YOU INSPIRE ME and I think I'm on a sabbatical

There's a reason the advice about not creating your art to fit into a certain size frame is out there. I believe that reason could be because it might sit in a file for 6 months before any ideas start to flow.

Around 30 years ago a young man wrote this letter to his girlfriend, now his wife, who wanted to surprise him with it. She had the perfect spot on the wall, and already bought a wooden frame for it. Her request was that it fit 8x16, be casual & not fancy.
For the piece to have a more masculine feel, I played around and came up with a sharper edged ITALIC with no terminals. A changing vertical slant to the letters gave it a more casual yet lively look. I highlighted a phrase that was repeated throughout by running it vertically down the left.
Walnut ink was used in varying strengths throughout. A mixture of copper powders blended with a few drops of water and a drop of gum arabic was then brushed into the still wet NEULAND 'INSPIRE', which allowed it to bleed a bit.

Overall, I'm happy with the piece, although a couple of those flourishes (again!) off the main body of letters look stiff and the flourish of the 'e' in ME near the bottom shouldn't be touching that little one. Poor planning, but hey, it wasn't like that on the previous copy that was supposed to be the good one! The client said, No, at no time has her huband called her with Yo, instead of You. As in 'Yo, Adriann!' Hmmmph. I address envelopes & sign my emails to son#2 with YO' MAMA, so I figured it was worth a shot. In doing it again I might try swinging one of those small flourishes near the middle up and over the heading & then semi back again. The writing was quite personal so it's meant to be hard to read here.

Now, I can't sign off without my current reason for being; Biskit! Who's 6 months old now! (OK, and the husband is 56) and I took this shot when we went out to Jasper last month for a final good bye to our friend Jim.

Oh, and the sabbatical? That's self-imposed, and I have to admit I'm kinda liking it. The occasional guilty feelings are to be expected; meanwhile I'm just waiting to see what transpires. No promises. No expectations. Vegging out and really just loving being a puppymaster.