Carl Rohrs Raves and Reviews
September 29^th & 30^th

“Education is the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.”
G. K. Chesterton

This quote jumped out at me today. It’s been quite a while since I went to a workshop. I tend to be the teacher and it was a treat for me to sit down and think about actually trying to do something new. Since I was the person who drove Carl around town I had an opportunity to ask many questions
and learned that Carl’s love for lettering was locked in at an early age and he never thought of any other career path. He also made a couple references to how the only thing he does besides work is walk his dog. Although he let it slip that he golfs, so, he is not a complete workaholic.

At any rate, Carl is a good example of what happens when you devote your life to mastering a skill. In his case, it is multiple skills, but they are all interrelated. For Carl to take the time to travel to obscure places and work with people who are only going to learn a tiny bit of what he has to teach gives us a glimpse into the soul of an artist. His generosity is a gift of the soul.

Thank you to Carl for keeping the faith that we might actually accomplish something in 12 hours when, by my calculations, Carl has had 60,000 hours of practice. I arrived at that number by multiplying 30 years times 2,000 hours which is the ballpark figure for how many work hours there are in a year. I am sure Carl has put in more, but 60,000 hours is at least the minimum. I believe that should make us feel better about our humble attempts at the flat and pointed brush.

I came away with a couple maneuvers that are thrilling. When I sat down the next day to see what I could do, I was overwhelmed with how much more there was to learn on each page. But, I am not discouraged. I recalled how many times Carl mentioned that he now has a new way of doing things. This is another glimpse into the soul of an artist. He is not content to keep churning out letters that were perfected a couple decades ago. He’s constantly experimenting and revising.

Jean Wilson

I had been dying to take a pointed brush workshop from Carl Rohrs ever since I saw his amazing work at the St. John’s calligraphy conference in Minnesota in 2002. But I thought I’d have to wait until I got a chance to go to another conference in the future (which because of the huge cost, I thought would be never). So imagine my extreme delight when I found out Carl would be presenting a workshop to our humble little guild. It was like a dream come true!

I have been trying to master pointed brush for close to 13 years and could never quite get the hang of it. It got to the point where I had almost given up hope of ever being good at it and thought of abandoning it as a lost cause. But thanks to Carl, I feel like I finally understand how to make those beautiful letters and am one step closer to my dream. He was so down-to-earth and patient with us and I really appreciated how he made sure to spend a lot of time with each of us to make sure we got a lot of individualized attention. He showed us so many great little tips and tricks to help us make our letters look the way they’re supposed to look. Those were really invaluable.

Not only is Carl an outstanding brush lettering artist, but he’s also a wonderful and generous teacher. He brought each of us a beautiful personalized coil-bound book of his numerous brush lettering exemplars (for a very small fee), which was full of page after page of his inspiring work. I’m a handout junkie and can never get enough handouts in workshops, so I was practically drooling. These were a huge highlight of the workshop for me. He tried to make sure that the weekend was jam-packed and he demoed a variety of brush alphabets so he could expose us to all the different styles of lettering we could do with pointed and flat brushes. He also introduced us to the folded Horizon pen which I think I’m now in love with and demoed a ruling writer alphabet as well. We definitely weren’t bored in this workshop.

Carl’s whole attitude about lettering was so great. You could tell from the way he spoke about making letters that this was something he really loved doing and wasn’t just the way he made his living. I will always be grateful for having the opportunity to learn from such a great master with such a love of lettering. This was without a doubt, one of the best workshops I have ever taken and I feel like I got way more than my money’s worth.

Veronica Koh Eischeid

This was my first CAGCI workshop and it was everything I hoped it would be! Carl’s style was very relaxed and unintimidating to me as a novice calligrapher. Carl demonstrated a number of lettering styles, techniques and tools. We were given ample time to practice what he covered in each demonstration but were encouraged to focus on the styles and techniques which most interested us. I had never used a folded pen, flat brush, or color brush before so all the tools were new to me. The instruction, individual attention and encouragement were just what I needed to get motivated. It was a joy to peer over Carl’s shoulder as he demonstrated a technique – sheer artistry! Thanks, Carl!!!

