Calligraphy Troubleshooting: Nib Pressure + Shaking Hand

My last blog post, How to Practice Calligraphy, was inspired by a reader’s question. Similarly, today’s blog post will address a combination of questions and comments from three different readers regarding calligraphy troubleshooting. All of these questions relate to shakiness when writing or nib pressure, which are issues that happen all the time, but aren’t talked about a whole lot. I have expounded on what I know about ameliorating both problems in the post below, but if you have further input {or questions!}, feel free to comment.

Shakiness When Writing

First, let’s touch on the topic of shaking. TPK reader Ashley commented:

“I feel like the thing I need to improve on most [in my calligraphy] is consistency. It seems like when I focus too much my hand can shake which will mess with the pressure of my strokes or the curve of my letters. I’m working on it though!”

It is important to remember that everyone experiences shakiness sometimes. It’s very frustrating! There are ways, however, to get rid of the shakes and forge on with smooth sailing:

Warm Up

You may notice that your hand shakes when you pick up your pen for the first time any given day and try to write. To remedy that, take 5-10 minutes to write random words, ovals, and strokes on a scrap piece of paper. This will get you warmed up and ready to create non-shaky calligraphy!

To this end, I have provided a printable Warm Up Worksheet for you, which you can download by clicking here.

Relax

Sometimes, shakiness may be caused by stage fright. When people find out you can create calligraphy, they’ll have a natural curiosity about watching you create it. If you’re like me, that translates into nervousness … even though you know it’s silly, you may notice your hand starting to shake because you feel pressure to do well.

In that case, it will help if you sit up straight, take a deep breath, and work in slow, deliberate strokes. Try to concentrate on creating the calligraphy, and not the fact that someone is watching you create the calligraphy. If you can, you might talk a bit as you create the calligraphy to relax yourself. For whatever reason, the more you try to control nerve-induced shaking, the worse it will get {c’est la vie}, so your best bet is to ignore your nerves and try to chill out.

Don’t Focus Too Much

I think this may be Ashley’s issue: too much concentration can hinder rather than help your calligraphy. In a lot of cases, you’re probably trying to emulate a certain calligraphy style, maintain a specific slant, and be mindful of your pressure on the nib. You’re better off, however, taking on improvement one step at a time. Start by only focusing on calligraphy style, without an emphasis on slant or upstroke/downstroke width. Once the style is to your satisfaction — and keep in mind this may take a few days — you can work on your slant. When your slant is good, work on your nib pressure.

Developing a new skill takes time, so above all else, remember to be patient with yourself. You will figure out the whole calligraphy thing; just take it slow and don’t give in to frustration.

Avoid Caffeine

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s easy to forget that having a bit too much coffee, Red Bull, or caffeinated tea can make it hard to stay still. If you are jittery from having caffeine, do something else to work off the energy, then return to your calligraphy when the effects have had time to wear off.

Experiment with Letter Size/Nibs/Inks

Maybe your shaking is caused by a medical condition like arthritis. Don’t let it stop you from enjoying creating calligraphy! I know that as someone in my mid-twenties, I’m not qualified to give you advice about arthritic hands … but I do want to encourage you to try a combination of different things before you give up.

First of all, writing larger letters should help with shaking, probably because you don’t have to move your hand as much. Nibs that have a broader stroke {such as the Blue Pumpkin} will also be more forgiving; it’s harder to notice shaky lines if the lines are somewhat thick.

On that note, thicker inks will help to disguise shaky letters. Sumi ink is a relatively thick black ink that’s great for shaky hands.

If All Else Fails, Embrace It

You may have been reading my shakiness suggestions and thinking, “None of those tips will help me because {insert reason here}.” Maybe you’re afflicted by a disease like peripheral neuropathy that makes it difficult to create pristine calligraphy. Well, let me tell you: if you’ve got a desire to make calligraphy, you still should give it a try. One look at Pinterest will tell you that perfect script is not the only way to do it; people are loving quirky and unique mail art. If your letters are shaky, you could exaggerate that shake to make your own signature style!

The whole point of making calligraphy is for you to do something that you enjoy, and in some cases, pass it on to someone else who will enjoy it {i.e. mail art}. Trust me, even if your calligraphy is shaky, your recipient will be thrilled that you took the time to hand-make something. So, please, even if you’ve got a condition that prevents you from making conventionally beautiful script … to heck with it! Do it anyway.

Nib Pressure

Reader Lauren commented:

I feel I need to improve my pressure. I have a really difficult time with pushing down too hard. How did you master that???

Lauren poses a good question — how do you figure out how to apply the right amount of pressure? As a beginner, the best thing I did for myself was approach the concept of pressure by learning faux calligraphy. The reason all the Learn for a Latté worksheets begin with a faux calligraphy section is this: creating faux calligraphy is the best way to actively think about and learn which strokes need to be thick, and which strokes need to be thin. That knowledge is very important when you are ready to try creating dip pen calligraphy.

{The page above is from the Janet Style premium worksheet set.}

Of course, knowing when to exert pressure and being able to control that pressure are two different things. I think a lot of people find that it’s easier to put a lot of pressure on the pen rather than light pressure. To fix that, I would recommend training yourself to write all letters using very light pressure. Begin by making a series of very thin lines that look like the image below; it doesn’t matter whether you want to create them using upstrokes or downstrokes:

Next, try to create calligraphy with a light touch; no upstroke/downstroke contrast. Here’s what Kaitlin Style calligraphy looks like when created with light pressure:

Here are some tips for creating words with light pressure:

• Maintain a good, steady grip on your calligraphy pen.
• Relax and make sure you’re breathing normally {we have a tendency to hold our breath when concentrating on tasks like this}.
• Use a relatively thin ink like Winsor & Newton black calligraphy ink or walnut ink. Sometimes it’s easier to achieve light strokes with thinner inks.

Once you have trained your hand to work with light pressure, you can start alternating pressure. On upstrokes, continue to apply light pressure; but on downstrokes, apply more pressure. That will give you that nice contrast between thin upstrokes and thick downstrokes that I’m always talking about.

Remember: nibs make a difference as far as the contrast you can actually achieve. The Nikko G, for example, won’t give you as much contrast as the Brause EF66. For more information on nibs, give the The Lowdown on Calligraphy Nibs post a read.

To wrap up this post, I’d like to provide you with another video as suggested by reader Marina, who commented:

“A little video of a close-up, sideways shot of you writing [would be very helpful] to check the pressure you put on the nibs; especially the Blue Pumpkin and Nikko G nibs.

I thought that would probably be helpful not only to Marina, but to you as well, so here’s a close-up video showing pressure exertion on different nibs!:

Exerting Pressure on Different Calligraphy Nibs from Lindsey Bugbee on Vimeo.

If you have any questions or comments about shakiness or pressure, please contribute! Also know that I am always on the lookout for blog post topic inspiration, so if you have a question that you believe would make for a good blog post, feel free to comment here or email me {[email protected]}. Thanks again for reading; I really appreciate it!

Warmly,