00:00I'm Lucy Fink, and this week is 5 Days of Calligraphy.
00:06Hey guys! It's Lucy. What's up?
00:08Before we get started, please comment below with your 5-Day Challenge suggestions for me.
00:13And if you're new to our YouTube channel and you haven't subscribed yet, click right here and subscribe now.
00:18And I'm going to wait until you do that before we move on. Okay? Thank you.
00:23A whole bunch of you suggested on previous videos that I try 5 Days of Calligraphy,
00:27and I got weirdly excited by the topic because it sort of reminded me of when I did my bullet
00:33journaling episode,
00:34which is one of my favorite episodes ever.
00:36For the past few days, I have been watching every video I could find on YouTube that's about calligraphy.
00:41And let me tell you, there's a lot of information out there in the ether.
00:45But the next 5 days are going to be my introductory journey into calligraphy, hand lettering, brush lettering, and more.
00:51So let's get into it.
00:53Okay, the basics.
00:54Calligraphy is the art of producing decorative handwriting.
00:57And as I've learned, it is incredibly complex.
01:00I think of calligraphy as a discipline.
01:02It's just like learning to play an instrument.
01:04So you really need to practice and work hard at it if you want to grow and develop the skill.
01:08There are a whole bunch of traditional calligraphy styles.
01:11Things like Spenserian and Copperplate.
01:14And these are made with very specific formations and strokes.
01:17This video is not going to be focused on those old school traditional calligraphy styles,
01:22even though I will be using some traditional tools.
01:28Earlier today, I went out to the art store and I got a calligraphy pen set and some special calligraphy
01:34paper.
01:34The pen set came with six nibs of different sizes and shapes.
01:38Nibs are the pointed metal edges that you write with.
01:40I got a pen holder, black ink, and a little bowl to pour the ink in.
01:45I also had a couple of cotton pads near me because it's important to degrease the nibs before you use
01:50them.
01:50I used rubbing alcohol to do this.
01:52And after I cleaned off my nibs, I just dove right in and got started by practicing some basic strokes.
01:59It took a little while to get used to the strokes and to get the ink to actually come out
02:03with the calligraphy pen.
02:04You know, your elbow needs to be involved when you're writing calligraphy.
02:08You're not just using your wrist. It's a whole sweeping motion of the arm.
02:11And also the pen has to be at a certain angle to the paper.
02:14You're not holding it upright like a normal ball pen.
02:16But perhaps the most important thing about calligraphy is that your down strokes are always thick
02:21and your up strokes are always thin.
02:24If you're going to take one thing away from this video, down strokes thick, up strokes thin.
02:29Got it?
02:30It actually took me until the very end of the practice sheet before I realized how the calligraphy pen physically
02:35works.
02:36And then I felt kind of silly because I was like, well, if I just knew that ahead of time,
02:40it would have helped with the strokes.
02:41But you live and you learn.
02:42When you put pressure on the nib at a certain angle, it opens up a little.
02:46There are these two prongs called the tines.
02:49And when they open up and there's ink in the middle of it, it draws a double line filling it
02:54in with ink,
02:54which is how you get your thick stroke.
02:56And then when you release the pressure, the tines close, which gives you that thin stroke going up.
03:00But sometimes if you don't have enough ink on there or if it's not at the exact right angle,
03:05your tines will separate and draw two lines, but it won't fill it in with ink.
03:09I practiced today for 45 minutes drawing different strokes and lines that I knew would come in handy
03:14once I actually started creating letters and words.
03:17By the end, I was really starting to get the hang of it.
03:23Today, I wanted to learn and break down the basics of writing different letters.
03:28The simplest way to do this is to grab a ruler and draw four lines.
03:31The second line down is called the waistline.
03:34Then there's the baseline, the ascender line at the top, and the descender line at the bottom.
03:39The space between the waistline and the baseline is known as the X height,
03:43and that's the height of all of those small letters, letters like A, M, N, and O.
03:48The letters that ascend up to the ascender line are letters like D, F, and H.
03:53And then there are descending letters that go down to that bottom line, and those are letters like P, G,
03:58and J.
03:59Make sense?
04:00I started out by using my nib and ink to write these letters,
04:03and I actually drew arrows on them to show where the upstrokes are and where the downstrokes are.
04:08But then I went to the art store and I discovered so many other types of pens,
04:12and I realized that the possibilities here are endless.
04:15Just to show you some examples, here's a quick look at what those wavy lines look like with a few
04:19different tools.
04:21The Tombow Dual Brush Pen was my personal favorite because I feel like it gave me the biggest contrast
04:25between those thick downstrokes and the thin upstrokes.
