Calligraphy Practice

Since I've been really into hand lettering lately, I decided that I should learn calligraphy. Like, legit, dipping a pen in ink, Harry Potter-style writing (Hi, I'm a nerd). I also figured its one of those things that is kind of hard to teach yourself so I should sign up for a class.

This is practice of the basic strokes. I love how it ended up looking kind of like a messy pattern.

As opposed to an in-person class, I signed up for  Melissa Esplin's I Still Love Calligraphy class to help me focus with specific assignments. So far I really like it and the Copperplate style is definitely up my alley.

My first attempt at doing the alphabet free handed (as opposed to tracing). Little wonky.

One of the hardest things for me is relearning how to hold the pen. Somehow, as a misguided/rebellious third grader, I developed a really bizarre way of holding pens where my thumb hangs over the top of the pen and wiggles as I'm writing. It's pretty weird, but it works for me. I think its one reason I can write in really tiny handwriting and make detailed doodles. But it just won't work with a calligraphy pen because I would bend the nib and the ink wouldn't come out.

Getting better!

Hopefully I'll stick with this but I need projects to work on! So start sending your requests for pretty notecards, envelopes, place cards and quotes so I have projects to keep me going! Though, no promises that it won't be a little imperfect. ;o) If you don't mind, send 'em my way! Seriously, the more practice the better!

Still some work to do but still improving :o)