Harmony in Autumn

I can’t believe that a year has passed since my last Autumn post… where does the time go? So with only a few weeks left in November, I thought I’d better get cracking with a new piece of autumnal calligraphy, before winter sets in and I miss the boat!

Even though my main passion in life is for calligraphy, I love photography, and I get kind of snap-happy in Autumn. There is so much colour to capture at this time of the year. And I love to marry my two interests by using my photographs as backgrounds for my hand-lettering. I enjoy searching for that certain scene that will eventually lend itself to an appropriate quotation. I can’t think of a more satisfying way to create original artwork.

A professional photographer once shared a tip with me. He told me, “when you’re out walking, looking for subjects to photograph, every once in a while stop and look behind you. If you don’t, you never know what amazing shot you might miss.”

So, on a recent walk through Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park, I followed his advice. I stopped on the path, turned around, and couldn’t believe my eyes. There was Glasgow University Tower rising high above me, perfectly framed between the bare branches of surrounding trees. It couldn’t have been better positioned if I had asked it to pose for me. There were golden leaves everywhere, and the darkening sky just added to the mood. So I raised my camera, took the shot, and hoped for the best.

I later imported the snap into Photomatix, (HDR software) where I tweaked the controls to emphasise the autumn golds, and to make the sky heavier and more moody.

I then imported the snap into Photoshop, where I placed textured layers above it and altered their blending modes to “hue” and “soft light” to create a monotone effect, with emphasis on complementary shades of gold and brown.

The bottom third of the photograph was almost entirely free of foliage, making it the perfect place to position my hand-lettered autumn-related quotation. I used the colour-picker to sample the colour of some leaves on the right, and transferred the colour to the focal point, “harmony in autumn.” I coloured the remaining text in a more neutral shade, just to provide some much-needed relief to the vivid autumn colours that dominate the photograph.

See the finished piece at the head of this post.

I used a similar technique to manipulate the photograph featured above, that I took of Glasgow University while standing on a bridge over the River Kelvin. The only difference being that I applied a horizontal gradient effect to “watch the leaves turn,” in an effort to simulate the changing colour of leaves in autumn.

These images were a lot of fun to create, both calligraphically and photographically (and, of course, photoshopically), and I’m really pleased with how they turned out.

So, coming soon is my traditional “Winter” post. I must remember to stop and look behind me in the hope of discovering further serendipitous photo-opportunities… weather permitting!

Steve Jobs RIP

A couple of years ago, my son, David, a graphic designer, finally convinced me to switch from my ageing Windows PC to an Apple iMac. For a long time I had held out, fiercely resisting David’s attempts to alter my old-fashioned ways, but he eventually wore me down. So, in September 2009, still unconvinced of the benefits of making such a radical switch, I hesitantly splashed out on a shiny new Apple iMac… and I never looked back.

Having endured countless years of problematic computing on my PC, my new iMac was like a breath of fresh air. It brought fun and efficiency back into my working life. It was intuitive, and simple, and a joy to use. It was everything that my Windows PC was not. I became a convert, (a “fan boy,” my son teases), and have since added an iPod Nano and an iPad 2 to my Apple arsenal.

So I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Steve Jobs, the mastermind and visionary behind Apple. The genius who invented and developed these revolutionary products that have unexpectedly changed, and improved, my life.

I really liked Steve Jobs, even though I only knew him from watching his contribution to Apple’s occasional Keynote Presentations online. But there was something about the man… his passion, his charisma, his vision, that made me warm to him.

And I was fascinated by the fact that he championed the lettering arts. At his 2005 commencement address at Stanford (see YouTube video below), he mentioned his love for calligraphy, and spoke about its influence on him, stating, “If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.”

In the same speech he said, “Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus, every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.” 

It’s heartening to know that calligraphy played a part, however small, in the creation of Steve Jobs’ Apple empire. In designing his products, he always balanced science with craft, technology with tradition. Each product was simultaneously functional and beautiful, the essential characteristics of a fine calligraphic script.

On the day after Jobs’ death, it is estimated that 8,000,000 people viewed his Stanford commencement address video online. If even a tiny fraction of those people become more curious about calligraphy through Jobs’ relationship with the craft, it may help to create renewed interest in hand-lettering. If so, a revival in calligraphy would be a fitting tribute to a man who literally changed the world with his technological vision.

