Thank you John Baskerville
for your lovely font.
For this portrait, I chose the Baskerville font. I am altogether attracted to san-serif fonts and their contemporary line and their feel, but I decided now is the time to challenge myself, as well as, embrace the “love” of serif fonts. I searched through well over two hundred fonts and found myself drawn to the elegance and the weight of the Baskerville serif font. It is categorized as a Transitional typeface (initiated in the mid 18th century), which means it existed between the evolutions of the Old Style typeface (1460–1600) and the Modern Style typeface (introduced in the late 18th century). There is a high contrast between the thick and thin strokes and it has wedge-shaped serifs, perpendicular stresses, and horizontal crossbeams, all of which, I find quite appealing. These attributes make Baskerville very readable and excellent for body text.
The challenge was to create a portrait using only one typeface and there was to be no distortion of the font, such as skewing, shadowing, or applying art filters. The only adjustments that could be made were to the scale and the rotation of the characters. As well, I could use only individual characters; there was to be no typing on a path. All characters must be individually placed and layered on the canvas to create the portrait.
After selecting the font, next came the decision of whose and what type of portrait I should create. Should I create an original person or an existing person? Should it be male or female? What age should the person be? As I researched the Baskerville font, I came upon James Millar’s painting of the typeface’s creator John Baskerville. I found the portrait to be formal in its tone. Baskerville wore a powdered wig with “sausage” curls and he also wore a reserved and slightly amused expression on his face. He was perfect! I couldn’t wait to capture his likeness. John Baskerville (1706–1775) was an English businessman, writing master, typefounder, and printer who made contributions to papermaking, printing–press construction, printing ink, and of course, letter design.
Since selecting a serif font was a departure for me, I decided to also venture in the opposite direction of my natural design inclination. Normally, I would create a realistic, layered, and extremely detailed portrait of Baskerville, but for this project, I chose to imply Baskerville’s features and to greatly limit the detail—although I did allow myself the pleasure of articulating his “sausage” curls and creating a Rocco-influenced frame with glyphs—but still capture his essence. I kept Baskerville’s image centered on the canvas, which is in keeping with the 18th century portrait style of his day. The title and descriptive text was horizontal and centered below the portrait, which is quite traditional, although my usual M.O. would be to play with the text’s angles, layers, shades, and font size. Once the portrait was assembled, I stepped back for a long, critical look. I was pleased with the composition except John Baskerville’s image didn’t “pop” to the forefront. My piece was composed of black type on a white background—much too traditional—so I inverted the color scheme and voila, John really took front and center.
At first I found the parameters of this project somewhat daunting, but as the work progressed, I found it to be an enjoyable challenge and an excellent opportunity to try a new, simpler design approach and execution. I hope that I have done justice to this remarkable man John Baskerville.
Peace, my friends
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