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Lucie tries her hand at calligraphy this week. She tests out several styles and tools that can work for all skill levels.
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00:00I'm Lucy Fink and this week is 5 Days of Calligraphy.
00:06Hey guys! It's Lucy. What's up?
00:08A whole bunch of you suggested on previous videos that I try 5 Days of Calligraphy
00:12and I got weirdly excited by the topic because it sort of reminded me of when I did my bullet
00:18journaling episode
00:18which is one of my favorite episodes ever.
00:21For the past few days I have been watching every video I could find on YouTube that's about calligraphy.
00:26And let me tell you, there's a lot of information out there in the ether.
00:30But the next 5 days are going to be my introductory journey into calligraphy, hand lettering, brush lettering and more.
00:36So let's get into it.
00:38Okay, the basics. Calligraphy is the art of producing decorative handwriting and as I've learned it is incredibly complex.
00:45I think of calligraphy as a discipline. It's just like learning to play an instrument.
00:49So you really need to practice and work hard at it if you want to grow and develop the skill.
00:53There are a whole bunch of traditional calligraphy styles.
00:56Things like Spenserian and Copperplate and these are made with very specific formations and strokes.
01:03This video is not going to be focused on those old school traditional calligraphy styles
01:07even though I will be using some traditional tools.
01:13Earlier today I went out to the art store and I got a calligraphy pen set and some special calligraphy
01:19paper.
01:19The pen set came with 6 nibs of different sizes and shapes.
01:23Nibs are the pointed metal edges that you write with.
01:26I got a pen holder, black ink and a little bowl to pour the ink in.
01:30I also had a couple of cotton pads near me because it's important to degrease the nibs before you use
01:35them.
01:35I used rubbing alcohol to do this.
01:37And after I cleaned off my nibs I just dove right in and got started by practicing some basic strokes.
01:44It took a little while to get used to the strokes and to get the ink to actually come out
01:48with the calligraphy pen.
01:49You know, your elbow needs to be involved when you're writing calligraphy.
01:53You're not just using your wrist.
01:54It's a whole sweeping motion of the arm.
01:56And also the pen has to be at a certain angle to the paper.
01:59You're not holding it upright like a normal ball pen.
02:01But perhaps the most important thing about calligraphy is that your down strokes are always thick and your up strokes
02:07are always thin.
02:09If you're going to take one thing away from this video, down strokes thick, up strokes thin.
02:14Got it?
02:15It actually took me until the very end of the practice sheet before I realized how the calligraphy pen physically
02:20works.
02:21And then I felt kind of silly because I was like, well if I just knew that ahead of time
02:25it would have helped with the strokes.
02:26But you live and you learn.
02:27When you put pressure on the nib at a certain angle, it opens up a little.
02:32There are these two prongs called the tines.
02:34And when they open up and there's ink in the middle of it, it draws a double line filling it
02:39in with ink, which is how you get your thick stroke.
02:41And then when you release the pressure, the tines close, which gives you that thin stroke going up.
02:45But sometimes if you don't have enough ink on there, or if it's not at the exact right angle, your
02:50tines will separate and draw two lines.
02:52But it won't fill it in with ink.
02:54I practiced today for 45 minutes drawing different strokes and lines that I knew would come in handy once I
03:00actually started creating letters and words.
03:02By the end, I was really starting to get the hang of it.
03:08Today I wanted to learn and break down the basics of writing different letters.
03:13The simplest way to do this is to grab a ruler and draw four lines.
03:16The second line down is called the waistline.
03:19Then there's the baseline, the ascender line at the top, and the descender line at the bottom.
03:24The space between the waistline and the baseline is known as the X height.
03:28And that's the height of all of those small letters.
03:30Letters like A, M, N, and O.
03:33The letters that ascend up to the ascender line are letters like D, F, and H.
03:38And then there are descending letters that go down to that bottom line, and those are letters like P, G,
03:43and J.
03:44Make sense?
03:45I started out by using my nib and ink to write these letters, and I actually drew arrows on them
03:50to show where the upstrokes are and where the downstrokes are.
03:53But then I went to the art store and I discovered so many other types of pens, and I realized
03:58that the possibilities here are endless.
04:00Just to show you some examples, here's a quick look at what those wavy lines look like with a few
04:05different tools.
04:06The Tombow Dual Brush Pen was my personal favorite because I feel like it gave me the biggest contrast between
04:11those thick downstrokes and the thin upstrokes.
