Learn Calligraphy

In an age of myriad computer fonts and instant communication, your handwriting style is increasingly a very personal creation. In this book, Margaret Shepherd, America's premier calligrapher, shows you that calligraphy is not simply a craft you can learn, but an elegant art form that you can make your own. Calligraphy remains perennially popular, often adorning wedding invitations, diplomas, and commercial signs. Whether it is Roman, Gothic, Celtic, Bookhand, or Italic style, calligraphy conveys class and elegance. Margaret Shepherd makes this ancient art form accessible in a completely hand-lettered technical guide that will: * Provide context for calligraphy as an art, exploring the rich tradition of hand-lettering and mapping the evolution of the most popular styles. * Give detailed technical advice on choosing pens, paper, and inks, setting up your workspace, mastering various pen angles, along with step-by-step illustrations to guide you as you practice. * Explain which alphabets are appropriate for different forms of writing. For example, the Roman alphabet works well for short, unpunctuated passages, while the Italic alphabet is more suited to informal everyday communication. * Encourage you to personalize your lettering by using variant strokes and interpreting how you would like the words to look on the page. * Inspire you with carefully chosen illustrations and examples, which bring letters to life. In Margaret Shepherd's own words, "Calligraphy trains not only your eye and hand, but your mind as well." Learn Calligraphy is the authoritative primer for this age-old craft, and will help develop a new appreciation for lettering as you discover your creative personality.

Mastering Modern Calligraphy is a comprehensive guide to taking your pointed pen calligraphy skills to the next level and developing your very own modern style. Following up and building on Molly’s popular beginner's guide, Modern Calligraphy, Mastering Modern Calligraphy is the perfect companion for pointed pen and digital calligraphers alike. It is aimed at those with some calligraphy experience, presenting more than 2,700 letterforms and ligatures, targeted exercises, stroke drills, flourishes, and phrases, which emphasize experimentation and fun, rather than rigid uniformity. This beautiful, in-depth guide to modern calligraphy emphasizes experimentation and fun, rather than rigid uniformity. With targeted exercises and lessons aimed at pushing you out of your calligraphy comfort zone, Mastering Modern Calligraphy will not only help you master tricks of the trade, but develop your very own modern calligraphy style, too.

For school, for art classes, for fun: this kid-friendly guide to the art of beautiful writing will be a hit anywhere. From the tools to the techniques to the fantastic projects, everything has been chosen specifically for children. Youngsters can use special, colorful, felt-tipped pens called chisel-edged markers to produce great-looking letters. The guidelines make it easier to get good results. Attractive pages, filled with brightly colored examples, get kids started with simple zigzags and then move on to small and large italics, gothic lettering, uncial, and Roman calligraphy. Children will enjoy using their new skills to write down favorite poems, fashion border designs, and create greeting cards and invitations.

A perfect gift for anyone who wants to learn the "write" way to craft calligraphy. Calligraphy is about creating something uniquely beautiful, whether to celebrate a special occasion like marriage or to use every day in the form of stationery. Author Molly Suber Thorpe, an award-winning wedding invitation designer and calligrapher based in Los Angeles, works closely with her international clients to give them the distinctive products they're looking for. In Modern Calligraphy, you can learn from this experienced expert how to master this fresh modern lettering style. The first book to teach this bold new style breaks the calligraphy process down into simple steps so anyone can learn to create their own stunning wedding invitations, thank you cards, gift tags, and more. Starting with an overview of the supplies—from paper to ink to pens—you will learn how to form letters, words, and then phrases by following Molly's clear step-by-step instructions, and by practicing with the provided templates. After mastering letter forms using a pointed pen and ink you can take it to the next level by learning how to use watercolor and gouache, or how to digitize your calligraphy. The twenty projects in the book provide lots of inspiration for making your own and are grouped into three sections: weddings, entertainment, and personal stationery. With loads of ideas, practice exercises, and helpful tips, soon you will be turning out gorgeous script calligraphy pieces like the ones featured in wedding magazines and popular websites like Pinterest.

With just a few strokes of a calligraphy pen, London-based designer and illustrator Andrew Fox can help you to create a fun series of minimalistic nature drawings. From acorns, beetles, daffodils, and hedgehogs to snowflakes and clouds the drawings in this book are simple to create and easily recognizable. In Learn to Draw CalligraphyNature, each design effortlessly becomes a unique drawing that you can use on greeting cards, posters, gifts, and more. --Publisher

Practical guide teaches elegant 18th-century writing style. Each letterform demonstrated stroke by stroke with clear explanation. Write quotations, poems, invitations, more. Numerous black-and-white illus. Bibliography.

Create beautiful lettering projects, quotes, birthday cards, and more once you’ve learned the basics of hand lettering from artist Sarah Ensign. Have you always wanted to learn the secrets to create stunning letter art? Now you can! This book takes you through different hand lettering styles such as faux calligraphy, brush pen lettering, and creating basic font styles such as monoline, elegant, and brush pen scripts. Sarah Ensign, author and influencer shares this fascinating craft with you through pages of colorful examples and worksheets that allow you to practice what you’ve learned. She also shares practical tips on supplies such as pen and paper, creating beautiful fonts, and master tricky connections, and planning layouts for quotes. Simple Techniques and Endless Possibilities In this colorful, hardcover book, you’ll find hands-on lettering worksheets and step-by-step guides that will quickly build your confidence. Explore your creativity with this fun, creative craft. Hand lettering for Beginners has a fun, non-intimidating approach to guiding readers through hand lettering techniques and possibilities. This book will start a fascinating hobby that will allow you to grow your hand lettering skills and create your own unique projects.

In this beautiful and extraordinary zen calligraphy book, Shozo Sato, an internationally recognized master of traditional Zen arts, teaches the art of Japanese calligraphy through the power and wisdom of Zen poetry. Single-line Zen Buddhist koan aphorisms, or zengo, are one of the most common subjects for the traditional Japanese brush calligraphy known as shodo. Regarded as one of the key disciplines in fostering the focused, meditative state of mind so essential to Zen, shodo calligraphy is practiced regularly by all students of Zen Buddhism in Japan. After providing a brief history of Japanese calligraphy and its close relationship with the teachings of Zen Buddhism, Sato explains the basic supplies and fundamental brushstroke skills that you'll need. He goes on to present thirty zengo, each featuring: An example by a skilled Zen monk or master calligrapher An explanation of the individual characters and the Zen koan as a whole Step-by-step instructions on how to paint the phrase in a number of styles (Kaisho, Gyosho, Sosho) A stunning volume on the intersection of Japanese aesthetics and Zen Buddhist thought, Shodo: The Quiet Art of Japanese Zen Calligraphy guides beginning and advanced students alike to a deeper understanding of the unique brush painting art form of shodo calligraphy. Shodo calligraphy topics include: The Art of Kanji The Four Treasures of Shodo Ideogram Zengo Students of Shodo