Surprisingly, I only learned about Steve Jobs’ love of calligraphy in recent months. Maybe if I had been more aware of our shared passion for the craft back in 2009, I would have been more of a pushover for my son, David, in his attempts to lure me away from my Windows PC and into the world of Apple. I’m glad that he continued to chip away at me, despite my resistance.

So thank you, David, for your perseverance in persuading an old dog to learn new tricks.

And thank you, Steve Jobs, for the unbelievable magic you have brought to my life, and to the lives of so many others. The future will be a much poorer place without your vision and your inspiration.

Envelope addressed using Pilot Parallel Pens

In my everyday role as a “serious” calligrapher, when addressing envelopes for weddings and corporate events I use regular dip nibs and waterproof ink to achieve a restrained, classic look. But occasionally, when I’m “off-duty,” I pull out my Pilot Parallel Pens, simply to put some fun back into my envelope-addressing.

I recently sent my daughter a letter, and used my Parallel Pens to address the envelope in a fun way. She liked the effect so much that I decided to address another envelope, creating the same effect with the same pens, to feature here (see main image above).

It’s quite simple to achieve this effect, and a great opportunity to use your calligraphy skills to brighten up your intended recipient’s day. Who wouldn’t want to receive an envelope that looked like this?

Here’s how I achieved the effect…

I started off by pencilling a slightly curved line across the envelope from left to right (a quick movement… nothing too precise) to act as the baseline for the large lettering. Keep the pencilled line quite low on the envelope, starting about three-quarters way down on the left. If preferred, a parallel pencil line can be drawn above to create an x-height.

I used my 6.00mm Parallel Pen, loaded with green ink, to speedily write the words “Sherlock Holmes.” But before starting to write, and at frequent intervals while writing, I transferred red ink from my 3.8mm pen into the 6.00mm pen by touching the two nibs together. Hold the pen that you intend to write with upside down, and feed ink into its nib from above. The longer the nibs touch, the more ink will be transferred, and so the gradation between colours will be longer. Although I used red and green inks together, Pilot offer a pack of “Mixable Colour cartridges” which includes 12 assorted colours. Some produce amazing gradated effects when mixed… others produce the colour of mud! It’s really down to trial and error, so experiment with different colours. If you load four Parallel Pens with four different coloured cartridges, you can mix them in various permutations to produce extreme gradated effects.

Another brilliant function of a Parallel Pen is that by tipping the nib onto its corner, a monoline can be produced, which is excellent for handwriting, drawing, or for producing extended hairlines in calligraphic lettering (all the hairlines in “Sherlock Holmes” above were created spontaneously, and on the fly.

After lettering “Sherlock Holmes” in a compressed Italic to fit the envelope’s width, I simply dotted each letter using a silver monoline gel pen to add some highlights.

I lettered the remainder of the address in Italics using a Manuscript broad nib to provide contrast in lettering size. I wrote with black ink so as not to dilute the colourful effect of the top line, or lessen its effect as a focal point. For consistency, and to tie the two elements of the composition together, I looped the “k” in the small lettering to echo the loop in the large “l” above.

Why did I choose to address the envelope to “Sherlock Holmes,” you might ask.

Well, while googling for an appropriate generic address to write, I discovered that 221b Baker Street, London, is the (allegedly) most famous address in the world, surpassing even 10 Downing Street and the White House in popularity. That’s the rather uninspiring reason for my choosing that particular address. More interesting is the fact that although the address of The Sherlock Holmes Museum is 221b Baker Street, London, the building is actually located between 237 and 241 Baker Street. So, now you know!

The elusive Parallel Pen Wizardry book

If you already own a set of Parallel Pens, or intend to treat yourself to a set, you should definitely consider purchasing the book “Parallel Pen Wizardry,” by Brenda Broadbent, which is devoted exclusively to the pens. If you can track a copy down, that is. For some reason the book is not widely available in the UK, although it can be purchased from stockists in the US. At time of writing John Neal Bookseller in US has available copies here, although international postage may be costly. The book consists of just 25 pages, but contains a lot of useful information & examples, and is a good companion to the pens.

It’s much easier to find the actual pens, which can be purchased at most High Street art stores for around £12.00 each. With four different sizes of pen available (1.5, 2.4, 3.8, and 6.00mm) the full set works out quite expensive if purchased individually. A more economical way is to purchase a set of the three smallest sized pens Pilot Parallel Pen Set of 3 at Amazon for just £19.95 + £1.99 p&p (at time of writing), then purchase the 6.00mm pen separately, if required.

