Practicing Calligraphy Flourishes

Flourishes are decorative elements that are connected to a single letter or even a long word. Flourishes can be connected at the beginning, middle, or the end of a word. They add character to the letter and gives the letter more attention and detail. If you are a beginner with flourishes Taylor suggests tracing over the example ten times to get this down right, and then free handing the design. Tracing another design over ten times and free handing that design, that outcome will be just perfect (36). I am not so sure this process will work for me knowing that I do not pick up on things like these very easily.

As Taylor had shared his technique in this book, I had tried this process to see if this method would work for me. "As you can imagine, we were all horrified. It's easy, he said, and smiled. An eight year old child can do it! And he made us point at the board and follow the line many times with our finger, then draw a letter. Can you do one? I've shown you where to start and what order to do the strokes. Try the carefully x 10 (in mid air, if you wish), one freehand, trace x 10, freehand, trace x 10 method and see how close your last one is to mine when you again write it freehand. Be proud of yourself when they become easy" (Taylor 36). When I was practicing with this method my letter had came out about exact the same when i was tracing over the letter the first ten times. After I was done tracing the letter for ten times I had started to free hand the letter. My free handed letters are on the left of the picture and the traced ones are on the right of the picture. I am not sure how this method works for me looking at the picture something looks missing from my hand drawn piece. This method might work better for some people than others.

What is your opinion on this method?

 Taylor, Peter. Complete Calligraphy. Heatherton Victoria Austrailia, Hinkler
     Books, 2013. Print.

Laying Out Your Calligraphy

I would never think to place 1 1/2 margins on a piece of paper while doing calligraphy. If a calligrapher decides to make their calligraphy very artistic they will come across all the ideas for layout, design, and skill. Calligraphers will create margins to help with the spacing and lettering to make their art look impressive (54). When I was tracing out my letters for my first blog I was free handing and guessing the space between the letters because I did not know how far apart to place them. The second time around I drew the 1 1/2 inch margins and I had carefully spaced out the letters apart as best as I could from each other to help give them space.

The layout could be used for poems, texts, and invitations. Taylor suggests the technique of creating a 1 1/2 border to please the eye. "The design and layout of a page or piece of calligraphic artwork is as personal as a painted picture, but calligraphy written on a single sheet, or a page of a book, always looks more impressive if you leave generous margins. It's hard to plan the size and spacing of lettering when you are given a sheet of paper and asked to fit a text into a particular area. Neither beginners nor professionals enjoy working this way. It's much easier to write on a larger piece of paper and trim the margins later to what you think looks nicest  (probably equal-sized boarders on the top and sides, and about 1 1/2 times that size on the bottom)" (Taylor 55). I feel that this technique did not work for me as best as my first technique. The boarder had limited me to my side space on the paper and I think that was my cause to write my letters smaller. I feel that not all techniques work for people and to do your best you need to find the technique that works best for you.
Do you work better with techniques or no techniques?
Taylor, Peter. Complete Calligraphy. Heatherton Victoria Austrailia, Hinkler
     Books, 2013. Print.

The Roman Alphabet

The Roman Alphabet

The Blackletter alphabet was very easy for me.  This is why I felt the need to take on a challenge.  The Roman alphabet gives just that.  This may be, for me, one of the hardest style to do.  There is no way to ensure correct spacing, as it is done by the eye (Bennet 118).  Not only that, you also have to add serifs to the letters.  However, hard work pays off and I was very proud of the end results of the alphabet. 

The spacing between the letters of the Roman alphabet may be the hardest part of it all.  As Bennett writes, "The problem is complicated by the fact that measuring and putting equal distances between letters won't do the trick" (Bennet 118).  If you try to put the same amount of spacing between the letters, they will look like they are spaced unevenly and sloppy because of the shape of the letters themselves.  Just like I have suggested for the previous styles of writing, you may want to use a nib width so that you can focus your attention on not only making the letters formatted correctly, but also looking at how the spacing should be.  The nib width will help you see how the the different letters need different types of spacing.  Personally, I didn't use the nib width at first since I wanted to give myself a challenge.  Don't feel hopeless if you need the assistance of the nib width, with practice you will become less and less dependent on it.  Some key advice is to make all the white spaces between the letters seem equal in length,  even though in reality you placed them in unequal distances.  The letters with straight sides need more space and the rounded sides need less space (Bennet 118).  Using these techniques were a little hard at first, but after using them for about five letters, they became very easy,

The serifs are also a bit of a challenge that come with this alphabet,  The serifs need to be placed in the correct positions and have to be not too big or too small.  The best part is that there are different types of serifs, so you can experiment the one that is the easiest for you to make.  The first is the Slab Serif, the one that I use and find the easiest.  The Slab Serif is made after the letter has been draw and is just a straight line (Bennet 118).  There are also joined Slab Serifs that are drawn as the letters are being written.  These serifs should be made with 20 degree pen angle (Bennet 118).  Finally, there is the Pedestal Serif.  This serif is just like the Slab Serif, except instead of a straight line, there is a curved line.  Finding a technique that is the easiest for you will help make your life a little easier while doing this technique. 

