As a beginner at calligraphy, I’ve always found calligraphy to be beautiful art. Lucky, my handwriting is good to begin with but I never attempted at calligraphy professionals until this moment. As a creative designer, I practiced typography, handwriting, and lettering especially the freestyle. It truly helped my creative mind work faster and better. And from practicing all of that accumulatively, improved my handwriting in general. I never found myself writing in an organized and clear way ever before. When I first write I don’t notice such details but when I get back to my notes later, I get surprised!
There are tones of books on calligraphy, typography, and lettering but I will post the ones I used at the end of this post.
Since most of my writings are in English, it’s easier to practice English calligraphy than Arabic calligraphy. Still, I’m determined to learn both mostly as a hobby and interest. It’s important to learn the skills related to a creative business even if I end up failing at calligraphy for instance, it’s worth learning and gaining knowledge about it. Also, if you plan on being a professional hand letterer or a calligrapher, it’s essential to learn the skill related to it.
For years, I saw the Gothic writing and was amazed! I love challenging myself a lot, which is why I’m learning it. The other reason is that learning such a difficult art, will make it easy to learn other types of art. It may be energy and time consuming but if you’re dedicated enough you will pass. A lot of times we wish and work half-heartedly but when we work harder we make great achievements.
There are several calligraphy tools you need in order to practice. The basic one is a calligraphy pen and there are several sizes. I worked with an Arabic calligraphy pen at first and then got other calligraphy markers. Each marker is good for a specific type of script. Fountain pens are best for script italic calligraphy. Calligraphy pens are good for other types of script calligraphy/writing. Below is a photograph of the tools I currently have:
And here are the resources:
- Lettering & Type by Willen and Strals
- The Complete Guide to Calligraphy by Oceana
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Anwaar 