What is Copperplate Calligraphy?
In the last article, there was a small explanation as to what is Calligraphy and mention of the fact that there are various styles of Calligraphy. This article concerns with one of the most popular and widely practiced Calligraphy hand — Copperplate.
Copperplate Calligraphy originated back in seventeenth century from the English script writing style in Europe — “Roundhand”. At that time, the trade and business was on rise and all the work rose the level of education leading to education in penmanship. A lot of craftsmen by the start of eighteenth century started to take people under their wings for teaching the art of writing and then came the revolutionary technology of printing. This particular style of calligraphy is called Copperplate because in the early days, the scribe was used to be engraved on plates of Copper using a pointed pen tool by the engravers. The prints were then done on paper using these plates. The tools over time evolved and so did a few things in the style. For example, instead of the quilled feather, the writers have now switched to the nibs attaching them to holders. But the overall appearance is still the same and no amount of — development in the fonts, typing them on computer and printing — can replace the art that was developed so long ago and still is so beautiful. It is uniform throughout and takes a lot of patience and practice to understand the whole art.
The certain rules of Copperplate make what it is and how it looks, like the height, the angle, the width of the letters and the alternation of thin and thick strokes. The first and foremost rule states that while going from down to up, fine hairlines are produced when the pointed nib is just touching the paper and no pressure is applied to the nib. Shades (thick strokes) are produced when the scribe applies pressure to open the nib which is while coming from up to down.
There are certain tools that one cannot do without while doing Copperplate Calligraphy. There is a pen holder (usually oblique) in which the nib rests. The nib is a pointed one with flexible opening so that ink can flow out of it in various thicknesses. Then there is ink and to hold this ink, there are very small containers so that the calligrapher does not have to dip the nib in the whole bottle of ink every time the nib is out of ink.
My personal favourite thing about Copperplate is the uniformity in heights of the letterforms and the base line.The image below is an excellent way to show what all basic terminologies are there that one needs to know while doing Copperplate Calligraphy.
There is a base line upon which all the letters are made to sit. The waist line decides the height to which the small letters will go known as the x-height. So we can say that the x-height is the distance between base line and waist line. The first ascender line is for ending the long strokes of letters like b, d, f, h, k, l, p and t and similarly first descender lines for letters like f, g, j, p, q, y and z. The second ascender and descender lines are what comprise the boundaries out of which your letters cannot go, not even the capital ones. A few times, some letters cross the levels of first ascenders/descenders only to stop before the seconds.
All the letters in traditional Copperplate Calligraphy are strictly written at an angle of 55 degrees. The thin strokes going upwards are known as hairline (as thin as a hair ) and thick strokes coming downwards are called shade.
Once someone understands these basics, the need for an understanding on how to build the letters arise, and that’s where the details such as how to hold the pen, when to stress so that shades happen and when to just touch it on paper so that hairlines are drawn become essential. Everytime a stroke is made on paper in Copperplate, the nib needs to lifted. EVERY SINGLE TIME! The nib then touches the paper again to move forward and make the stroke. Every letter when formed consists of few strokes.
Thus, the start of a calligrapher’s journey usually happens with practicing the very basic strokes and then formation of letters leading to joining them to make words and further to sentences. The beauty is that it does not finish here. There comes the flourishing then and that is what sets calligraphy apart from the usual handwritten word. Please don’t get me wrong, calligraphy is also handwritten word but it is also a lot more than that. But those details are far from the reach of the scope of this article.
The material list, strokes, style and rules discussed here are just a glimpse into the world of Copperplate Calligraphy but good enough to get a head start. Go on, learn the art form, practice it and be a part of the community of artists practicing an art which is more than two centuries old!
P.S. There will be more articles on the topic in the future discussing more details, so watch out!
