I want to start this post off by saying that if you experience a lot of calligraphy ink problems, there may be a simple culprit. The first may be that you have not prepared your nib for use; or you might be holding your pen too upright. If you have addressed those issues and continue to experience problems, then this post will be helpful! In it, we’ll go through four common calligraphy ink problems and how to fix them.
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When I first began learning how to use a dip pen, calligraphy nibs were a mystery to me. I remember being very confused about which nib to use, how to use it, and what to do with it when I wasn’t using it! If you have the same questions, this post will be helpful.
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If you find yourself creating a fair amount of illustration or calligraphy, then a light box may help you to work more efficiently! In the next few paragraphs, we’ll discuss what a light box is and how you can use it to enhance your creations.
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The first year that I started learning calligraphy, many key things eluded me. I couldn’t figure out what kind of paper to write on, how to get nibs to work, or how to practice, among other things. The frustration I experienced in trying to navigate the calligraphy world was what prompted me to write the TPK blog, and, specifically, articles like this one! My goal is to help you skip a lot of confusion and go straight to the fun part. In this blog post, you’ll find six “calligraphy hacks” to help make calligraphy creation easier — especially for beginners.
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There are many specialized writing utensils on the market, so it’s easy to think that you have to have the latest and greatest to create beautiful lettering. Crayola calligraphy, calligraphy created with an average broad line marker, begs to differ! Today, I’m going to teach you how to write with what you may have previously considered a children’s art supply.
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Three years ago, I decided to try making a calligraphy worksheet. It was the first worksheet that I ever made, and I used a calligraphy style that I called “Flourish Formal”, a style with ample curls and embellishments. Last year, I started to notice just how outdated the worksheet was … it just didn’t measure up to the quality of later worksheet sets, both functionally and aesthetically.
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White calligraphy is enchanting, unique, and an attainable skill to add to your lettering repetoire. We’re used to seeing light papers with dark inks, but dark papers with light inks are a rarity! If you’ve never tried using white calligraphy ink, I encourage you to give it a shot. The capability to make white lettering is one of the major perks of being able to use a dip pen! In this post, I’ll provide seven tips to help you get started.
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January is coming up, which is the traditional time for making new goals. If any of your goals are creative — “learn calligraphy”, “improve drawing skills”, etc. — your biggest obstacle will be … yourself! In this article, I’ll give you my take on squelching negative self-talk and continuing to create.
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While calligraphy nibs enable beautiful lettering creations, they can also prove to be finicky creatures! We’ve all been there: you open up a new packet of nibs, insert one that you’ve been excited about using in your pen, and … ink won’t flow. Or, maybe the nib writes, but not without scratching into the paper with a vengeance. Solutions for these two problems — plus a few others — can be found in the six nib usage tips below!
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There is no “must have” list of intermediate calligraphy supplies, and I want to get that out of the way from the get-go! As long as you have basic calligraphy supplies, you’re all set to create calligraphy regardless of your skill level. For that reason, this intermediate calligraphy supply list offers suggestions for tools that should be fun to toy with. None of these supplies are things you absolutely must own, but they’re all nice to have!
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