Letter R and Raspberry

Letter R and Raspberry

Letter R and Raspberry are part of a watercolor and ink study in letter styles and object styles beginning with that letter. Each study will focus on one letter and one object beginning with that letter in order to collect and practice various artistic styles and alphabets.

For some reason lately, I keep wanting to follow letter Q with letter U. I’ve done it on Instagram challenges, in alphabet lettering practice, and I almost did it with this post! I don’t know what’s up with my brain because I’m certainly old enough to know my abcs, having graduated kindergarten several decades ago. Nevertheless, I started looking at words that start with letter U instead of letter R.

Once I gathered my sense, I sorted through a long list of R words including redwood, radicchio, rain, raccoon, Rockies, rosemary, and others. For this round, only red oak (because I really enjoy painting fall leaves) and raspberry (because we have a fall crop of them which makes them easy to study and they are delicious) made it to the finals. Finally, in the name of not knowing which oak leaves fall from a red oak over which leaves fall from other oaks, I decided to paint raspberries.

Here is what I observed and learned.

Dip Pen Letter R Styles

• Wow! Letter R has more character than I first thought. I’m impressed with the variety in these 20 styles and I feel there is still room to develop it.
• Letter R has several options for flourishes, but my boxes are too small to cover all possibilities.
• Favorites: 1, 2, 3, 8, 11, 19.
• Least favorite: 13.
• R 16 has me wondering what it would look like used as a capital letter. Would it work or not?

Watercolor and Ink Letter R Styles

• So far, I’m pleased with the consistency of these styles, and I find the variety and differences enjoyable.
• The top left R turned out less muddy. Yay!
• There is something about the lower right R that I don’t like, but I can’t decide what it is.

Watercolor and Ink Raspberry Styles

• What delicious fun! We grow three varieties of raspberries (with varying success, but we’re learning). We enjoy walking into the backyard to eat a handful of them or bringing them in to observe and paint (okay, that’s just me).
• Favorites: both top pictures and the lower left with my absolute favorite being the three, colored berries.
• Least favorite: the middle right, loose style. I like a loose style, but I didn’t feel this one worked as well as others, possibly because the colors did not mesh well creating a little muddiness.
• My chocolate-loving son insists that the best one is the cake.

I still feel an urge to paint leaves. It’s fall, maybe I should indulge in some falling leaves and pumpkins just for fun. I didn’t take the time to decorate outside, maybe I can decorate inside.

What are some of your favorite fall things? Take some time to enjoy them today.

Happy creating!

For a look at previous letters in this study, click here to find links to each study.