My Top 3 Lessons as a Calligraphy Beginner

Here’s a page from my old visual journal with … I guess what I thought was calligraphy.?

Picking up the basics of calligraphy

Fast forward a few years. I had a new colleague at work and the sticky notes at her cubicle looked exactly like the pins on my Pinterest board! She showed me how to write with a Pentel brush pen. She taught me about flexible calligraphy nibs (with words of caution – do not press hard on a fountain pen 😂).

2020 was the year when things turned upside down. Everyone started seeking solace in new hobbies. DIY projects, baking sourdough bread, learning new musical instruments. Me? I started learning calligraphy with a Pentel Brush Sign Pen. I didn’t want to deal with the challenge of new tools like calligraphy nibs and oblique holders yet.

I scoured through the Internet for blogposts, tutorials and videos on brush pen calligraphy. Even after a few weeks, my progress was dismal. Piecing together information from different sources wasn’t helpful for a complete beginner.

So I took the plunge and enrolled in The Happy Ever Crafter’s Show Me Your Drills online course. Armed with a structured course to work through the basics, I finally knew what I was doing.

Me trying to figure things out by myself (left), and me after taking a proper course (right)!

This was my first big lesson – investing in myself and my learning. I found it valuable to invest in this new creative pursuit, since I was determined to learn calligraphy well. I saved so much time and effort than if I were to continue figuring things out by myself. I would probably have bought more wrong tools in the process too. 😛 Worse, not knowing what I was doing wrong would mean reinforcing the mistakes in my practice!

I started getting comfortable with brush pen calligraphy after a few months. That’s when I knew it was time to learn pointed pen calligraphy. With a Copperplate starter kit from TOOLART, I stepped into the world of nibs, oblique holders and inks. I was practising calligraphy every chance and every moment of free time I had.

First time writing with a pointed pen (top) and first time trying to flourish (bottom)!

Soon, I reached another plateau. (Did you see that coming? 😂) I was practising words and phrases, but I was running out of practice ideas. I felt like I wasn’t improving, but I didn’t know how to improve. And it felt meaningless to practise word after word.

Enter… Instagram.

Sharing my calligraphy publicly

At that point, I was following many seasoned calligraphers on Instagram. I was in awe and feeling very inspired by their calligraphy, but I also felt very amateurish in comparison. I didn’t even dare to think about posting my calligraphy practice on Instagram. It was like a devil sitting on my shoulder saying, “Who do you think you are? Why would anyone want to see your calligraphy practice? How dare you insult #calligraphy with your work?”

Well, the universe works in miraculous ways. I happened to be reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear”. It was nothing short of an epiphany when I read this line:

You do not need anybody’s permission to live a creative life.

(Feel free to repeat that phrase to yourself three times.)

I suddenly realised that I don’t need a formal art education (or a calligraphy certificate). I don’t need affirmation from a more seasoned calligrapher. I don’t need anyone’s permission to share my calligraphy work. Like Gilbert explains – I created this; I get to put this out there in the world.

This was my second big lesson – allowing myself to share without fear of judgement. Within two days, I created my Instagram account @curious.medium, and this was my first post.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Dawn, Singapore Calligraphy (@curious.medium)

Even now, I constantly repeat this phrase to myself as a reminder to create without fear and judgement.

And of course my initial fears were unfounded! Nobody screamed at me to get off the #calligraphy hashtag. Nobody shamed me publicly that I should practise more before sharing my work. I’m so glad I took that leap of faith because getting on Instagram improved my calligraphy by leaps and bounds for two reasons.

1. Having a support network is super helpful.
   None of my close friends have an interest in calligraphy, so I felt like a lone fish. I had no one to discuss, I had no idea where to go next, I felt lost in the vast ocean of calligraphy knowledge. But I found so many supportive and encouraging calligrafriends on Instagram! I can’t stress enough how helpful it is to have a support network that understands what you’re doing. We face the same problems and we cheer each other on, even if we’re halfway across the globe. After all, Instagram is intrinsically a social network right.
   
   
2. Being exposed to a huge pool of inspiration and learning resources is also super helpful.

   
   There’s a saying that you don’t know what you don’t know. Before getting on Instagram, I had no idea there were so many different scripts and variations. I didn’t know that different scripts required different tools. I never imagined that gouache could be used for calligraphy and not only painting!

It was like walking into a colourful bazaar packed with sparkly trinkets I had never seen before. I saw for the first time the sheer breadth and possibilities of calligraphy. I starting learning Spencerian, Gothicized Italic, Italic and Open-Shaded Script. I fell in love with calligraphy flourishing and offhand flourishing. I’ve also learnt about composition, layouts, negative space and design principles.

Oh, along the way, I went off tangent and learnt watercolour painting too – but that’s a story for another day. 😉

Go deep into the details

Through Instagram, I also came to know of many inspirational calligraphers and teachers. I’ve gone on to take classes from some of them – Copperplate with Younghae Chung, flourishing with Suzanne Cunningham, Spencerian with Nina Tran and Michael Sull, and offhand flourishing with Heather Held. The list goes on.

My Copperplate script before and after Younghae’s Copperplate Foundations online course. More proof that investing in your learning is valuable!

The most important thing I learnt from them is to have a discerning eye for details. It’s not enough to know how to write letters and connect them. You also need a strong theoretical foundation so you can dive deep into the ratios, spacing, shapes and angles. Like Suzanne Cunningham said in her class – your hand can’t produce what your brain doesn’t know.

This was my third big lesson – paying attention to details and practising with intention.

But you should also mark out the spots where you did well! Little smiley faces offer some encouragement, so you don’t walk away feeling more dejected.

It’s not effective to practise words and phrases mindlessly day after day. Instead, I learnt to critique my practice by marking out the spots that I didn’t do well. Maybe the transitions weren’t smooth. Maybe the ovals were wonky. Maybe the spacing was inconsistent. Marking them out helped me to remember what to look out for in future.

With intentional practice, I’ve seen my Copperplate script become more consistent over time.

The letter forms and spacing definitely look more consistent to me!

This is still only the beginning

So that’s the story of my calligraphy journey so far, and the top three lessons in my first two years:

1. Investing in myself and my learning;
2. Allowing myself to share without fear of judgement; and
3. Paying attention to details and practising with intention.

I’m sure there’ll be many more things for me to learn, experience and reflect upon in the years to come. I’ll definitely share about them in my future blogposts!