Individual Details

The Art of Fine
LETTERING
Basic Skills and Techniques
by Sister Michaeline Lesiak, O.S.F

University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame - London
Copyright 1965
286 page hardback book
From the introduction...

THIS BOOK IS for you. You, the teacher of college and high school students; you, the teacher in the grades; you, the student who wishes to learn freehand lettering quickly and efficiently; you who would like to letter because it is an interesting means of communication; you, the unhappy one with the illegible handwriting welcoming a reform; you, the left-handed writer who despairs of learning to letter; and you, the individual who has long cherished a desire to letter but never had the opportunity for formal training. Yes, perhaps, even for you, the professional artist who would like to bear the additional title of "lettering" artist. These thirteen chapters are for all of you: to explore, to absorb, and to enjoy.
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Chapter 1 is for all of you. It paints your portrait as "lettering artist" in action. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are for those who are curious about the nature of the tools and materials with which they work. You can learn to letter very well, however, without studying these in minute detail.
The essential Chapters are 7 and 8. They present the basic matter and procedures in making letters freehand. If you are interested mainly in handling different tools you can concentrate on making basic letters (as directed in Chapter 8) with all the tools described in Chapter 3. If you are interested in various styles of letters but wish to use only one tool, do all the lessons in Chapters 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 with that one tool. If, however, you are determined to experiment with all kinds of tools and learn all kinds of letters, follow the lessons and exercises exactly as they are presented in Chapters 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.
You who are looking for new ideas and challenges will find suggestions in Chapter 13.
You who are left-handed will find directions especially in Chapters 1 and 3.
You who have finally found the long awaited opportunity to learn to letter will find the systematic progress-exercises stimulating, and profit by the list of evaluations of your own work. This "How To" will indeed help you to "Do It."
Chapter 12 in particular is for you who aim to acquire a distinguished style of personal handwriting. 
You whom lettering fascinates will find unusual excitement in the elegant Ronde in Chapter 11 and stimulating information  on bookmaking described in the same chapter.
You who consider poster.-work an important means of communication will find Chapter 9 most helpful, not only from the point of view of lettering but also of arrangement.
Many of you are eager to establish sound systems of composition and efficiency in making good letters. Chapter 5 is for you.
You who are the teacher in the grades may want to present the fundamental lessons in Chapters 7 and 8 with a felt nib, a wide pencil, or a square crayon (instead of pen and ink) to the young students.
Those of you who intend to use this book as a text for lettering and composition for college and high school students will find teaching more effective and successful if each student has his own copy to follow procedures for exercises and assignments.
CONTENTS

Something About Yourself
Something About Paper
Something About Pens
Something About Ink
Something About Composition
Something About Books
Introduction to Freehand Lettering
Sans-serif Alphabet,
Sans-serif Alphabet with Speedball Pens
Square-serif Alphabet,
Square-serif Alphabet Written with a Brush
Sharp-serif Alphabet With a Reed Pen
Round-serif Alphabet Written with Gillott Pens
Calligraphy for Everybody Written with a Fountain Pen
Old Problems in New Solutions
 
This is a book for everyone, from professional to hobbyist, from poster
designer to handwriting neophyte. It is a textbook, a reference book, a
working guide to the mastery of the recently revived art of fine lettering.
With its help anyone can learn to letter easily, quickly, and efficiently with
a variety of tools and media. This compact, fully illustrated book provides
all the necessary elements of design and composition, techniques, exercises
for skill, and suggested problems which until now have been available
only in scattered sources.
Beautiful hand-lettering is an ancient art; this volume retains all its traditions,
while at the same time its progressive approach makes full use of
new tools and contemporary concepts of design. The author presents a
theory and method of lettering which place the elements essential to clear
communication in a firm artistic groundwork.
The teaching techniques used here offer the student a genuine opportunity
for creativity, for although they provide principles and guideposts and
offer exercises and problems in logical development, these are, above all,
means for progressive self-evaluation.
The student is encouraged to experiment and discover for himself his own
best approach to artistic problems and to develop a personal style.
About the author...

Sister Michaeline Lesiak, O.S.F.,  worked and taught at
Lourdes Junior College and St. Clare Academy in Sylvania, Ohio. She has
delivered demonstration lectures on lettering throughout the United
States, and among her avocations are playwriting and poetry. She received
her M.A. and M.F.A. degrees from the University of Notre Dame, where she
taught  in the summer school program

Birth	24 Jun 1914	Nebraska
Residence	1920	Newman, Nance, Nebraska, United States
Death	26 Jan 1997	Sylvania, Lucas, Ohio, United States
Residence	26 Jan 1997	Ohio, United States
Alt name		M. Michaeline Lesiak

Father	Michael Lesiak (1870 - 1973)
Mother	Victoria Knopik (1886 - 1935)
Sibling	Rose Lesiak (1900 - 1987)
Sibling	Monica Lesiak (1902 - 1986)
Sibling	Charles Joseph Lesiak (1903 - 2005)
Sibling	Victoria Lesiak (1907 - 1980)
Sibling	Leonard Lesiak (1908 - 1971)
Sibling	Frank Lesiak (1910 - 2002)