Joyce Bahrenfus

Carl really packed a LOT into two days of teaching. Not only did he show us tips and techniques for using four different tools: folded pen, pointed brush, flat brush and ruling pen, but he demonstrated and gave us time to play with quite a variety of modern alphabets. His teaching style is very personal and one-on-one. He had everyone’s names memorized almost as soon as we walked through the door. After each large group demonstration, he went around the room and sat down next to each participant for quality critique and instruction time. This took quite a bit of time, so it gave us lots of opportunity to practice what he had demonstrated.

One of the things I really appreciated was Carl’s ability to break down into understandable terms the characteristics of each tool and alphabet. He could explain what is happening when the particular tool makes contact with the paper – i.e. how the ink is laid down. For the first time I really “got” what happens when you lift the leading edge or trailing edge of the pen when using a folded pen.

I first learned lettering with the pointed brush 25 years ago in California, but Carl was able to demonstrate exactly how to move the brush to achieve nuances that made the letters much more fluid and cohesive. The new thing for me was learning about parallel strokes vs. perpendicular strokes with the pointed brush. I loved the results when using parallel strokes for the rounded letters. It was really fun!

It was a privilege to learn under such a “seasoned” instructor. He was not the least bit intimidated by left-handers. In fact, he seemed to consider finding ways to form the letters that would work for them with each different tool to be a fun challenge. He was very patient with less experienced students and offered new challenges for the more experienced students.

The bound book of alphabets and examples of his work that Carl personalized for each workshop participant will give us much to work on and be inspired by for a long time to come.

Joan McGrady-Beach

Some members of CAGCI spent the last weekend in September with yet another expert calligrapher and teacher, Carl Rohrs. After the first demonstration,
Carl let us jump right in to executing (yup, some of us DID execute!) the Italic alphabet with a flat brush. Carl said, “The push stroke is more elegant...”

We struggled, we succeeded, and we were all inspired by the possibilities!! Rohrs loves the compact look for ascenders and descenders and encouraged us to play around with letter proportions.

Next, we tackled a more modern Italic with the folded brass pen. Carl noted that what he demonstrated was more angular, more compressed than a classic Italic, and encouraged the “bounce” in these letters. He said, “Folded pens are rigid and wrapped...friendly to bounce.”

Then began our time with the pointed brush, as Carl reminded us that strokes are thicker going down, very thin going up. He told us that with pointed brush, we can begin a letter, stop and lift, go have a cup of coffee, and come back and finish the letter! “So much freedom! So much responsibility!” said Carl, and he reminded us to “think about the dance.”

Rohrs continued with demonstrating and discussing ruling pens. He mentioned that he likes the pen to “chatter” as it goes against the paper, and it leaves an interesting line. We spent an interesting weekend learning a lot of new information about a familiar hand from an enthusiastic, accomplished calligrapher, Carl Rohrs.

Kay Johnson

I was so excited to attend this workshop after reading about Carl on several Web sites and he didn’t let me down. From the time we got there and received our beautiful workbooks, personalized with our names using sign film. We dove right in as Carl explained each new stroke and it’s history. The workbook provided exemplars for us as he worked with each student supporting his instruction and quickly recognizing each of our abilities. I wasn’t familiar with all of the tools and was anxious to learn how to master them. “Bounce” will now be a big part of my style as I incorporate his unique styles into my work. Jean Wilson’s generosity allowed us to explore these new tools and styles on a variety of new papers and mediums as she shared her studio “overages” with the class.

Tom Cameron

Lettering by Carl Rohrs

Carl sharing his expertise on letterforms

Carl demonstrating his technique with the pointed brush

Lettering by Carl Rohrs

Lettering by Jean Wilson

Carl showing tips to Veronica Koh-Eischeid with the flat brush

Lettering by Jean Wilson using a pointed brush

Lettering by Veronica Koh-Eischeid using a Horizon folded pen

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