I enjoyed this style of Calligraphy since it gave me a challenge that I didn't get before using the other styles that I've tried throughout this journey.  What style was your favorite?

Bennett, Jim. Calligraphy for Dummies. For Dummies, 2007. Print.

The Techniques Of Calligraphy

As you may already know, calligraphy is the work of art, there are not many rules to art because art is what you create with your mind and your expressions. To calligraphy there are a few different techniques and strategies to help you get started to design and create your letters. I have never tried calligraphy before because I always thought that calligraphy would be too intricate for me. Peter Taylor gives his advice that calligraphy does not have to be a beautiful end result, the beauty of calligraphy is the character you give to it and the technique you use (5). Often when I try to draw a piece of art I will erase and restart because my piece does not satisfy my level of liking. Peter's words had helped me write out these letters because I was not thinking about how my piece looked, but how I was applying the technique to my piece. In this picture below I decided to use a pencil instead of a calligraphy pen or a sharp angled marker because I like how the pencil went on the paper well. 

To improve your calligraphy skills a technique to try as Taylor mentions is the writing board and surface area. "Some people buy fancy hinged constructions for their writing board or prop it up on paper covered bricks, but I'm sure most calligraphers are like me and have the bottom edge in their lap and by moving closer or further away from the table, can alter the board's slope" (Taylor 6). As I was writing each letter of the alphabet down on my paper I had my clipboard attached to my sketchbook while the bottom part of the board was off the table and closer to me, and I had the top part of my sketchbook on the table as I was tracing each letter up and down on the table. This technique had helped my calligraphy letters look better in the end because this had made the dark details of my letters stick out which was made the letters easier for me to draw, and gave the letters more attention then they would have if I had drew them on just a flat surface.
What is your favorite calligraphy technique?
 Taylor, Peter. Complete Calligraphy. Heatherton Victoria Austrailia, Hinkler
     Books, 2013. Print.

The Blackletter Alphabet

The Blackletter Alphabet

After finally learning the basic italic letters of Calligraphy, it's time to experiment with more creative writing styles, such as the Blackletter writing.  This writing is different than the Italic style, and personally much easier, since it only is made up of vertical strokes, is more unique, and overall more creative.  

Just as when first starting to write words and sentences, it may be helpful to take the help of the nib width again.  This way, you can give all the attention and focus on actually writing the letters correctly instead of worrying about the length and neatness of the letters.  This style was very easy for me since it only involves vertical strokes, which are not all that hard to do.  The only slight challenge that I faced was not making the letters slightly slanted as done with with the Italic letters.  As Bennett writes, "It is important to make certain these letters don't have any slant" (103).  Making sure that there wasn't any slant was a little challenging for the first couple of tries, but as I got more practice, my letters were coming out without any slant.  I didn't feel the need to use a nib width for this particular style, since it came fairly easy for me once I got the "no slant" rule down.  If you're having trouble with the slanting, Bennett suggests, "You can lightly pencil in the vertical strokes before you make the letters with a pen"(103).  This technique will be very helpful to avoid slanting the letters.  After using this technique for a while, you should gain the confidence to be able to try to write the letters without the technique,  Don't lose hope if you can't get this technique down right away, with practice it will get easier.

The only letters that are not made of vertical strokes are the capital circular letters, which are C,G,O,Q, and T.  For these letters, the strokes are curved instead of vertical.  The curved strokes are pretty straightforward (103) according to Bennet, and they truly are.  However, if you're having any trouble with the strokes, try to visualize where you want the curved strokes to go before trying with the pen.  Also, make the stroke all in one motion and with even pressure.  Curved strokes, for me, became easier after I stared to pay attention to the amount of pressure I was applying to the pen.  The goal is to have an even pressure throughout the entire stroke.

This style is one of my favorite styles because it looks very complicated but is very easy to draw.  What has been your favorite style while a part of this journey?  Do you find the Blackletter style as easy as I did?

Bennett, Jim. Calligraphy for Dummies. For Dummies, 2007. Print.

