• Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills: Garden Edition

    The new Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills packet centers around a garden theme. The packet will provide you with a challenge, improve your pen handling, and teach you how to create a gorgeous flourished hummingbird!

    Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills: Garden Edition | The Postman's Knock

    The only way you will keep going with calligraphy is if you enjoy your practice. The secret to enjoyment is to keep things interesting, and Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills certainly do that! So far, there are two editions of the NYACD: the Under the Sea Edition and the newly-created Garden Edition. In this blog post, I’d like to introduce you to the Garden Edition, which I’ve been working on for the past few weeks!

    What are Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills?

    Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills are printable calligraphy drills with an artistic twist. While most calligraphy drills depict nothing in particular, every NYACD is a little work of art. For example, the Garden Edition directs you to make graphics like this spider. At the end, you’ve not only worked on your pressure exertion and pen movements, but you’ve also created an eye-pleasing project.

    Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills: Garden Edition | The Postman's Knock
    This flourished spider makes an awesome addition to Halloween-themed paper goods!

    About the Garden Edition Drills

    You can find the Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills: Garden Edition ($5.00) by clicking here. Once you’ve downloaded the drills, print them off on a calligraphy-friendly paper such as 32# laserjet. Next, start filling them out with your favorite pen/nib/ink combination!

    Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills: Garden Edition | The Postman's Knock
    If you’re a beginner, I would recommend using a Nikko G nib and a straight holder. As far as ink goes, I like to use sumi, but you can use any ink you like!

    The Garden Edition packet starts out with rectangular drills. These drills require simple movements that result in neat little illustrations.

    Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills: Garden Edition | The Postman's Knock
    These rectangular drills help you to practice simple, basic dip pen movements.

    Next comes two pages of square drills. These drills are a little more involved than the rectangular drills, but red and green arrows will walk you through exactly how to create them!

    Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills: Garden Edition | The Postman's Knock
    If you’re stuck on how to form a drill, take a look at the red and green image in each second square! It will show you exactly what strokes to make.

    After the square drills, you’ll fill out circular drills. These drills are more difficult than many of the square drills, so they feature guidelines for you to follow.

    Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills: Garden Edition | The Postman's Knock
    Allow yourself a couple of days to fill out the circular drills!

    After you finish the smaller drills, you move on to two large drills: a cactus, and a spider.

    Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills: Garden Edition | The Postman's Knock
    In addition to improving your handle on the dip pen, these larger drills will teach you how to make impressive flourishes that you can use to enhance paper goods like mail art.

    Finally, the Garden Drills packet ends with instructions and practice for drawing a flourished hummingbird. Once you learn how to draw the hummingbird, try using it to add embellishment to an envelope or for making framed art to display in your home!

    Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills: Garden Edition | The Postman's Knock
    The Garden Drills packet features step-by-step instructions over how to create this hummingbird.

    Free Alternative Drills

    For every paid printable that I release, I like to make sure that there’s a free alternative. If you aren’t quite ready to invest in the Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills: Garden Edition, you can always download the simple one-page Not Your Average Calligraphy Drills sheet for free! There’s also an 11 Calming Calligraphy Drills printable that you may like.

    Thanks very much for reading TPK, and enjoy the new drills!

    Warmly,

    Lindsey's Signature | The Postman's Knock