#calligraphy tips

[rararatigan]

The draft I’m doing for my calligraphy tips post is getting stupidly long, so I’m going to just put my “quick tips” here while I work on the VERY (very) long post.

A few quick tips for calligraphy:

Try a few different styles unless you know what sort of calligraphy/hand lettering you want to do right away. Each style requires slightly different tools, so learn what works best for you and the style you want (ex. Spenserian vs Black Letter, etc.)

Learn to write with varying pressure, but don’t write with the kind of pressure you might use for a normal pen. Calligraphy pens are finicky, delicate creatures that will revolt if you mistreat them.

You don’t need all of the “high end fancy” tools and notebooks and inks. I started by practicing my letters with a normal pen on graph paper then moved to a multimedia sketchbook and an old speedball nib I found. Start small and work your way up.

Watch videos and learn how to hold your pen correctly. You don’t hold it like a pencil.

Guidelines are your friend.

Clean your fucking pen.

[carpe-aurore]

im sure someone has asked this before , and apologies if is has

but what supplies do you use to create your calligraphy?

Hello! Most of my calligraphy stuff tends to be made with speedball dip pens and Strathmore calligraphy paper.

Both are pretty cheap at most craft shops or online, and I'd also recommend speedball calligraphy ink for a cheap, all purpose ink. Hope this helps!

[siennanotes]

Have you always wanted to learn calligraphy? I made a whole YouTube video to guide you! In this video, I talked about the different materials you can use, the main concept, and some tips and tricks to help you improve. 💗

[lettering-is-my-music]

Hi! I want to start doing calligraphy but all the pen options are a bit overwhelming honestly, do you have a recommendation for a good starting calligraphy/fountain pen? Specifically without spending too much money at first 😅 your work is all wonderful by the way

thank you so much!!! and honestly absolutely start with pilot’s parallel pens. you can do so much with them they come in 4 different sizes the ink cartredges are like 4$ a pack and a set should be 30 ish dollars they’re gonna be the best start and the cheapest bc each individual pen can be bought for like... 7 to 9$.

if you’re looking for a flex pen there’s fountain pen revolution get the himilaya bc some of their pens Smell bc vegetal resin is used to make them cost effective and they have ultra flex

but if you would be willing to spend a bit more (while still under 60$) conklin can be a p good starter flex pen

and if you want a fountain pen with a stub nib that distinctly looks like a fountain pen and not a stub nib i would rec the lamy’s 1.5 mm stub nib they’re like 20 to 30 bucks per pen

[forcomfort]

[lemonscholar]

After posting my original, quick tips to calligraphy, I got a few asks on making another for bouncy letters, so after a few hours of compiling what I thought was absolutely essential to understand letter manipulation, I put this guide together! I would love some feedback, your thoughts, etc! I hope this helps you hand-letter-er’s out there! Enjoy 🌿

[smoketexture]

Hey there, I love your blog and congrats on 2k! It's so pleasing to the eyes, and I also love how you include links to your supplies, thank you! If you don't mind me asking, how do you come up with the different fonts you draw? Do you practise a lot or get inspired by ones you see? Cause I'm hopeless at being creative and I'm stuck with just one font .-. Also, how do you get such clean lines? 😂

thank you, that’s so nice of you!

most of the time i get inspired by fonts online, i really like:

jacques & gilles

noteworthy script

australian scipt

i either try to combine a few of them or i just messily write in sort of a cursive/fancy variation of my own hadwriting and then do the whole ‘faux calligraphy’ thing.

about the “clean lines” (which honestly aren’t that clean if you take a closer look), i think the key is keeping a continuous stroke when you write, you know? so i try really hard not to stop mid-stroke, which is why i always always write in pencil first (so i know exactly how i want the words to look) and then i go over it with pen whilst making sure i don’t do it too slowly, cause that’s when the ink starts to bleed through :/

hope this helps c:

[cauldron-chatter]

@noctuamagna I wanted to show you the suggestion I made before about guidelines. I got this idea from this video.

The yellow papers are actually giant post-it notes that gently stick to my work station and don't slip around. The bold line is the baseline and for larger sizes I have vertical guides as well.

Its a huge adjustment from pencil guidelines and took some getting used to but saves so much time for practice sheets. I think the video also shows how to make it digitally so you can print lined sheets as well.

It won't always work for final projects depending on paperweight, like you said, but is great if you can get it to work.

Other guideline techniques I've tried for final projects are transfered rubbings and dotted lines instead of solid straight lines. I've also seen people use laser projectors but that looks fancy af