Getting ready for your first workshop
Now that you have your pen and paper you need to get some ink down on that paper to feel like a real calligrapher. Oh the seduction of pen and ink gliding over paper!
Make some marks with your pen.
Try diagonal, horizontal, vertical, circles, wavy and zig zag.
Make the thinnest strokes you can, now the thickest.
Repeat them going slowly and carefully. If you have any crumbly edges, the whole width of the nib is not on the paper. You are leaning on one edge or the other. Having the whole width of the nib evenly on the paper is very important. Try the strokes again.
Not feeling it yet?
Are you holding the pen right? Hold it between your thumb and index finger with the barrel resting on the base of your index finger. The pen may be more upright than you’re used to.
Do the pen strokes shown in this downloadable PDF. Click here.
It is highly recommended that you try these before the workshop.
You can download copy of the guidelines for more practice here.
You’ll probably find that your first attempts are a bit shaky and that they lean this way and that, and that the curves have ugly bumps in them. Don’t be discouraged! We’ve all been there!
Come along to the workshop and enjoy yourself. We all love letters and playing with ink and colour and paper. It is a great chance to turn off the ‘usual’ and devote some time to art and learning something new.
