Calligraphy is the art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering with a pen or brush
I have always envied people that can write out beautiful paragraphs easily. What witchcraft is it that enables them to balance every letter? Armed with only some felt tipped pens I borrowed from my little brother, I set out to find the answer.
I started out by poking around on the internet for some starter exercises or some helpful tips, and found myself buried in all the terminology I was supposed to know and equipment I was supposed to have. There seems to be a million types of pens, pencils and paper to produce a professional effect and I have nothing except some A4 paper stolen from the printer and colouring pens from a 6 year old… Nevertheless I was determined to carry on. My eraser may not be millimetres thin and industrial strength, but it does feature a teddy bear on a mushroom and that’s all I really need in the beginning stages of my calligraphy journey.
I started out by poking around on the internet for some starter exercises or some helpful tips, and found myself buried in all the terminology I was supposed to know and equipment I was supposed to have. There seems to be a million types of pens, pencils and paper to produce a professional effect and I have nothing except some A4 paper stolen from the printer and colouring pens from a 6 year old… Nevertheless I was determined to carry on. My eraser may not be millimetres thin and industrial strength, but it does feature a teddy bear on a mushroom and that’s all I really need in the beginning stages of my calligraphy journey.
To begin with I tried just writing. I thought maybe the shape of the pink highlighter would produce a somewhat interesting effect and give me something to learn from. At the time, ‘Thai Tries Things’ (the title of this little blog) didn’t seem like too much of a challenge and I laid the first strokes of neon pink onto the standard-quality paper.
Ah. Beautiful.
Looking back I’m not sure why I thought this would look any different to a child trying to write in highlighter. It was both difficult and disappointing- undoubtedly a bad start to the handwriting experience. I knew then I’d have to put more energy in if I had any hope of calling my efforts ‘calligraphy’, so I ruled some pencil lines and set out lettering in pencil before tracing over my pencil lines in highlighter.
Looking back I’m not sure why I thought this would look any different to a child trying to write in highlighter. It was both difficult and disappointing- undoubtedly a bad start to the handwriting experience. I knew then I’d have to put more energy in if I had any hope of calling my efforts ‘calligraphy’, so I ruled some pencil lines and set out lettering in pencil before tracing over my pencil lines in highlighter.
This was marginally better (probably because of the margins... hehe) and taking the extra time to pencil in letters gave me the opportunity to really think about where I was going with the font. Unfortunately this was still nothing like the incredible artwork I’ve seen around. It only take one look on Google Images after searching for ‘calligraphy’ to get some crazy ambitious schemes brewing.
Luckily, I stumbled across a site that suggested I tried lighter, thinner strokes when the pen was travelling upwards (towards the top edge of the paper) and heavier, thick strokes when the pen was travelling downwards (towards the bottom edge of the paper). The results were much more impressive!
Luckily, I stumbled across a site that suggested I tried lighter, thinner strokes when the pen was travelling upwards (towards the top edge of the paper) and heavier, thick strokes when the pen was travelling downwards (towards the bottom edge of the paper). The results were much more impressive!
I somehow managed to lose concentration and write the wrong words, but this was still a drastic improvement from the pink mess earlier. One more try with a thinner pen and I was quite pleased with what I could achieve freehand with no training and one tutorial I found online.
To really satisfy my aspiring calligraphic mind, I decided I’d really go for the artistic effect and copy a font from online. The font I used here was from dafont.com and I just copied from my laptop screen as best I could, no need to download anything!
To really satisfy my aspiring calligraphic mind, I decided I’d really go for the artistic effect and copy a font from online. The font I used here was from dafont.com and I just copied from my laptop screen as best I could, no need to download anything!
This was by far the most impressive result and although sketching the letters from another source may not technically be calligraphy, it gives me great satisfaction to see the beautiful letters.
In conclusion, calligraphy or hand writing is fun for those who want to work/build on a skill, but it takes a lot of motivation and a steady hand to get the kind of results you see from a professional.
To check out a range of fonts and try for yourself, I would recommend dafont.com and comment below any tips or tricks you have for calligraphy or hand writing.
In conclusion, calligraphy or hand writing is fun for those who want to work/build on a skill, but it takes a lot of motivation and a steady hand to get the kind of results you see from a professional.
To check out a range of fonts and try for yourself, I would recommend dafont.com and comment below any tips or tricks you have for calligraphy or hand writing.