Practical Calligraphy Tips for All Skill Levels
Like every great piece of artwork, calligraphy requires immense practice and patience. While investing lots of time and effort in calligraphy practice sessions, calligraphy tips come in handy for ensuring fast and continuous improvement.
By following calligraphy tips, you can make the most out of your calligraphy lessons. These tips help you understand the finer nuances of calligraphy, learn to hold the pen at incorrect angles and apply appropriate pen pressure for perfect upstrokes and downstrokes.
This article discusses practical calligraphy tips that help you to create awe-inspiring calligraphy like a pro.
Go Slow and Steady
If you are a beginner looking to practise calligraphy, don’t rush through your calligraphy lessons to learn more in less time. Rather you should take it really slow and steady to learn and perfect your calligraphy skills.
When you slow down during your calligraphy practice, you can easily pick your mistakes and make improvements immediately. It helps you to make sharper strokes and create improved letterforms. The beauty of calligraphy lies in creating aesthetically pleasing art forms slowly.
Take your own time to practice and feel the calligraphy from within. Allow yourself to immerse yourself in the amazing world of pen strokes. Practice calligraphy as a welcome break from routine life and use your calligraphy practice sessions to wind down and relax slowly.
Prefer High-Quality Calligraphy Supplies
Don’t compromise on the quality of your calligraphy kit. A cheap calligraphy kit may result in poor calligraphy experiences that fade away from your interest in the art. Also, more often than not, the supplies included in the calligraphy kits are not meant for beginners.
Some calligraphy kits feature oblique plastic pens with high-flex nibs that don’t provide satisfactory writing results due to ink spattering and pressure exertion issues. Using ordinary printer paper may soak up a large ink volume, resulting in fuzzy & unclear strokes.
Rather than buying a readymade calligraphy kit, you can prepare high-quality equipment of your own. This DIY calligraphy starter kit improves your chances of success in calligraphy.
Ensure to Pause Between Various Strokes
Make sure to pause between pen strokes while practising calligraphy. It helps you to create uniform spacing between your letters. Pausing between strokes allows you to focus better on your letterforms and build the required muscle memory.
It is a very useful calligraphy technique that enables you to develop a steady rhythm while practising calligraphy. So ensure to take a slight pause or lift your pen between your strokes.
Modern calligraphy isn’t the same as cursive writing, where you need to write fast and continuously. Instead, when you are practising calligraphy, you need to write slowly and pause between strokes. This enables you to create improved thick and thin strokes than cursive writing.
Grow Your Calligraphy Collection Gradually
Grow your calligraphy collection once you have perfected the art of calligraphy with basic supplies. You may try various types of papers, pens, inks, and nibs to find out the best one for your calligraphy needs.
Don’t buy every fancy or advanced calligraphy supplies you see in the market. Rather grow your calligraphy collection gradually over time. Acquire a few supplies at a time and then take your own time to get acquainted with those supplies.
Thus, you should try one ink at a time instead of buying ten bottles of various inks. Give a fair shot to each supply before giving orders for the next set of supplies. Try to complete a few projects with one set of calligraphy supplies and observe the results to see how it goes.
Hold Your Brush Pen At Incorrect Angles
The art of calligraphy requires you to learn the perfect way of holding your brush or pen while writing. Calligraphy differs from regular lettering as it involves making adjustments in the way you hold your pen.
While holding your brush pen, ensure to make a 45-degree angle from the paper. It assists you in mastering the thick and thin strokes. Moreover, it allows you to create smoother transitions between these strokes.
Ensure to maintain a loose grip on your pen. If you hold your pen too tight, it causes your hands to get tired quickly and restricts you from moving your pen freely. There should be some distance between your grip and the tip of the pen.
As people tend to hold the pen differently as per their preference, one should try to find and maintain a grip that seems comfortable during writing.
Maintain Correct Pen Pressure
It is important to maintain correct pen pressure in calligraphy. When you are in sync with the pressure you exert on your brush pen, it results in distinctive variation in the width of the strokes, including thin upstrokes and thick downstrokes.
Ensure to use light pressure when you are moving the pen upwards during upstrokes and heavy pressure when you are moving the pen downwards during downstrokes. When you use light pressure during upstrokes, it helps in creating hair-like strokes.
On the other hand, using heavy pressure on the downstrokes helps in creating thicker lines.
This is because, with more pressure on downstrokes, you will have thicker lines. Thus, you can increase the pressure on your brush pen as per the preferred thickness of your downstrokes.
Most brush pens are designed to withstand the pressure of downstrokes and won’t break away easily.
Take Images of Your Calligraphy
Your calligraphy skills will improve over time as you engage yourself in more and more calligraphy. However, you may find it hard to notice and track your progress. Therefore, you can take photos of your calligraphy work and save them in a folder on your tablet or pc.
Maintaining a photographic record allows you to check your progress. You can send these images to your teacher or friends to ask for their suggestions. This helps in identifying the mistakes at the earliest and taking corrective measures soon.
You may join any supportive calligraphy community on Instagram and share your photos with them for healthy discussion on calligraphy topics.
Practice Comfortable Body Posture
When you’re practising calligraphy, ensure to write in a comfortable body posture. Maintain proper desk or table ergonomics. You should maintain a straight back, and the height of your desk or table should match your comfort level.
Ensure that you can move your feet and make adjustments to your body posture comfortably from time to time. If you intend to practice calligraphy for long hours, take regular short breaks to avoid boredom.
Put a Date On Your Practice Worksheets
It may appear insignificant to do, but putting dates on your practice worksheets assumes significance when you would like to see your calligraphy progress over any specified period. Referring to your older practice calligraphy sheets is a great way to check your progress.
Whenever you feel your work is not good enough, go through these sheets to realize that you are making progress. This gives reason to celebrate your accomplishments or recognize your hard work. It also motivates you to reach higher levels in your calligraphy journey.
Maintain Proper Records of Your Calligraphy Work
Maintain a separate file and save all your practice calligraphy worksheets, at least the essential art pieces for references. Another way is to take a picture and save it in your computer folder.
If you are really doing great and confident enough to share your work with others, you may start posting your calligraphy sheets on Instagram or other social media accounts. This may get you popularity and fan-following.
You may also connect with various calligraphy artists online and join their online communities. This way, you can discuss the finer details of your work with them and seek further advice and encouragement to improve your calligraphy.
Use Birthdays and Holidays for Your Practice Sessions
Practice calligraphy on birthdays and holidays as you get ample time and motivation on such occasions for creating your best work. It’s a great idea to present your loved ones with calligraphy work adorned with beautiful handwriting.
If you like to improve your calligraphy skills learnt in classes, look for every possible opportunity to do calligraphy. Mark the holidays and birthdays arriving in the near future in your calendar. Make decorative holiday calligraphy as it approaches.
There are various online classes and groups that send emails and guides about celebrating holidays through their holiday tutorials. They share the idea and theme for creating envelope art or handmade cards.
Chase Excellence, Perfection Will Follow
Some people love handwritten calligraphy because of its imperfections and the human element. Don’t look for perfection in your every calligraphy work in the beginning. Rather try to give your best and learn from mistakes.
If you keep looking for perfection, you may not appreciate the beauty that lies in small things.
Instead, you need to seek encouragement from success at smaller things first.
It’s obvious you will make lots of mistakes in the beginning. But don’t lose heart and keep
on practising hard; your calligraphy skills will improve over time.
