At its core, calligraphy is the art of decorative handwriting. Its roots trace back through centuries and across cultures, from the intricate Chinese characters to the fluid Arabic script and the ornate European styles. Today, calligraphy exists as a revered art form that celebrates precision, creativity, and mindfulness.
The essence of calligraphy lies in the tools. Each stroke is crafted with care using calligraphy, pens, brushes, nibs, and ink. From the traditional bamboo stick to modern fountain pens, the right tool is an extension of the artist's hand. At Cass Art, we offer a curated selection of premium calligraphy supplies, ensuring that every stroke meets its intended grace. You can explore our full range here.
Before diving into calligraphy, assembling the right tools is crucial. Here's a basic list to get you started:
Pens and Nibs - They come in various sizes and shapes. Beginners often find success with broad-edged nibs like the flat or chisel nibs for foundational scripts like Italic or Uncial.
Holder - A pen holder, whether straight or oblique, holds the nib and gives you control over your strokes.
Ink - Opt for high-quality, smooth-flowing ink that's suitable for calligraphy. Many beginners start with black ink.
Paper - Choose smooth, non-textured paper to allow your nib to glide smoothly. Calligraphy practice pads or marker paper work well.
Explore our full range of calligraphy accessories to get started here.
One of the key features of calligraphy which makes it different to regular handwriting is the variance in line thickness. While most rollerball, ballpoint and fountain pens will deliver fairly uniform line thickness, the beautiful scripts that calligraphy pens produce are achieved by varying the breadth of your pen strokes.
In general, when moving the pen towards you - downstrokes - you'll want to produce thicker lines while moving it away from you - upstrokes - produce thinner lines. Learning to control these different strokes is one of the biggest challenges that calligraphers face and one of the reasons that each pen stroke requires so much care and patience.
Strokes are essentially what makes up a letter, and they are the foundation of the alphabet. That’s why it’s so important to know, master and practice them. And yet, alot of people skip this critical step.
Here are some top line tips for familairising the art of calligraphy:
Grasp Basic Strokes - Start by acquainting yourself with basic strokes lines, loops, curves, and angles. Practice these to familiarize yourself with the nib and ink flow.
Learn Letterforms - Focus on foundational scripts like Italic, Copperplate, or Uncial. Begin with lowercase letters, breaking them down into individual strokes for practice before moving to uppercase.
Dedicated Practice - Consistency is key! Allocate regular time for practice each day. Embrace imperfections as part of the learning process and witness gradual improvement with persistent practice.
Mastering Pressure - Calligraphy involves manipulating pressure to create varying line thicknesses. Practice exerting pressure on downstrokes while lightening it on upstrokes to achieve contrast.
Educational Resources - Explore Cass Art's selection of books, online tutorials, and workshops. Explore the works of renowned calligraphers to understand diverse styles, techniques, and the rich history behind calligraphy.
See example here.
Here is a few examples of basic calligraphy strokes of calligraphy - a fundamental element in learning calligraphy. They are the foundations that will create the entire calligraphy alphabet. There are eight basic strokes; upstroke, downstroke, overturn, underturn, compound curve, oval, ascender and descender. It is vital that you practise these strokes until you are consistent as it will set you on the right path to writing beautifully.
Downstroke
Upstroke
Overturn
underturn
Downstroke - a straight line and you make this movement by moving your hand downwards and applying some pressure. Don't be scared about applying pressure, your brush pens are designed for this purpose.
Upstroke - This movement is made by moving your pen upwards but it requires less pressure than you apply to downstrokes. This is trickier than the downstroke. If your line is wobbly, it may be that you are going too slow and although you need to go slow when creating calligraphy it's about finding the right balance that helps you create consistently.
Overturn - From left to right, start by moving your pen upwards and then when you reach the peak, start applying more pressure so that you get that thickness when you move the pen downwards.
Underturn - This is pretty much a capital U but one side of it is thicker than the other. Move your pen from left to right, as you would traditionally and remember that whenever you move your pen downwards you need to apply more pressure.
Compund Curve
Discending Loop
Ascending Loop
The Compound Curve is a combination of two strokes: the overturn stroke and the underturn stroke. The compound curve starts in the same fashion as the overturn stroke, but before the thick downstroke ends at the baseline with full pressure, it transitions into a thin stroke and ends in the same fashion as the underturn stroke.
Descending Loop - For this stroke you will be starting with a heavy downstroke applying pressure until you come back up with light upstroke. Similar to the ascending loop you want to make sure you maintain a steady speed and don’t end up with the loop extending through creating a tail.
Ascending Loop - With this stoke you start in the middle with a light upstroke and adding pressure as you come back down. You will transition at the top and curve down into a heavy downstroke.
The letter 'h' now connects three different strokes - Upstroke, Ascender and the Compound Curve.
Calligraphy is more than just writing, it's an art form that merges creativity with precision. Embrace the basics, explore diverse styles, and let your creativity flow through every stroke of the pen!
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