The National Ballet of Canada, hand-lettered script – Al Elliott, c1963

Al Elliott was a master of the English Roundhand, a formal script that had reached its fully developed state in the eighteenth century. By the mid twentieth century a new breed of lettering artists had transformed it from a written script into a drawn one. Elliott was always careful to not let the swashes overpower the words. To avoid having ‘dark spots’ in the lettering he would never overlap two thick strokes, although two thin strokes or a thick and thin, could overlap. Another measure of Elliott’s skill was in how well he could distort specific letters, e.g. the ‘f’ in the word ‘of’, in order to maintain the overall shape of the composition.

Typically, these scripts were carefully drawn on high quality tracing paper, working back and forth on both sides of the paper until the design was complete. The underside of the tracing paper was then rubbed with pencil to deposit a thin film of graphite which allowed the design to be transferred to the illustration board. After the design had been transferred it would be inked in with either a pointed-nib pen or a brush. Lastly, any irregularities or mistakes, would be touched-up with white gouache. Elliott’s work rarely required much touch up. An alternate method that he and other lettering artists also employed was to glue the finished drawing to a piece of thin card and letter directly on the tissue paper. The surface of the tissue paper had a fine ‘tooth’ that was perfect for both a pen or brush.

It is quite likely that Elliott did this script for Allan Fleming who, at the time, was doing some design work for the National Ballet, presumably pro bono. We would like to learn more about this piece and about the relationship between Allan Fleming and The National Ballet.