04:14And the bottom two, the Bic Marking Marker and the Bic Ball Pen, even though they're great pens, they're clearly
04:19not made for calligraphy because there's no visible difference between the downstrokes and the upstrokes.
04:29Now that I've tried out a few types of pens, I'm realizing that stylistically I really like the brush pens
04:35and brush lettering.
04:36So today I'm focusing on using those brush pens and practicing different letters.
04:40I wrote out the whole alphabet again and I made those up and down arrows showing which are upstrokes and
04:45which are downstrokes.
04:48It's pretty amazing how many different styles of hand lettering there are and how many different ways you can make
04:53the exact same letter.
04:55And not only just uppercase and lowercase letters, but when it comes to modern calligraphy you can be really creative
05:01with how you make those letters and where you add in those decorative elements.
05:05I think after about an hour today my muscle memory kicked in and I was really impressed with myself watching
05:11my hand create these crazy twirly swirly letters that I've never been able to make before.
05:16And I'm not trying to brag but that uppercase D was so fancy and so good.
05:22When it comes to writing out these letters it's different than using a regular pen where you're applying equal pressure
05:27to all parts of the letter.
05:29So it definitely takes practice to get used to the feel of it.
05:32Certain letters like C and E are really hard for me because you have to go from that thin upstroke
05:38to the thick downstroke back to that thin upstroke all in one fluid swoop.
05:43And after I wrote out the letters in black I practiced them in different colors and I even tried it
05:48with the water brush.
05:49And I know I've said this word about 40 times already but the key word here is practice.
05:58After spending so much time yesterday working on individual letters I decided that today I was finally ready to put
06:04words together.
06:05I think one of the toughest things to remember here is that every single letter you create needs to have
06:10some sort of connection to the following letter.
06:12So you're always sort of thinking one step ahead here and it definitely takes practice to get this technique down.
06:19Something that I thought was fun when I first started watching videos on this topic is that you can fake
06:23calligraphy pretty easily.
06:25I first wrote the word joy normally using a few different brush pens and then I picked up my ballpoint
06:30pen and I wrote joy.
06:32And then I outlined the downstrokes with two lines and filled them in.
06:36I did it again with the word fake and the key here is to just pick out those downstrokes and
06:41give them a double line and then fill them in.
06:43And honestly the word fake looked like real calligraphy.
06:46And the term modern calligraphy means different things to different people but essentially it's a little bit more flexible than
06:52traditional calligraphy and it lets you add your own creative touch and variations.
06:56One thing that's really fun and helps the word come out looking a little bit more whimsical is instead of
07:01using one standard baseline on the whole word you actually give each letter its own baseline.
07:06It's definitely all about practice and I'm getting really addicted to practicing.
07:10Earlier I lit a candle and I just channeled my inner nib and ink and I wrote what came to
07:16me.
07:16Hashtag Alexander Hamilton.
07:19My cameraman Andrew who had been watching me this entire time asked me if he could have a turn and
07:24that was proof that practice is necessary.
07:27Because he hadn't practiced before and he just didn't have it down.
07:36Today I played around with color and blending using the brush pens.
07:40I think it's really easy to blend if you have a Tombow colorless blending pen or a spray mister but
07:45I didn't have either of those today.
07:47So instead I just tested out a few different blending techniques.
07:51First I drew with a lighter color and then I added a few darker tones into it.
07:55But the second method was a lot smoother and basically I just got a plastic sheet.
07:59You can use any non-porous surface.
08:01And I took a darker pen, got all the ink out onto it and then took a lighter pen and
08:06actually just soaked up that dark ink.
08:09And that way when you start writing it starts out dark but as the dark color fades you get back
08:13to the lighter color of the pen.
08:15The second method was a lot smoother and I think it gave the word sort of an ombre effect.
08:19The coolest part about this week for me is that all of my co-workers have been seeing what I've
08:23made.
08:24And one of my co-workers Patricia actually asked me if I would consider making her will you be my
08:29bridesmaid cards for her wedding.
08:31And I was touched that she asked me to be part of such a special occasion in her life.
08:35And it was also great that I could put such a new skill to use so quickly.
08:39Since my bullet journaling episode I've actually stopped using a bullet journal and I switched over to a regular planner.
08:45Because I found it was difficult for me to keep creating those weekly and monthly templates.
08:49But now that I'm getting into calligraphy I'm thinking of starting my bullet journal again.
08:54And using it to practice my hand lettering and also to create some trackers.