Arts and crafts

How to learn calligraphy

Calligraphy is not handwriting but drawing letters to a strict construction: every hand has its own slant, proportions and stroke order. That is why you can learn it on your own from exemplars, as long as you write slowly and compare your letters with the model. Below is how to choose a style and a tool, a three-month plan and what to check on every sheet.

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Pick one style and one tool#

There are many styles, and each has its own tool. A broad-edge pen or a chisel-tip marker is for blackletter, uncial and italic: the pen angle gives the line its thickness. A pointed pen is for Copperplate and Spencerian: pressure gives the thickness. A brush pen, a marker with a flexible tip, is for modern brush lettering: pressure again, but it forgives more mistakes.

For a very first try, a wide chisel-tip marker or a brush pen is the most convenient: no ink, no nib catching on the paper, cheap mistakes. Italic with a chisel marker is a classic starting point because its letters are close to everyday handwriting. Choose one direction for the first three months and do not switch: skills from different hands carry over poorly.

Paper, guidelines and posture#

The paper has to be smooth: on rough paper a brush pen frays quickly and ink bleeds. Put a printed guide sheet under the page — a grid with the baseline, the x-height (the height of lowercase letters), the ascender and descender lines and slant lines. You can draw one yourself: the x-height, the lines for ascenders and descenders, and diagonal lines at the angle you need. Laid paper or tracing paper over the guide works well.

Sit up straight, turn the page slightly, let your arm rest loosely on the desk. Write slowly: in calligraphy speed comes last, and early on it only fixes crooked strokes in place.

Weeks 1–3: basic strokes#

Letters are built from a small set of elements. For a brush pen or a pointed pen these are the thin upstroke, the thick downstroke with pressure, the oval, the loop and the connecting stroke. For a broad-edge pen they are straight lines at a constant pen angle, arches and serifs. Fill lines with the same strokes until they match in slant and thickness.

The main rule of pressure-based styles: thickness changes only on the way down; on the way up the pen or brush moves with almost no pressure. If thin and thick lines get mixed up, the letters look "dirty" even when their shapes are good.

Weeks 4–8: lowercase first, then capitals#

Group the lowercase letters by shared elements. In most Latin hands that means the oval family first (a, c, d, g, o, q), then the arch family (h, m, n, r), then letters with loops or ascenders and descenders (b, f, k, l, p, y), then the rest. Write each letter for a full line, then in pairs and threes — the joins between letters are the weakest spot for many learners. Add capitals, which are more complex and decorative, once your lowercase has settled.

Weeks 9–12: words and layout#

Move on to words and short phrases. Watch the rhythm: the spaces between letters inside a word should look equal, and the space between words should be roughly the width of one letter (in italic, of an "n"). Try making a card or writing out a quote: layout on the page is a separate skill, and it exposes spacing mistakes better than drills do.

How to judge your sheet#

Put your sheet next to the exemplar and check it point by point rather than "as a whole": is the slant consistent (draw a few diagonal pencil lines over the letters), do the letters keep to the x-height, does the thickness wobble, are the spaces even? Turn the sheet upside down — the letters stop reading as words, and the unevenness of their shapes becomes visible. Date your sheets and keep them in a folder: comparing today's page with one from a month ago shows progress better than your feelings do.

Step-by-step plan

  1. Week 1 — style and toolPick one direction: a chisel-tip marker for italic or a brush pen for modern calligraphy; smooth paper and a guide sheet.
  2. Weeks 1–3 — basic strokesLines of upstrokes, downstrokes, ovals and loops with the same slant and thickness.
  3. Weeks 4–8 — lettersLowercase by families of shared strokes, then joins, then capitals.
  4. Weeks 9–12 — words and layoutWords and phrases with even spacing; make a card or write out a quote.

Start learning this in your own space

The plan goes into your repository: tick off stages, keep notes — the change history shows how far you have come.

Start the plan

Sources

  • IAMPETHAn archive of exemplars and lessons in Copperplate and Spencerian
    free
  • The Postman's KnockArticles and free practice sheets for modern calligraphy
    free

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