Learning a new skill // Calligraphy

Following the inspirational and relevant presentation  from type designer and calligrapher Seb Lester, I looked in all the art stores and high street stationary shops to try and find some of the tools Seb had told us were good for beginners. I found a pen by a company called Manuscript which kept my interest going but the nibs that came with it were very small, I was looking for a pen with a good size nib around 3-4mm. One of the pens Seb suggested in the talk was the Parallel pen by Pilot. I could not find these in any local art stores but found some of the internet so I ordered 3 with different size nibs and  a box of black refill ink (and some fineliners to bump the price up to get free delivery) from Ken Bromley Art Supplies

 The three pens I ordered have width sizes of 2.4mm, 3.8mm and 6mm. They each came with a black and red ink cartridge, a nib cleaner and a converter to wash the pen unit.

 Also included in each pack was an information leaflet showing how to maintain the pens, how to do the gradient effect which the pens are capable of, and this sheet of alphabets showing the direction you should draw each individual line which is quite helpful.

Holding the pen at 90 degrees and drawing a line straight to the left or right gives a thin edge, and holding it 90 degrees and drawing a line straight down gives a fat edge. 

I tend to hold the pen between about 30 and 45 degrees when drawing, as you get nice bold lines going down to form stems and thinner lines for crossbars and other appropriate areas.

In a nearby art and craft store I found a useful book which had quite a lot of attractive alphabets which looked quite simple, I didn't have £12 for the book at the time so I took a few snapshots of things I liked and would help me gain a basic knowledge of calligraphic letterforms.

Here are some of my first attempts using the parallel pens. Looking at these I can see that for now I should focus only on letterforms and getting everything evenly spaced, layout and letterforms and forget about flourishes and fancy additions, once my letters are looking good I'll start to give that sort of stuff more attention. I will also try and use alphabets as reference more while I'm learning, as I looked at a couple then starting doing my own thing which is probably going to lead me down a creative road block.