Writing Calligraphic Words

Writing Calligraphic Words

At the beginning of this journey, I didn't think that I would get this far.  Writing letters in Calligraphy, for me, seemed unrealistic.  Now, I've gotten enough practice to start writing words!  This is a huge milestone for anybody learning how to do Calligraphy, since at this point, you can officially start writing letters, making gifts, or unique and personalized home decor. 

While writing letters, two things are very crucial.  As Bennett states, "You not only need to know how to space letters within a word, but also need to practice how to space the words themselves" (53).  Just like this, the spacing between the words should not be so wide that they look like they are not a part of the sentence but instead are random words.  However, the spacing should not be so little that the words look crammed and are indistinguishable from each other.  

The ideal way to know that you have perfect spacing is, as Bennett states, "enough space to fit a letter o"(53).  The letter "o" should perfectly fit between any two words in a sentence.  From personal experience, this is not as easy as it sounds.  I had a lot of trouble while making sure my spacing is correct since I had a tendency to make the spaces too wide.  However, as I progressed along, I started getting more and more better.  The key is to imagine the letter "O" after writing the first word and before writing the second word.  This helped me to start writing at a place where the spacing was wide enough but not small enough to fit the letter "o". 

This is a major step from just writing letters and not caring about the spacing to writing actual words while being careful with the spacing.  The spacing between the words is what decides how nice and neat the words look (53)>  Don't be discouraged if the words or the letters don't come out right, it took me a couple tries before I started getting comfortable writing words.  What may help, is to redraw the nib width, as you did in the beginning while getting used to the Calligraphy pen.  The nib width will help you get the dimensions of the letters right automatically, so you can focus all your attention on the actual spacing between the words.  After you get comfortable with the spacing, encourage yourself to get rid of the nib width and write a few words without it.  If you take the nib width away but need it again, feel free to continue using it until you are ready to try writing words again without it.

Calligraphy, just like anything else in life, demands not only patience but also perseverance.  With time and practice, your letters and words will continue to come out more smoothly and precisely.  The spacing will also improve over time, just like mines did.  No matter how good you get at Calligraphy, you can always improve.  Even after practicing for such a long time,  I find my letters coming out much neater and correctly spaced compared to the previous day.  Do you think Calligraphy, just like everything else in life, demands patience and perseverance and will become fruitful in the long run? Why or why not?  

Bennett, Jim. Calligraphy for Dummies. For Dummies, 2007. Print.

Greek Letters

Ever since I first read the Percy Jackson series, I fell in love with the Greek style alphabet. But, when I was in elementary, I could never perfectly be able to copy the alphabet with a pen or pencil. So, when I saw the Greek alphabet in the book I’m reading, Calligraphy for Dummies, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to rewrite the alphabet, with a more experienced viewpoint. Bennett didn’t explain a lot about this alphabet, but that was fine by me, since I already had so much experience with it. I started off with the 1.5 pen nib, because I had previously used a thick nib, and really liked its results. I recently did the Roman alphabet, and Bennett said that the Greek alphabet is simply a variation of the Roman one (241). As always, I then found the perfect position, for both my chair and my hand. Bennett says that, “The pen angle is very flat (the pen points directly back towards you)” (241). This was a little awkward at first, but I eventually got used to the pen facing directly towards me. After I warmed up with some exercises, which the book didn’t provide, but I made for myself, I started by tracing the alphabet.

When I got to the middle of my practicing, I realized that the pen was bleeding through the paper and onto my book! Many of my friends had told me they encountered similar problems when they first started calligraphy. When I asked, they said the reason that this mistake is made is for two main reasons: the pen was left upside down in a pencil holder, or you shook it too much. Sure enough, before I started, I had shook it out of habit. Good thing I was doing a variation that didn’t make them stand out too much, or else the over-dispensing pen tip would have had detrimental effects on the writing. I debated on if I should wait until the following morning or do it now. In the end, I decided to wait. So, I let the pen sit flat on the desk overnight to make it even out, and then began again the next morning.

Then, the next morning, I started the alphabet again. This time, the pen wasn’t as “drippy”, which made a considerable amount of difference. I traced the whole alphabet to make sure it wasn’t too “drippy”, and it didn’t seep through the paper. Then, I started writing it on my own. The lines this time were much crisper, giving it more of a finish. I’m content that I waited until the next morning to do it. This shows how important patience is in calligraphy. Here is me working on my finished product:

In the end, I would like to say this was a truly tremendous journey, and I learned a lot more than just calligraphy in these last three months. I’m not planning on stopping calligraphy anytime soon, and will use it for posters and headings. I hope many of you will decide to do the same.

