Calligraphy flourishing is something that mystifies most people. It’s tough to figure out how not to overdo it (or underdo it!), and even harder to make flourishes that are tasteful and natural-looking. In today’s short tutorial, I’ll show you my technique for making flourishes that look polished every time.
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The other day, I received an email asking me about what I — personally — did to learn calligraphy. Did I practice with workbooks? Set myself rigid hours devoted to writing? Actually, no. My practice was always pleasant and fairly non-structured, and I learned pretty quickly! In this post, I’ll go over six tricks that I used to keep my learning on the right track. Hopefully you can apply them to your own calligraphy journey!
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I’m sure that you know the feeling of creating something that you’re proud of. Then, time passes, and you realize: “Wow, I really could have done that better.” That’s exactly how I felt with the Amy Style Calligraphy Worksheet Set. When I first released the set in 2015, I thought it was just great! I’d done it to the best of my ability, and that’s all that a person can ask for, really.
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I recently received an email from a reader asking me about the practical uses for calligraphy. This reader works in the corporate world, and she was having trouble justifying taking the time to learn the art. I get it! We constantly have to make choices about how to manage our days, and oftentimes you can’t justify indulging in an enjoyable creative pursuit. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that calligraphy can be incorporated into your day-to-day with good reason! Here’s what I came up with:
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When I’m working on any sort of calligraphy project, I always keep a calligraphy exemplar at hand. Exemplars are good to have around just in case you forget how to make a particular letter in the calligraphy style that you’re using! In today’s tutorial, I’ll teach you how to make a calligraphy exemplar with the help of a printable shortcut.
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Earlier this month, I picked up a book called The Happiness Project to read on a long trip. The Happiness Project is basically about author Gretchen Rubin’s quest to increase her happiness through changes that she makes in the course of a year. It was a fun and inspirational self-improvement book, and one that resonated with me because it inadvertently provided insight into why people enjoy learning calligraphy! It also gave me enlightenment as to why some learners end up being more successful than others.
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If you’re new to calligraphy, you may have noticed some diagonal lines on practice sheets. Those are called “slant lines”, and today we’re going to talk about what they are, why they’re useful, and when to use them.
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The TPK blog is peppered with free printable calligraphy practice sheets to help you improve your penmanship! However, with 400+ blog posts on this site, some of the best freebies may have eluded you. For that reason, I decided to create a compilation of the free dip pen and brush pen calligraphy practice sheets and present them to you in this article. Some may look familiar, while others may be new to you! My hope is that these will help you to set aside some “me time” to improve your penmanship, relax, and indulge your creativity.
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In 2012, I decided to start an Etsy shop called “The Postman’s Knock”, and I quit my day job (read the full story here). The idea behind the Etsy shop was this: I could design stationery and write out custom envelope calligraphy for people, which they would be delighted to receive when they heard “the postman’s knock” at their door. Eventually, the Etsy shop evolved into so much more than that — now, TPK is mainly a blog and learning resource — but, like everyone, I started somewhere. I tried a lot of things and put myself out there before I felt completely ready, which is just what you have to do! Here are some of the items that I used to sell, some of which you may be surprised at. Without these now-retired items, TPK as we know it wouldn’t exist!
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When I first developed an interest in calligraphy, I perused a lot of calligraphy photos online. Those photos featured a recurring theme: a strange-looking pen with a “thingy” sticking out of its side. After some intensive Googling, I found out that the “thingy” is called a “flange”, and the pen is called an “oblique calligraphy pen”.
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