St. Gregory of Narek’s prayer re. St. Jacob of Nisibis

St. Gregory of Narek’s prayer referencing St. Jacob of Nisibis

St. Jacob (Hagop) of Nisibis is an important Saint in our lives, being the namesake of our parish, and an important family name. Last year? the year before?, I made a cute little maze activity page (St. Hagop of Nisibis Activity Page) to recognize the day and give the kids something to do. I’ve been sick the last few weeks and it was a ridiculously busy weekend, so I didn’t have a chance to make an updated/more challenging maze. But I also didn’t want to let the day go by without marking it or making something. So here’s the product of playing with some fonts… ha! A line from one of St. Gregory of Narek’s hymns, about Saint Jacob (Soorp Hagop) of Nisibis.

If anyone actually wants to use this, here’s the PDF version…

krikor-naregatsi-quote-about-soorp-hagopDownload

Recent trchnakir art, boy names

Here’s some more trchnakir bird calligraphy I’ve done recently. I love the “Zaven” one even though it’s pretty different from ones I’ve done in the past. That big beak thing is really speaking to me. “Shahan” was the front of a birthday card, my son asked me to draw it for a friend. And “Saro” was inspired by a super cool Saro who teaches at our Armenian Saturday School.

Zaven
Shahan
Saro
Hov

Undanik commission

Just sharing some photos of a recent commission and my process, in case anyone is interested!


I use two pieces of sketching paper and a light board, to make sure I have the letters measured out and spaced apart the way I want them. I put one piece of paper on top of the other, and trace certain shapes, to make sure they match (almost) exactly. See the ն here. (And ignore the green scribble, courtesy of my 2yr old Zabel.)

Then you can see the final spaced out version, again still just on sketching paper.

Then I start adding some of the bird details I think I might want to do, and more specific tail/wing shapes. I try to make sure there’s a balance of “hard” and “soft” shapes, and that details in one part of the picture are matched or referenced somewhere else. These might not be the final shapes or patterns I use, but it starts to give me ideas.

Next, I’ll transfer all of this over onto the nice, final paper, and start outlining it in ink. (Somewhere along the way, I’ll start color swatching, and I’ll take some photos of that too.)

Here you can see just outlines of the shapes, inked on final paper. Then I add in the most basic color blocking – vegetation is green and yellow, feet orange, beaks orange or yellow.
Then, penciling in the patterns. Then inking in the patterns, when I’m seeing them fit together and know I want to keep them 😊

Then adding color, filling in patterns and details, coloring sections, and on and on…

Putting on finishing touches… Whiting out and going over sections I don’t love, adding detail with sparkly gel or paint pens, re-outlining everything…

And framed… Done.

Review of Բարեւ Կրիայ/Parev Grya (Hello, Turtle)

This adorable children’s book, the newest offering from Alik Arzoumanian, was part of our epic Christmas Armenian-book haul, and has been part of the regular bedtime rotation since. The 24-page, hardcover children’s book is meant for kids ~ages 2-6, and tells the story of a turtle (Grya), as she/he lives through the seasons in a year.

Each season, the turtle/tortoise encounters different creatures and conditions, and imagines their shell is a different object – i.e. Spring, umbrella; Summer, baseball cap; Winter, igloo. The illustration is colorful, whimsical, and engaging – I mean, really, did you expect anything else from Studio Alique?

What I love most about the book though, it it’s incredible READABILITY.

The text of the story includes a lot of repetition at the beginning of sentences, and repetitive sentence structures throughout. So while you’re repeating, “guh kaleh, guh kaleh, guh kaleh…” (“they are walking, they are walking, they are walking”), you have enough time to read ahead and figure out how to pronounce the end of the sentence. That makes it possible to keep up with the reading in real-time, even without transliteration to reference. Some other kids books this length/for this age group slow me down to the point that my kids get bored and frustrated. But the structure of writing in Parev Grya makes me feel like I can *actually* read a *book* to my kids in Armenian – not just pictures with a word or two attached to them.

“Parev Grya” also uses easier, topical words that you may already know, but if you don’t, they’re easy to figure out in context and from the illustrations. And you can see the Armenian teacher side of Arzoumanian in the book as well… “tsooyneh doon; tsooynadoon” is particularly fun.

Anyway, we genuinely enjoy this book, and it has been a fun learning and playing all-things-Grya these last few months.

Hagop using our baby bath tub as a turtle shell.

Western Armenian = YES
Transliteration = NO
Translation = NO

Here’s the review in Armenia Weekly from last December: https://armenianweekly.com/2022/12/06/studio-alique-announces-new-armenian-childrens-book/

You can buy it directly from Alik on her website: http://www.studioalique.com/bookstore/parev-grya

Or at several of the fine retailers here: Where to buy Western Armenian Books online

Armenian alphabet cards, printable doc

Quick post with a super simple resource – Large print letters from the Armenian alphabet, in a word document. They’re not set up to be used as flashcards, but you could make them into that, or they could be used for a bunch of other random things.

armenian-alphabet-basic-cards-for-gameDownload

Personally I’m printing these on cardstock, cutting them out, and using them for a hide-and-seek / hide-the-thing/find-the-thing game with our kids.

Like Holy Translators Sahag and Mesrob “found” the Armenian alphabet? I don’t know. But if it saves me from watching “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: Tiger Family Trip” for the 12th time this week, I’ll try it.

Sahag and Mesrob are commemorated as a team, distinct from the rest of the Translators, on the Thursday following the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. This year in 2023, that commemoration is tomorrow, June 29th. More on those saints here: https://vemkar.us/feast-and-saints/the-holy-translators-sahag-and-mesrob/

Next day update: used them for a matching game too.