One final note of warning. My first experience of Parallel Pens was very negative, as the ink bled and feathered to an extreme level. I gradually discovered that this was due, not to the Pilot cartridges or pens, but to the type of paper I was using. In my experience, Pilot Parallel pens are very particular about the type of medium onto which they will write sharply. Experiment with different papers. I have found that Navigator printer/copier paper works well for general practicing, and is not too expensive.

If you haven’t already done so, treat yourself to some Pilot Parallel Pens, and see how they put “FUN” back into your calligraphy.

And if you have any opinions about Pilot Parallel Pens (or addressing envelopes, or anything remotely calligraphic), I’d love you to leave a comment.

New nib sizes... 2.00mm, 3.00mm, 4.5mm and a hand-cut 1.00mm.

ADDENDUM

Tonight, a day after writing the above post, I discovered (purely by accident) some new additions to the Pilot Parallel Pen range. An online store called “Paper & Ink Arts” is offering a set of three Parallel Pens with nib sizes 2.00mm, 3.00mm and 4.5mm for $40.50 (American dollars). Remarkably, they are also offering an additional Parallel Pen with a hand-cut 1.00mm nib, for small lettering, which retails at $14.95 (American dollars).

About the 1.00mm nib, the website states, “NEW 1mm size – Just right for envelope work! We’ve had lots of requests for a smaller Parallel Pen and are happy to announce a 1mm pen, hand cut for us in the US by a master craftsman. Try this new size to give you more options with the terrific Parallel Pen design. (You will notice that your 1mm pen’s package was opened so that we could cut your nib and that we have marked your custom cut pen with its new size.) Comes with 1 red and 1 black cartridge and a bladder converter.”

Unfortunately, every single page on the “Paper & Ink Arts” online store has an identical URL, so it’s not possible to direct you straight to the relevant page. But you can access their website here, then type “Parallel Pens” into the search engine on the home page. On the resulting page, click “Parallel Pens.” On the next page, scroll down until you see the new nib sizes.

At present there doesn’t appear to be any UK stockists of these new nib sizes. But if, like me, you’re tempted to be the first kid on the block to own the new pens, it may be worth paying the international postage and waiting a week or two for them to arrive from the States. I’m sure they’ll be worth it (and just think of the kudos)!

Update: Thanks to Sergii, who commented that the 1.5, 2.4, 3.8, and 6.00mm pens are available for £8.99 each, including UK p&p at The Writing Desk.

University of Glasgow Library’s Special Collection of Medieval Manuscripts

On the Consolation of Philosophy, by Boethius, (photograph courtesy of University of Glasgow)

Today, I found myself in the privileged position of touching, and leafing through, eight medieval manuscripts, part of the Special Collection of the University of Glasgow Library. It felt strange, turning the pages of these wonderful ancient manuscripts as easily as I would turn the pages of a modern paperback… particularly when the manuscripts date as far back as the 10th century.

I knew that we were going to be shown some manuscripts, but I expected them to be inside glass cases, to be viewed from a safe distance. Imagine my surprise when we filed into a room to discover the eight manuscripts laid out on tables, and totally accessible. We took a seat and were treated to a fascinating account of each manuscript’s history by Mrs Julie Gardham, Senior Assistant Librarian, who made us all feel very welcome. Then, with one slight provision from Julie that we made sure our hands were clean (we checked – they were), she informed us that we could come forward and have a closer look at the manuscripts. She had even bookmarked pages of particular interest in each manuscript (although every single page I looked at was, in my mind, worthy of bookmarking!).

And so, along with Annie, Betty, Morag, Edith, & Veronica, five students from one of my recent calligraphy classes, I was able to study, at close hand, these amazing works of art, one of which is 1000 years old. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I am grateful to Annie for organising the visit, and to Julie for enlightening us on the history of each manuscript.

The photograph above shows two pages from “On the Consolation of Philosophy” by Boethius, my particular favourite of the manuscripts that we viewed.

