5autumn 2007

Briefly Noted: Recent Projects

lettering a soybeanThe Iowa Soybean Association’s “2007Soy on Parade” provided me with thenovel opportunity to do calligraphy on a 4 x 4 x 6 foot fiberglass soybean.Twenty painted soybean sculptures were exhibited at the Iowa State Capitol,venues throughout the state, and the2007 Iowa State Fair, with proceeds fromtheir auction providing scholarships inAgriculture Education.

Loving to cook, and a consumer ofsoy foods, I chose edible soy products as a theme. The considerations of letter-ing on an outdoor sculpture were daunt-ing, albeit exciting. Golden AcrylicPaints Tech Support became a lifesaver,guiding me through prep, painting andsealing as well as choosing media specif-ically tested for my purposes.

Having lived near soybeans my wholelife I’ve loved how mature plants turn

from rich green to an earthy gold,becoming so profuse that they crowdtogether and all but eliminate the rich,black Iowa furrows. Stacks of goldenNeuland lettering on a black back-ground created a similar overall textureand become a metaphor for this jeweledlandscape.

The Process: The fiberglass was lightlysanded, wiped with solvent, and painted

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with two coats of black gesso (mixedwith GAC 200 for increased adhesion),and covered with a coat of pure blackgesso.

Test lettering on a black apronallowed color scheme experimentationand provided a flexible swatch to hangon the sphere. Scale of lettering andcolor were appraised from a distance.

Guidelines were drawn with a whitepencil using a strip of matboard thesame width as the letter height. Thisflexible straightedge made creatingguidelines on a curved surface easierthan a rigid ruler. Each line’s circumfer-ence was recorded and the number ofcharacters per line calculated.

White brush lettering was scumbledwith fluid acrylic paint, leaving blackspeckles showing through. Compactedwords, in rows on top of rows, on top ofrows with little interletter, and no inter-linear space, echoed mature soybeans(filled out fully, touching each other,with just a hint of black evident betweenthe rows).

Letters and counterspaces wereunder-painted white, with a dry brush,then scumbled over with tints of yellow,ochre, and raw sienna. Counter spaceswere scumbled over with either dull but-terscotch (the color of mature, shelledsoybean) or its complement, blue violet.Lastly, letters were scumbled again withiridescent gold, adding a reflective qual-ity and causing the soybean, as a whole,to appear jewel-like.

An isolation coat of diluted Soft Gelprovided a protective coat for the art-work and also prepared the surface foran industrial clear coat, applied at anauto body shop. The shop guys assuredme that race cars receive the same treat-ment which was impervious to weather.

The bean was off to the races, or at least,the delivery truck.

Working big was delightful and itwas great fun to letter on fiberglass oncethe surface was prepped. The samedesign principles for small projectsapplied to this large format, with scale,legibility and craftsmanship being justas critical. This calligraphic adventureunderscored my respect for thoroughresearch, and rewarded me with thedesire to take more risks in the world ofletter making.

—Dot Prater

Dot Prater is a calligraphic artist fromAmes, Iowa. She and her husband are found-ing members of CASA, a cooperative, non-profit art studio where she works and teach-es and shares a space large enough for suchbig projects.

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1 The raw bean.2 Using the matboard ruler to mark lines.3 Mr. Bean gets tattooed.4 Painting white counter-spaces.5 Painting the yellow mixture over the white.6 Overpainting the blue violet.7 Final touches.8 And more final touches.9 Detail: scumbled letters.10 The bean coming off the truck.11 After the autobody topcoat.