What is Calligraphy?

Hello, everyone!
I have one simple question before we starts.

Do you guys know what is Calligraphy?
Calligraphy is a visual art related to writing. It is design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument, brush, among other writing instrument. A contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as, "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner.

So it is basically means the pictogram by hand writing, not only for the meaning delivery but also contains flourish stroke and effects.


Calligraphy's root comes from Greek work 'Kalligraphia', the compound word of Kallos (Beautiful) and graphe (writing).



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In Eastern Asia, Calligraphy has a long history about Calligraphy.
The Chinese name for calligraphy is shūfǎ (The method or law of writing); the Japanese name shodō (The way or principle of writing); the Korean is seoye (The art of writing).
The calligraphy of East Asian characters is an important and appreciated aspect of East Asian culture.

Korean Calligraphy

Chinese Calligraphy

Western Calligraphy is recognizable by the use of the Latin script.
The latin alphabet appeared about 600BC, in Rome, and by the first century developed into Roman imperial capitals earned on stones, Rustic capitals painted on walls, and Roman cursive for daily use.
Following the rustic capitals, uncial lettering style developed as writing withdrew to monasteries,  uncial script was found more suitable for copying the Bible and other religious text.

European Calligraphy

Calligraphy Guideline

In English Calligraphy , guideline is really important thing for your calligraphy.
It helps to draw accurate gradient and angles.
Even proficient Calligraphers uses guideline because professional calligraphy is all about the line and angle.
So how to create this guideline?
Long time ago, you have to draw all the guidelines by hand. Still there are some people who draws it by their hand, but I recommend you to use this cool site!




http://www.allunderone.org/calligraphy2/calligraphy.php



This site will help you to create guideline easily.

• Calligraphy style

: This will be the title of your guideline.
  Can you see the Name in the yellow box? That will be your guideline title.

• Toggle "X" on/off

: When you turn on this one, X will show up the blank chichis x-height.
  It does not matter when you write one short sentences, but I recommend to use it whenever you are writing long sentence. You can check it on the preview screen.

• Vertical (Angled) lines

: Gradient line will show up when you turn on it. 

• Spacing between verticals

: Space between gradient lines. Usually, 4-5 is nice to start with.
  If it is too wide, it is hard to figure out the gradient and on the other hand, when it is too narrow, it looks so tight and messy.

• Angle of vertical lines

: Setting for angle of vertical lines. In general, Italic uses 5-7 and copperplate uses 52-55.

• Nib width (in millimeters)

: English calligraphy font sizes are depend on what size nib do you use. So write down your nib size.

• Ascender Height in Nib widths

: Setting for ascender line.

• Capital line in nib widths

: Create lines for capital letters.

• X-height in nib widths

: For example, 5x-height means that there are five 3mm width nib is filed up.
  Usually, Italic uses 4-6 size.

• Descender height in Nib widths

: Setting for descender line.

• Whitespace between sets of lines (nib widths)

: 1 set = Ascender + x-height + descender.
  Gap between 1 set and next 1 set.

After setting all of these click the 'Create PDF', and you are good to go!


Hope this guideline help you to reach your great calligraphy!
Enjoy!

Birthday Card! Just a drawing

November 12th is my friend's birthday and she invited me to her birthday party.
So I decided to make birthday card for her.

Well, Calligraphy is for this kinds of event! HAHAHA
(Or maybe in this case, just a drawing...?)

I'll show you some outlines that I'm making for her birthday card!

Recently I saw a cool GIF drawing this ribbon lettering drawing about greeting autumn.

So I decided to apply on my birthday card with different decorations!

Just put some more details so it doesn't look alone...

She is very interested in Korea, so I'm considering putting this 생일축하해 (Happy Birthday in Korean) words in her birthday card. I don't know yet...

I like that crown shape top :)

It was not intended one, but it looks like crown!

And still don't know what to do, but I made some outline for my writing section.

I always have a hard time to figure out what can be the best result of my arrangement.

Hope this will work out easily soon :)

Lastly, this is what I draw, colored, decided before I start the outline.

I liked that cloud a lot, but maybe next time.

(I don't know where to put it...)

It is always happy thing to draw and make something special for someone.
This might can be not pretty or perfect as much as Hallmark cards, but I think this can be the only one card in the world that I created!
Hope she will love this card.

I'll be back with final shot of my card next time.
See you soon!

Nib recommendation

So, I would like to introduce the kinds of the nib for the dip pen.
Before we start, I'll let you know that this is not the standard recommendation because every person's writing habit and preference is different so just take this as a reference.
What you have to do to find the perfect fit on your hand is writing for trial.



So... here we go!

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Calligraphy pen nib for English divided into two big category.

• Broad edged nibs 
• Pointed nibs 

In this post, I'll introduce the Broad edged nibs :)

Broad edges nibs are usually for Italic, Gothic, Uncial, Roman fonts.
2mm - 3mm for Italic and 4mm for Gothic will be easy to figure out the curve and shape to start with.
Too narrow nib will not show you the exact movement and figure of the line.

Speed Ball C-type

Speed ball is nice brand for starters.
You need to take care of Reservoir (Ink container that you can see the top of nib) because if the water stays between the nib and reservoir, it will get rust and ruin your nib.
(Well, it is not easy to manage your nib to get rid of the Ink.... Good luck)

Brause Nibs

Brause is the Germany brand that established in 1850.
They started to produce the nibs since 1895 and now they are creating various kinds of carbon steel nibs over 400.
This nib is not flexible much as speedball, so if you have strong pressure during writing I recommend this pen than upper one.
Also, this pen's reservoir can be separate from the nib so much easier to clean up!

D. Leonardt Tape Nib

Similar to Brause nib, from United Kingdom. Embossed carving on reservoir of TAPE.
You can see the end of nib is cut little bit tilt different from other nibs and it helps your stable writing.

Michell Roundhand Nib

Also from United Kingdom, and the special thing of this pen is that you need to purchase the reservoir separate. If you are not writing looooooooooong script, it is not a necessary thing, but....
This is really flexible nib so you need time and skill to work on it.





I wish this post helped you guys little bit.
Thank you!

Parallel pen and satisfying arts!

Have you heard about 'Parallel pen'?
Parallel pen is from Pilot company which is similar to Rotring Art pen.
Unfortunately, I do not have this pen but I'm seriously considering about having one.

Have 4 possible size and color follows it. (Not the Ink color!)

The most popular size nib is 2.4mm for normal writing, but it's up to you what size pen do you want!

You can have a lots of variety with this pen.
According to angle of pen, you can pull out different thick of lines.
Even though this pen has flat nib, you are able to use to draw sharp edge.






This pen also provides the gradation effect!
(And that means you need at least two pens.... That was clever, Pilot...)




It will be better to show you guys about this pen with cool videos.
I just fell in love with this pen, and I hope you guys too!
Enjoy! :)