r/Calligraphy

Materials:

'Midway the Magnificent' by Ferris Wheel Press
‘Carbon Black’ Ink by Platinum Pen Co
Copic Marker W5
Sealing Wax & Stamp
5”x7” 300gsm cardstock
8mm Pilot Parallel
3.0mm Pilot Parallel
Fountain Pen

From The Merchant of Venice

feedback greatly appreciated ! i just did 5 of each basic line on regular paper with a dollar store marker

I've always been obsessed with writing. Ever since I was a kid, I'd write whenever I got the chance. I spent a huge part of my childhood just filling notebooks with random words, sentences, doodles, literally anything. Even now, if there's a pen nearby, I instinctively start writing something. 😅

People have always complimented my handwriting, so I guess that helped too. I've also been fascinated by calligraphy for years. I'd watch countless YouTube Shorts and reels of people doing beautiful lettering, but I never actually tried it because I thought calligraphy was something incredibly difficult that required years of practice.

A few days ago I finally decided, "Why not just buy a proper pen and give it a shot?" So I bought a Tombow Fudenosuke.

Today is Day 4 of using it, and technically Day 4 of learning proper calligraphy. Because I've spent so many years writing, I already had pretty good pen control. I didn't really need to spend much time practicing the basic strokes. I tried them a couple of times, understood how the pressure worked, and just started writing.

These photos are my progress after less than a week, with no structured practice, just writing for fun whenever I feel like it. I'd genuinely love some honest feedback. What do you think?

I’ll title this one, “Paid in Full” I gotta practice my ovals and swells more.

It's going to be another stressful week at work staring Monday tomorrow... 😢

Might as well make productive use of what remains of the weekend.

I tried to maintain the picket fence look as much as possible.

As always, walnut ink and a brause banzug 1.5mm nib.

TwoWunFive with Pilot Parallel Pen 6.0mm and 3.8mm in black ✍️

Materials:

'Embers of Time' by Ferris Wheel Press
‘Carbon Black’ Ink by Platinum Pen Co
Copic N4 Marker
Sealing Wax & Stamp
5”x7” 300gsm cardstock
8mm Pilot Parallel
3.0mm Pilot Parallel
Fountain Pen

A4 copy paper, sumi ink, Leonardt Roundhand #1½, Speedball C-4

Alternate take: Midori A5 notebook, walnut ink, Leonardt Roundhand #2 and #3½

Spent a few hours too many trying to get warmed up and nail any passable take. Out of the takes that didn't end prematurely, the one on copy paper had a more interesting layout, but on a technical level it is still a rough draft. Oh well, I met my goal of ideating and executing within July 4 in both my time zone (in Asia) and US Eastern time.

It's not my best Rustica (and certainly not my best italic). I left the initial rough Q thinking "well, let's see how far I actually get." There are a lot of false starts. The end of the second italic line was an absolute disaster because someone kept texting me rapidly and I got distracted. I also don't usually write italic with the ascenders that extend rightward, which is why the "h" in "what" and the "l" in "gold" don't match.

I made another attempt at the same layout after this but a weird spot in the paper totally broke my top stroke of the F and I could not fix it. Rage. So then I decided to try a new batch of walnut ink I got in my Midori notebook. It's only A5 size so a bit limiting.

On the alternate version: My previous batch of walnut ink had precipitated out significantly (I had used a lot of it but then left it unused for over a year), so I forgot that walnut ink is supposed to be rather watery. The ink hotspots are due to (1) my being impatient at this point and just wanting to finish for the day, and (2) not being totally sure how the really wet ink spots would look when dry on this paper compared to my FP inks in more vibrant colors.

The Caroline is OK but a bit too bold; I should have switched to a #3 there. The serifs got worse as I went along and by the last word I even lost track of the slant, oops.

On the translation: I'm not a serious student of Latin or the classics, so I had Claude refine the translation, which I appreciate is not exact. "Human hearts" was a good way to make it more readable in modern English, as opposed to "mortal chests"

I was going for a coperplate type of script. I hope I at least got the vibe of it right as I usialy write gothic.

Anyone here play Total War Warhammer? 😊

Anyway, for the nib, I used a 1.5mm brause bandzug.

As for the ink -- a funny story. Long ago I bought a bottle of Private Reserve Ebony Brown. A month after using, it developed a noticeable olive tinge. As the months went by, the ink started turning green. Eventually it 'stabilized' into a nice dark green shade.