Calligraphy

[Drawing61]

Hello,

 

Yet another question. Because of my new love of fountain pens which, alas, has morphed into an addition I want to use then as much as possible. I write and draw with them but would like to go a bit farther. I love the art of good hand writing and especially the art of calligraphy. I would like to learn some basic skills in both. Can anyone recommend textbooks, practice guides, etc. to get me started? Among my artist friends no one is a calligrapher and when I checked the internet for classes in my area I come up with things such as "design your own wedding invitation in two easy lessons".

 

Thanks in advance for advice.

[dms525]

I suggest you post your question in the Handwriting Forum on FPN. You will get lots of advice. In addition, there are several pinned topics that might help you.

 

If and when you ask again, let us know what style(s) of calligraphy particularly interest you.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[nickmazur]

You can try the following:

1-2-3 Calligraphy!: Letters and Projects for Beginners and Beyond by Eleanor Winters

Margaret Shepherd's Calligraphy Projects by Margaret Shepherd

 

I would also recommend taking a calligraphy class at your local community ed or a similar class. I took such a class last spring and a couple of the students were learning specifically how to do wedding invitations, etc.

[Mister John]

If interested in copperplate, Eleanor Winters book is excellent. This will, however, require your getting specialized flex nibs (most likely for dip pens) to achieve. For italic hand, I found Dubay and Getty's book "Italic Letters" to be excellent. My general advice is to pick one or two hands and learn them well rather than trying a zillion different hands. Thus, i would avoid the many calligraphic lettering dictionaries out there. While it may seem like a value to get a whole bunch of hands to choose from, the coverage in most of these texts is so terse that you really cannot use them. Merely seeing the alphabet of a given hand and the steps to making each letter is insufficient to master it.