Calligraphy Tips To Get You Started

It‘s always exciting when beginning a new artistic venture.
Calligraphy is popular among artists who wish to create beautiful hand-written text for cards, letters, signs, or other decorative creations. 

It can feel daunting, starting a new hobby like this, which is why we’ve put together a guide to calligraphy for beginners so you can brush up on the basics and to learn about what exactly you’ll need to get started.

What Can I Make?

Calligraphy is a brilliant way to create handwritten notes, journals, or to decorate gorgeous scrapbooks. You can make personalized invitations to parties, receptions, or ceremonies to add a little extra flair and professionalism.

Where Do I Start?

In order to begin to create works of calligraphy, you need a calligraphy pen, nib, ink, and paper to write on. Once you’ve got all these and are ready to go, you can begin to learn how to create beautiful creations.

Calligraphy Guides

We recommend using a practise pad to begin, or lightly draw out calligraphy guides. This looks like larger ruled paper, with a single baseline in which you write your letters on, and a top line to keep your lettering uniform and avoid any slanting across the page.  

There are specific intricacies in manoeuvring the pen that changes the writing style and stroke. The pen must be held at a 45 degree angle to the paper with the nib leading the line. Strokes are also incredibly important, and practising different flourishes or strokes can over time build skills and abilities that will make you better at calligraphy.

Don’t worry about imperfections in your writing when you start, hand-written calligraphy is all about the individual look and feel and it’s these little differences that make it so unique.

Flourishing Tips

Flourishing is the adding of stroke and style to letters. Its this that makes calligraphy such a beautiful looking art form.

There are many online tutorials explaining flourishing but for the beginner who is just starting out, don’t worry too much about the more technical aspects.
Work on the feel and the flow of what you are creating and add the embellishments to where you feel it fits.

As a broad guide, flourishing can be added to the end letter of a word, the first letter, or the hanging tails of letters such as ‘g’, ‘j’ or ‘y’.

Tools of the Trade

Calligraphy pens have multiple parts, each pen is made up of a nib and the handle. At the end of the nib is the point, with a slit in where the ink flows out.Below the slit are tines, a shoulder, and a vent hole for the ink. All of these parts work together to produce the effect of creating beautiful handwritten typography with ink.

There is more than just one type of calligraphy pen to choose from. There are fountain pens, brush pens, dip pens, and even felt tip pens to utilize.
Each pen is perfect for a different purpose depending on experience level and type of project.

• Felt Tip Pens:These types of pens do not require ink prep or pen assembly. They are much simpler to use and this is the reason they are often found in a calligraphy set for beginners. They are much easier to manoeuvrer and less messy.
  

• Fountain Pens: For a slightly more intermediate use, the fountain pen has a changeable nib and ink cartridge. It is a step up from the calligraphy pens for beginners.

• Dip Pens: A dip pen is composed of the reservoir, the nib, and the handle. They are best for an advanced user, as they require proper construction and ink handling. The inclusion of the reservoir means that this pen can write multiple lines of ink at a time before refilling.
  

• Brush Pens: These pens require dipping, which makes them the most difficult to manoeuvrer properly. That is why these are best used by advanced calligraphers. They are made up of a brush head with bristles, and a handle. As opposed to a dip pen or fountain pen with a nib, the brush pen responds to pressure.

In addition to the many pens available for usage, there are also a few types of nibs that can be selected for use on each pen that utilizes a nib.

• Italic Nibs:With an Italic nib, individuals can write in Gothic or Italic calligraphy, but this pen does not allow for as much variance in strokes.

• Broad Nibs:These nibs and allow for wider lines based on the pressure applied while writing.

It can be difficult to know what the best calligraphy pens are for you. Whether you’re interested in beginning calligraphy or are looking for more advanced tools, we carry a wide variety of options.

We carry all kinds of different types of calligraphy pens so that your options can be as boundless as your creativity. To pick a pen from our range of calligraphy category, click here and start scribbling today!