Calligraphy process

Charlie Stableford
Nov 4 · 4 min read

In school I was assigned a calligraphy project, in my typography course, that was pretty open ended as these things go. We were all allowed to take our own route and self define what our outcome would be. Tangents allowed and encouraged.

For me the process began by researching calligraphy. The differences between calligraphy, handwriting and cursive in a historical context. I wanted to be able to understand the practice of paleontology and what that meant for calligraphers.

I decided, upon my teachers recommendation and the recommendation of a podcast(calligraphy masters) that featured Paul Antonio, to head to the library. I sat and read and realized that this world was a lot bigger then I thought.

We had two weeks to come up with something that had an ending.

I had to start somewhere, as the end process had to something tangible. I began to do some hand lettering based on some class videos that Paul Antonio had put up on YouTube. I realized I was shaky and really had to start at the basics to get to somewhere that I would be okay with as an end project. I could hear Paul Antonio say, “this is wrong” and “this is unresolved”. He would be completely correct in this evaluation.

First attempt in a fountain pen for the line of beauty.

I moved forward even though I felt strongly that I should just be practicing this line for the next two weeks.

Thinking about spacing and structure moving forward

Each iteration of lettering I did I took notes on what was ‘good’, what was ‘bad’ and what I could improve upon.

I learnt about the overall shapes of letters and what they should be

Somewhere around this point I realized that again I had jumped too far ahead. That I wasn’t holding my pen right — and because of this couldn’t get the lines to do what I wanted. So I learnt how to position my pen, where to place my paper and how to hold myself and breathe while I was writing. This alone could have been my project.

The notes that I been taking in my book were small so I bought a larger piece of paper to blow up my text, drew out my grid and started again to practice the line of beauty.

line of beauty with a brush

This paper was more absorbent then I had hoped, which was a set back but ultimately I was going to more forward with it.

A complex A, drawing out the ellipses that are involved in the letter

After each letter I would draw out the ellipses to see if my form was anywhere close to what it should be. Paul had said in a class I listened in on that all shapes should be oval, as they are more beautiful then circles. With this knowledge I moved forward.

My overall program in school is Web Development/ Interactive design. So I always attempt to loop projects into other projects I am doing. In another class I am in the beginning stages of learning canvas. So I made a brush that imitated my fountain pen. I thought about adding some functionality for a time out for a dip pen, or a traditional pen, but maybe this will be another iteration.

Apart of the project was that we had to digitize the work that we were drawing by hand. Through this process I felt like the mediums really didn’t match, my hand wasn’t practiced enough to be making this jump. So I could practice with the little program I made.

The true shaky nature of my hand truly shines.

In the above screenshot I was using my mouse to try to draw some of the more basic letter forms. The impermanence of this felt different then the notebook I had been keeping. I wasn’t able to keep track of any progress that I had made, my movements were smaller and there was no bezier curve in my program so the jitters of the movement were very clear.

My conclusion of this project is that the process of this was more important then the outcome for me, because neither feels fully resolved — maybe more work on that in the future.

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