The Ultimate Guide To Creating Calligraphy

Creating calligraphy is often an overlooked area of creativity, but if you want to try it out here’s how!

You will need:

• A ruler
• Permanent Ink
• Nibbed drawing pen
• Gouache paint
• Paper
• Sticky tape
• Chisel-tip black marker
• A flat-edged paintbrush
• Water
• Old cloths or towels
• Pencils
• Tissues

Set up:

• Tape your paper to the table to keep it steady.
• Work on a slanted desk if possible.
• Give yourself plenty of room.
• Make sure you’re comfortable.
• Don’t keep your ink right next to the paper, but it keep it within reach with the rest of your tools.

Practice!

Tape two pencils together with tape, hold them at a 45 degree angle and practice making marks.

Filling Your Pen.

Using your brush, paint a horizontal line of ink or gouache paint across the pen’s nib. Never dip your pen straight into the ink pot!

Before Your Start:

1. Put on some old clothes that you don’t mind getting ink on.
2. Sit comfortably.
3. Cover your lap with some old towels or cloths.

Preparing Your Paper:

1. Draw your baseline. Align your ruler with the top of your paper, draw a line at the bottom of the ruler and you have your baseline.
2. Create a nib ladder. This is for measuring the size and height of your letters. Place your pen parallel with the baseline and make square, then form ten of these squares.
3. Draw the X-height. A typical italic typeface is 4-5 nib heights.
4. Draw the ascender and descender. From your x-height draw 4-5 nib heights above and below.
5. Draw the cap-height. This is the height of the capitals in your calligraphy, it is a line between the x-height and the ascender.

When you’re fully prepared you can practice using some of the letters in this infographic until you feel confident enough to begin creating your own calligraphy.

How To Create Beautiful Calligraphy | Moo