How to Write Calligraphy

Learn how to write calligraphy, to improve your pen stroke or to master a skill that few others know. Your penmanship improves with your mastery of calligraphic arts, while you’ll be able to pen special messages to friends. Of course, some readers might be wondering what calligraphy even is.

What is Calligraphy?

Calligraphy is the art of creating beautiful inscriptions using special pens, brushes or markers. Calligraphy is easy to learn from books, websites or classes, though the skill is difficult to master. Calligraphy societies exist to teach and preserve calligraphy.

As you gain experience, you may invent one or more personal calligraphy styles. You may even find yourself exploring the related art of illuminated lettering, using gold leaf and creating three-dimensional effects along with colorful ornamentation.

Why Learn Calligraphy?

Calligraphy has existed for thousands of years, in both the western and eastern worlds. Most people now have computers and access to fonts which mimic calligraphy, but no computer font can substitute for calligraphic symbols.

There’s no substitute for hand-drawn calligraphy. With sufficient practice, you could become expert enough to earn money for your work, whether that’s your original intention or not.

Who Needs Calligraphy?

Stationery stores receive requests for hand-lettered graduation and wedding invitations, certificates and diplomas, restaurant menus and place cards, seating charts and greeting cards. Genealogists like hand-drawn family trees with calligraphic inscriptions.

Calligraphy can be used to create slogans for t-shirts, coffee cups, even tattoos. Illumination is also a marketable skill.

What You Will Need

A good book on calligraphy basics, such as David Harris’ “Art of Calligraphy” or Margaret Shepherd’s “Calligraphy Made Easy”. There are also several websites with free basic instruction.

A guide to the type of letters you’re learning.
A calligraphy pen.
Practice paper — ordinary good quality paper, and/or a calligraphy pad. Look online for downloadable practice paper with guidelines.
A pencil and ruler for ruling lines, and a clean eraser.
A protractor — optional, for measuring the angles at which you’ll be holding your pen.
A clean table or desk and a comfortable chair. Many calligraphers find a sloping surface useful. Get a large, smooth board and prop it up with a couple of books.
Adequate lighting, no shadows on the writing surface. You may want to invest in a small light box.

Most people start with an italic script or the Irish Gothic alphabet, known as Uncial. Guides to these and other calligraphic alphabets are found in books or can be downloaded and printed for free.

A typical guide contains complete alphabets in upper and lower case, plus a chart showing the way to make the individual strokes for each letter. The strokes are made in the same manner and direction, every single time. The order of strokes is also important.

Where to Get Calligraphy Tools

Art supply stores sell calligraphy pens and paper. Beginners can use a felt-tip calligraphy pen, or invest in an inexpensive fountain pen calligraphy set with durable nibs in several sizes.

Professional calligraphers use a traditional dip pen, with a long holder and steel nibs. Some work with brushes, rather than pens.

Start with dip pens and brushes, but keep in mind that learning to use these tools is a skill, in and of itself. You want to focus on introducing yourself to the mechanics of drawing the letters at first, so a felt-tip or fountain pen with an appropriate nib is fine.

What Kind of Ink Do I Use?

How to Write Calligraphy

Use any kind of ink that flows freely and smoothly. Some calligraphers make their own ink, for use with dip pens or brushes. Others use Chinese stick ink.

While you are learning, any good quality black ink is fine.

Use a calligraphy pad or any ordinary good-quality paper to practice. Don’t use newsprint or any other paper that bleeds when ink is applied, or allows ink to soak through.

Vocabulary

Calligraphy focuses on the parts of letters and how they are drawn.

Majuscule – capital or upper-case letter.
Minuscule – lower-case letter.
Body – the main part of a letter.
Ascender – the part of lower-case letters such as d or f which rise above the body.
Descender – the part of lower-case letters such as p or q which drop below the body.
Hand – a font in calligraphy.
X-Height – the height of the body of a letter.

Beginning Exercise

With a piece of paper turned sideways, so that it’s “landscape” and not “portrait” positioned, use the pencil and ruler to draw a series of lines across the page, each one inch apart. Take your pen and hold it at a 45-degree angle to the top line, drawing some straight vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, as well as some curves and circles.

You’ll notice right away that the pen’s flat nib creates both thin and wide lines. The width of the nib determines how wide you can make lines. If you hold your pen at different angles, the width of the lines change. Draw long and short lines, large and small circles.

Get used to holding the pen. Experiment with moving it to get different effects. Don’t push the pen, but pull it along to create lines and shapes.

Do this for a few minutes to warm up at the beginning of each calligraphy practice session. Do the same with each new pen you buy. Get used to the feel and weight of the pen, along with how to hold the pen.

Basic Strokes

Hold the pen so the nib is at a 45-degree angle to your base guideline. Pull the calligraphic pen gently up, then down. The first line you made should be thin, while the second should be thick. Again, with the pen at the same angle, pull it down, then up.

Try some straight vertical and staight horizontal lines. Practice these strokes in different lengths.

Make an oval shape by pulling the nib down in a curve to the left, then in a separate stroke, in a curve to the right.

Get comfortable doing these strokes. They are used in nearly every calligraphy hand you’ll learn.

Guidelines

Calligraphy practice paper, along with guidelines, can be bought or downloaded. Learn how to draw the lines by hand, though. There are several books and websites that explain different methods of measuring for the line widths.

The guidelines are like those on children’s writing practice paper. They divide the paper into sections for the parts of letters and are measured by the width of the pen nib. Many nibs have the width printed on them for this reason.

Each hand has slightly different line spacing. Some guidelines have a second ascender line for capital letters, because in some hands, they are drawn shorter than the ascenders on the small letters.

Have Fun

In addition to practicing alphabets, set yourself short texts to copy. Bible verses and sayings from Benjamin Franklin are traditional, but you can use a line from a poem or song, something funny or anything else which appeals to you.

Practice how to write calligraphy to improve your skills. Like any form of writing, calligraphy is about muscle motor memory, so your calligraphy writing improves, the more times you practice the same stroke.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 5:03 pm and is filed under Crafts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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