Harvey's Helpful Hints
October 2007

Be sure to save all your silica gel packets to insert them into your nib containers. They will help absorb moisture and keep your nibs from rusting.

Use “Mr. Clean” or “Murphy's Oil Soap” on your nibs, tools and brushes before putting them away. Rinse well and let dry. They will be clean and ready for use when you are ready to use them next time.

Another way to keep tools or containers from sliding off your slanted work table is to paint one side of the tool or the underside of the container with rubber cement. If your rubber cement has become too thick just add a small amount at a time of rubber cement thinner.

In order to make a word stand out in a composition:

• Make the word bold and the other words smaller
• Put the word in italic
• Underscore the word
• Make the word a different color
• Make the word in a different style of lettering
• Isolate the word on it's own line
• Outline the word with a border

The above is plain and simple, but we all need to be reminded from time to time.

When designing a poster have a dominate word (or words) stand out. This tells the reader at a glance what the poster is all about. Color and tone contrast help make the dominate feature stand out...use plenty of white space borders!

When removing tape from a drawing that is taped to a drawing board ALWAYS remove the tape from the drawing outward. This prevents tearing the artwork.

Clean mats that have rubber cement stains on them: First remove the picture from the mat, paint the entire mat with rubber cement, when the cement is dry use a pickup to remove all the painted rubber cement. The stains will have disappeared and you now have a “new” fresh mat.

When you need to make larger than normal letters and no broad nib is large enough you can revert to the two-pencil technique. Tie the pencils together separating them to the size  needed. Draw your letters in pencil, then you can come back and ink them in.