04:29And the bottom two, the Bic Marking Marker and the Bic Ball Pen, even though they're great pens,
04:34they're clearly not made for calligraphy because there's no visible difference between the downstrokes and the upstrokes.
04:44Now that I've tried out a few types of pens, I'm realizing that stylistically I really like the brush pens
04:50and brush lettering,
04:51so today I'm focusing on using those brush pens and practicing different letters.
04:55I wrote out the whole alphabet again and I made those up and down arrows showing which are upstrokes and
05:00which are downstrokes.
05:03It's pretty amazing how many different styles of hand lettering there are and how many different ways you can make
05:08the exact same letter.
05:10And not only just uppercase and lowercase letters, but when it comes to modern calligraphy,
05:15you can be really creative with how you make those letters and where you add in those decorative elements.
05:20I think after about an hour today my muscle memory kicked in and I was really impressed with myself
05:25watching my hand create these crazy twirly swirly letters that I've never been able to make before.
05:32And I'm not trying to brag, but that uppercase D was so fancy and so good.
05:37When it comes to writing out these letters, it's different than using a regular pen
05:41where you're applying equal pressure to all parts of the letter,
05:44so it definitely takes practice to get used to the feel of it.
05:47Certain letters like C and E are really hard for me because you have to go from that thin upstroke
05:52to the thick downstroke
05:54back to that thin upstroke all in one fluid swoop.
05:58And after I wrote out the letters in black, I practiced them in different colors and I even tried it
06:02with the water brush.
06:04And I know I've said this word about 40 times already, but the key word here is practice.
06:13After spending so much time yesterday working on individual letters, I decided that today I was finally ready to put
06:19words together.
06:20I think one of the toughest things to remember here is that every single letter you create needs to have
06:25some sort of connection to the following letter.
06:27So you're always sort of thinking one step ahead here and it definitely takes practice to get this technique down.
06:34Something that I thought was fun when I first started watching videos on this topic is that you can fake
06:38calligraphy pretty easily.
06:40I first wrote the word joy normally using a few different brush pens and then I picked up my ballpoint
06:45pen and I wrote joy
06:47and then I outlined the downstrokes with two lines and filled them in.
06:51I did it again with the word fake and the key here is to just pick out those downstrokes and
06:56give them a double line and then fill them in.
06:58And honestly the word fake looked like real calligraphy.
07:01And the term modern calligraphy means different things to different people, but essentially it's a little bit more flexible than
07:07traditional calligraphy
07:08and it lets you add your own creative touch and variations.
07:11One thing that's really fun and helps the word come out looking a little bit more whimsical is instead of
07:16using one standard baseline on the whole word,
07:18you actually give each letter its own baseline.
07:21It's definitely all about practice and I'm getting really addicted to practicing.
07:25Earlier I lit a candle and I just channeled my inner nib and ink and I wrote what came to
07:31me.
07:32Hashtag Alexander Hamilton.
07:34Give this video a thumbs up if you're a Hamilton fan too.
07:36My cameraman Andrew who had been watching me this entire time asked me if he could have a turn
07:41and that was proof that practice is necessary because he hadn't practiced before and he just didn't have it down.
07:54Today I played around with color and blending using the brush pens.
07:57I think it's really easy to blend if you have a Tombow colorless blending pen or a spray mister,
08:02but I didn't have either of those today.
08:05So instead I just tested out a few different blending techniques.
08:08First I drew with a lighter color and then I added a few darker tones into it.
08:12But the second method was a lot smoother and basically I just got a plastic sheet.
08:16You can use any non-porous surface.
08:19And I took a darker pen, got all the ink out onto it,
08:22and then took a lighter pen and actually just soaked up that dark ink.
08:26And that way when you start writing it starts out dark but as the dark color fades
08:31you get back to the lighter color of the pen.
08:32The second method was a lot smoother and I think it gave the word sort of an ombre effect.
08:37The coolest part about this week for me is that all of my coworkers have been seeing what I've made
08:41and one of my coworkers, Patricia, actually asked me if I would consider making her
08:46Will You Be My Bridesmaid cards for her wedding.
08:49And I was touched that she asked me to be part of such a special occasion in her life
08:53and it was also great that I could put such a new skill to use so quickly.
08:57Since my bullet journaling episode I've actually stopped using a bullet journal
09:00and I switched over to a regular planner because I found it was difficult for me
09:04to keep creating those weekly and monthly templates.
09:07But now that I'm getting into calligraphy I'm thinking of starting my bullet journal again
09:11and using it to practice my hand lettering and also to create some trackers.
09:16What do you think of that?
09:16Comment below if you think that's a good idea and as always let me know
09:19what you want to see me try next time for five days at a time.
09:23Hey YouTube, thanks for watching.
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09:32See ya!
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