What was your favorite alphabet style in this journey? Why?

Bennett, Jim. Calligraphy for Dummies. For Dummies, 2007. Print.

Formal Uncial

Let me start off by saying this is by far my favorite alphabet variation out of all the ones I’ve done. First of all, it’s very easy to learn, and second of all, since this is my first time using a thick nib, I saw a considerable amount of difference when it came to the angle. Bennett says you use the pen angle of 20 degrees (140).

Now that we’ve talked about the pen angle, let’s move on the width. Bennett says, “The body of these letters is 5 pen widths in height, and the ascender and descender parts of these letters are very short” (140). If you have any questions about pen angle or pen widths, feel free to look at my first blog. After practicing out the position, pen angle, and pen width, I decided to move to another important aspect of the alphabet: the serifs.

Bennett says the serifs of the Formal Uncial look like the flared end of a horn, and even though there is a variety of different ways to make it, you should make it however you feel comfortable (141). I practiced all the different ways to make the serifs, and I ended up liking making the whole serif in one continuous stroke, because it tends to keep the lines crisp and clean.

I practiced the serifs until I got the hang of it, and then I thought I was ready to start writing the actual alphabet! The main thing I had to pay attention to as I was writing was to make sure my pen angle was as perfect as I could get it. This was because the nib was so thick, the wrong pen angle would stand out and would give the letters the grace and finish they need. Another thing that wasn’t hard to master, but just took a while to get used to were the very short ascenders and descenders. In the beginning, out of habit, I wrote using high descenders and ascenders, and I restarted a couple times. But, after that, I just had fun with it!

Since this alphabet only has all capital letters, I moved on to doing different variations. There were a lot (such as: narrow, wide, curly, crazy, and celtic). My favorite was the celtic variation. You use the same exact alphabet, but you rearrange the letters in odd ways (Bennett 148). This is the example I imitated. With this alphabet, you follow the basic guidelines, and just have fun!

As mentioned before, this is my first time using thick nibs. Both in this blog and online videos/pictures, do you prefer thick nibs or thin nibs? Why?

Bennett, Jim. Calligraphy for Dummies. For Dummies, 2007. Print.

The Foundational Hand

The foundational hand is also known as the formal manuscript, or bookhand. Both the pen widths and the pen angle are fairly easy. The pen width is 5 nibs wide, with the ascenders (such as d) and the descenders (such as g) 3 pen nibs wide. Bennett says, “One reason this alphabet is easy to learn, is you use only the 30-degree pen angle for almost all strokes... (there’s only one exception, the lowercase z) (125). As always, I started with some warmups provided by the book. I first wrote some v’s, with one side thin and the other thick, to get an idea of the correct pen angle. Then, I practiced some basic strokes that are the base of this alphabet.

After I warmed up, I started the lower-case letters. The lower-case letters have different shapes such as round letters, letters that have the “n” or “u” shape, the straight-line letters, and letters that have a “v” shape. I’ll start off by talking about the round letters, which are: b, c, d, e, o, p and q. Bennett says once you get the round letters right, you should be able to do all the letters easily. He also says that you should always do the left side of the letter first, to ensure you will have enough space between the letters (126-127).

Next are the letters that have the “n” or “u” shape. These letters are: u, m, h, r, and a. What I mostly paid attention to was making sure the letters were symmetrical, and making sure the letters have no slant to them, which was hard since this whole time, I’ve been trying to make my calligraphy slanted and fancy!

The next set of letters are the ones that have straight lines, which are: I, j, k, l, and t. I noticed that some of the curves at the end, or serifs, were almost microscopic. The main thing I paid attention to in these were keeping the strokes very straight and consistent.

After this was the letters that have a “v” shape, which are: v, w, and y. These ones were simple, so I quickly moved on to perfecting the final set of letters: all of the ones that were left. Just in case you weren’t keeping track :), they are: f, g, s, x, and z. The most complicated was the g, which was made up of four different strokes. But, there was no other letter other than the g that I thought was too hard.

After these, I started on the capital letters. These barely took any time, because all I had to do was join my previous knowledge of proportions and strokes from the Roman alphabet. Bennett says, “The capital letters for this alphabet are essentially a relaxed, less formal version of the Roman capitals” (130). For additional information about proportion, feel free to look at my previous blog about the Roman alphabet.

Bennett has us do this style, the foundation for calligraphy, after the italic and the Roman alphabets. His reasoning is that one should learn the hard things first, so the easy ones will seem like a breeze. Do you agree with his philosophy? Why or why not?

