledge that the materials and the purposes of the modern calligrapher are different from those of an ancient scribe that had to copy an entire book in relatively small module. Therefore I'd prefer to start learning a hand from a modern specimen and maybe later start imitating variations from manuscripts (or Pompeii painted graffiti!)