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.
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 {lindsey@thepostmansknock.com}. Thanks again for reading; I really appreciate it!
Warmly,
I taught myself calligraphy about 50 years ago. Being left-handed, there were no instructions I could find at the time that were specifically for southpaws. So I just wrote backwards and upside down. It worked, but many fonts were impossible to write successfully that way.
I’m now much older, with psoriatic arthritis, and can’t manage the penmanship I had before. Do you have any suggestions for helping me relearn my first writing passion?
I wish I could help lefties more! My maternal grandmother and my father are both lefties … but all of us kids ended up being right-handed. You might get in touch with Rodger Mayeda and see if he is able to make you a special pen to accommodate your arthritis and you being a lefty. If you’re interested, email me (lindsey@thepostmansknock.com), and I’d be happy to connect you two!
Awesome info – Thank you for sharing! Still working on the pressure transition from the bottom of a letter to the thin upstroke, I keep getting a little pool of ink at the bottom but the close-up video really helps. The past couple of year’s I’ve started sending out our Christmas Cards in hand-written calligraphy (using dipped pen), and each year they are getting better and better. This year I’m hoping to find more projects to use my calligraphy on once I get the technique down. I’ve always pressed down pretty hard when I write, so this is the biggest challenge, but I’m up for it!
At Penkraft, we teach you Calligraphy not just as a technique, but from the heart – using the simplest of equipment…be it a pencil, a fountain pen, a calligraphy nib, a charcoal piece or any other object of daily use around the house…..any & every one of these is amenable to creating a beautiful calligraphic pattern! We kindle your imagination & challenge your creativity! Please refer http://www.penkraft.in/calligraphy.
At Penkraft, we teach you Calligraphy not just as a technique, but from the heart – using the simplest of equipment…be it a pencil, a fountain pen, a calligraphy nib, a charcoal piece or any other object of daily use around the house…..any & every one of these is amenable to creating a beautiful calligraphic pattern! We kindle your imagination & challenge your creativity! For more info please refer http://www.penkraft.in/calligraphy.
In reply to to the shaky hand issue; I have a hand tremor caused by nerve damage, ( a tumor and surgical removal of same). I have hesitated to even try calligraphy because of it, until I found this website!
I felt encouraged-then I remembered a hand stretching excersize that will help you relax your hand. I strongly suggest you look for a video tutorial to show how to do it correctly so you don’t strain your self. There are also hand strengthening excersizes that will give you better control.
Hi Lindsey,
Devouring all of your blog posts in one day (haha) and heard here that the Nikko G nib and Sumi ink don’t seem to play well with each other and create some “scratchiness”. But in your post for the Ultimate Modern Calligraphy Starter kit, those were the nibs and ink you suggested. Have those changes recently?
Hi Kelly! I always use the Nikko G and sumi ink for my beginner workshops, and have used that ink/nib combination for a long time. 🙂 I’ve never experienced issues, and haven’t heard many complaints!
Hi Miss Lindsey! I am a beginner at dip pen calligraphy. I’m having problems in doing an upstroke. When I do an upstroke, it catches/prick the paper. Can you help me with this? Hoping for an answer!
Hi Janela! I would read this blog post — it explains how to hold a calligraphy pen, which should really help you with making upstrokes. 🙂
Hi Lindsey! I know this is an old blog post, but I was searching around for this exact question, I think. I just purchased nikko G and brause EF nibs and I’m loving them! I am wondering if I’m exerting TOO much pressure on the down strokes though, because I notice after the ink is dry in some places when I run my hand over what I’ve written it feels rough, if that makes sense, and I can see indentations from the tines on the paper if I look very closely. Should I ease up on the pressure? Maybe the angle at which I’m touching the nib to the paper is wrong? Thanks! I just got a whole mess of stuff from your online downloads… I have to admit, you got me hooked with the freebies, and I love the blog & everything you offer here so much I finally had to get the Kaitlin pdfs, and I snagged a few others I’ve had my eye on too! Can’t wait to get started!
Hmm … what kind of paper are you using? After I write calligraphy, I can usually feel that the downstrokes are raised a bit, but nothing looks amiss visually. I wouldn’t say ease up on pressure (because pressure gives you that nice contrast!), but maybe do play around a bit with angles?
Hi, you mentioned that sumi inks are thicker, do we add distilled water or gum arabic?
Hi Michell! You will add distilled water as the ink thickens. 🙂 I wouldn’t add gum arabic to sumi ink, as gum arabic is actually an ink thickening agent. Great question!