Bennett, Jim. Calligraphy for Dummies. For Dummies, 2007. Print.

Classical Roman Letters

The Roman alphabet is one of the simplest alphabets a calligrapher can write. But, their simple nature is deceptive. “Because of the simplicity of the letters, any flaw of mistake you make will stand out like a sore thumb. There are no flourishes or embellishments in this alphabet that will hide your goofs” (Bennett 107). So, as I started practicing writing the Roman alphabet, I started out by doing some practice, to understand what pen angle looks best and what position I should be in, which, as mentioned before, are two very important skills for a calligrapher. The Roman alphabet is very vital for two things: it is great to show classical elegance, and it shows the importance of proportion in calligraphy. For example, the Roman alphabet uses a mix of 3-4 different proportions, depending on the letter that you are writing. I, personally, will be using this style for writing out titles on my poster projects, as many other calligraphists do.

After I tried the many different proportions of the Roman alphabet, I made sure I memorized each proportion and what letters are written using that proportion. I practiced each proportion by using the boxes, and then on a separate sheet of paper.  As I practiced the proportion a little more, I moved on to other features I had to perfect: the pen angle. Most of the letters are written with a 20-degree angle, but some are written with a 45-degree angle. Bennett also says that before writing the Roman alphabet, you must warm up to ensure you won’t make simple mistakes, or worse, have a shaky hand (114). After I got all the basics down, I started the actual alphabet.

One of the final steps to complete before you can start writing in sentences is to add on the serifs. A lot of “formal” fonts have serifs, the little tails that go at the ends of the letters. By adding serifs, you achieve the final grace you need to make your writing look more complete. The serifs on the Roman letters are pretty straight forward; they’re just dashes you add to the beginnings and ends of each individual letter.

Since the Roman font is all about practicing proportion, I had to ensure that my spacing was correct before I started writing actual words. When you are spacing out your letters, you can’t have equal spacing between the letters, or else they will seem unevenly spaced. Instead, you must space them as if you were writing normally, with more space between some letter and less in between some, to make them appear to have equal spacing. Bennett says that a general rule of thumb when writing the Roman alphabet is that the straight sides need more space between the letters and the rounded sides need less space (118).

Do you agree with Bennett: are the simple things often the most deceptive? Why or why not?

Bennett, Jim. Calligraphy for Dummies. For Dummies, 2007. Print.

Beginning the Journey of Calligraphy

Many people, myself included, look at calligraphy as a complicated form of writing, something we will only see in our Pinterest boards and YouTube videos of organized notes and DIY's. But, the truth is, we are all just one step away from becoming beautiful artists who have mastered the art of calligraphy ourselves. For my journey, I will be using the "Complete Calligraphy" set by Hinkler, which includes: a book, a pencil, kneadable eraser, a calligraphy pen, 4 nibs, 2 marker, 6 cartridges of ink, 2 metallic calligraphy markers, and a T-square.

Since I've never done calligraphy before, I started with what is known as one of the simplest styles for calligraphy: Italic. The point of teaching the italic alphabet to beginners is so we will learn how to get the pen angle for calligraphy right, and understand how a calligraphy pen is different from a normal pen. Since we learn that the angle must stay consistent, Bennett tells us to hold the pen in one consistent position and move the paper, not your hand or your arm. This will ensure a uniform angle throughout your writing (56). I started off by perfecting my pen angle before I started my letters. So, I made sure that I didn't move my position, and as I got better and better at it, I achieved a uniform angle.  The book provided some practice that showed me how to get my angle right. Although it was hard at first, I kept readjusting the pen, paper, and what position I was in to make sure I got the angle down, before I moved on to doing more complicated things, such as the alphabet and words.

After I got my pen angle right, I moved on to the actual letters. This book told me to make sure my proportion according to the width of my pen was right, I had to, "...turn the pen sideways and make five little marks, one on top of each other like a stack of little bricks" (Bennett 58). So, I started off by tracing, and then writing with dashes so I would write in straight lines. I got through three lines of the alphabet before I stopped using lines, and used the five dashes throughout my whole alphabet, until I thought I got the proportion right.

Bennett said that I should not have curly serifs, which are the “tails” at the ends of letters (59). I refined my serifs, and practiced the alphabet a couple more times until I did not need dashes or lines at all, and this is what my final product looked like:

After reading this post, do you feel as though you can now tackle calligraphy? Why or why not?

Bennett, Jim. Calligraphy for Dummies. For Dummies, 2007. Print.