Module 3 A Graphic Renaissance-Miscellaneous

As I spent time exploring and with my desire to add everything, I knew I needed to stop and think. Why did we go so fast in this section of the book? I just couldn't explore it all! I would love to have had a week per chapter.

I looked at William Blake's Illustrations at http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/ and could see the next stop on our path  to that romantic era with its many sweeping swirls and not clear lines. I like these two pages from his "Book of Job." He draws so the eye goes directly to the main center but all the other designs add to the visual bounty. The lines ,almost spidery, seem to accent the timeless of the story and how he adds it as part of the illustration. He is able to have the engravers lines but have it look painting wash effect on his color illustrations. Amazing.

I also went to other sites such as

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/611830/typography/36786/History-of-typography to see a modern day model of Gutenberg's type mold. And to http://wapedia.mobi/en/History_of_western_typography that had a great book of a piece of cast metal type of Garamond's style long s along with a history. The open library at http://openlibrary.org/subjects/time:conquest_1519-1540 has a great collection of digital books from the early 1500's. Sites about paper making was on my list to do. I wanted to look up each craftsman and explore his works.

My thoughts are with all the people that over this long period of time were able to produce such a tremendous amount of work and that work were things of beauty with utility. How hard they worked with patience and loving care. How they built upon the previous generation of innovation and put in their own uniqueness. Sure some made a handsome profit and a living but what craftsman they were.

Many were part of family dynasties with a widow marry the head foreman to keep the shop going. They were human like Geoffroy Troy's pot casse emblem which was symbolic of his daughter death. So are we just a hard working and just a hungry for knowledge? I think we are. We have built upon their legacy and with our improvements, all can see their works.