Bible (Paris: 13th Century) Hepburn 1, (photograph courtesy of University of Glasgow)

My second favourite was a pocket-sized French bible (pictured left), dating back to the 13th century, which contained the tiniest calligraphic lettering I have ever seen. Standing only a few feet from the Bible, the pages looked like they were scored with a succession of irregular black lines. Only on closer inspection, did it become clear that the black lines were in fact rows of calligraphic text, the diminutive size of which had to be seen to be believed. Fortunately, a magnifying glass had been laid beside the bible for our convenience. On squinting through the magnifying glass I saw that, despite the letters being only a few millimetres tall, they featured incredible detail, and were complete with fine hairlines… a remarkable achievement considering that much of the lettering was probably produced by scribes working by candlelight. I must have said, “that’s unbelievable,” about thirty times in five minutes.

The eight manuscripts that we viewed are as follows (information supplied by University of Glasgow):

Cassiodorus: Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita (Southern Germany: c. 1150-1175) MS Hunter 217 (U.2.8)
Monastic manuscript (St Paul’s, Utrecht) with 15th century additions. Proto-Gothic script with interlace and inhabited initials.

Manuscript of Medical Writings (Southern Italy: early 10th Century) MS Hunter 404 (V.3.2)
Written in the characteristic Beneventan script of South Italy. With a number of penwork initials ornamented with heads, birds and fish. The drawings are heightened with the same red ink as is used in the headings, and were probably the work of the scribe.

Bede: Writings on the Calendar, etc (England, Durham: c. 1125-1150 ) MS Hunter 85 (T.4.2)
Written at the monastery of Durham by a number of scribes during the second quarter of the twelfth century, this manuscript is a compilation of several works. It is closely related to, and in part probably copied from, another manuscript still at Durham (Hunter 100).

Extract from Manuscript of Medical Writings, (photograph courtesy of University of Glasgow)

Bible (Paris: 13^th Century) Hepburn 1
Pocket sized, meant for private use. Closely written in a gothic script on fine vellum. The decoration and historiated initials were probably added at a later date from the script (possibly in Germany).

Boethius: On the Consolation of Philosophy (Italy: 1385) MS Hunter 374 (V.l.ll)
Written in an exquisite northern Italian hand, and signed in two places by the scribe Brother Amadeus, who possibly worked for Giangaleazzo Visconti. Each of the five books is introduced by a beautifully floreated and gilt initial.

Niccolo Sagundino & others: On the Death of Valerio Marcello (North-east Italy: 1463-) MS Hunter 201 (U.1.5)
Compilation of texts written in a beautiful humanistic book hand in about 1463; the decoration was added in the 1480s.

Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales (England: 1476) MS Hunter 197 (U.I.I)
Made by Geoffrey and Thomas Spirleng and completed in January 1476. Written on paper in an ordinary business hand, the manuscript is generously sized but the layout of the text is economical with no attempt at expensive decoration. Somewhat eccentrically ordered: two tales were missed out and had to be added in at the end, while two tales were inadvertently copied out twice.

Pattern book (Netherlands: 16^th century) S.M. 1161
Printed manual on the “arte of limming” (1573) bound with various manuscript designs for different alphabets, dating from 15th and 16th centuries.

Find out more about the University of Glasgow Library’s Special Collections here.

Calligraphy iPad app

I’d be the first to admit that my Italics in the above screenshot are pretty poor. But if you consider that I created each letter by sliding my fingertip directly across my iPad’s screen, I think there’s an excuse for my sloppy serifs and inconsistent spacing. Despite my embarrassment, you can click the image to magnify my poor penmanship. Or should that be poor fingermanship?

I was able to create this digital calligraphy courtesy of a newly released iPad app called “Calligraphy Art,” now available on the iPad app store. It’s intended as a digital instruction guide to learning calligraphy, but it has a few shortcomings in that respect (although all is not lost, as I will explain.)

More of my fingertip lettering. I think my Gothic is a slight improvement on my Italics, although the decorative flourishes are not fluid, and need some more practice (click to enlarge).

Being a calligraphy tutor, I was quite excited to discover the app, and purchased it purely out of curiosity. Having tested it for a few hours (it is quite addictive) I would suggest that it is definitely not a substitute for a good calligraphy manual or formal tuition. Some of the instructions on how to create strokes are definitely wrong (eg. see the instructions for creating an Italic “a” in the screenshot above). And it refers to “Italics” as “Foundational Italics” which is a contradiction as far as I’m concerned (unless anyone out there can enlighten me). But the one thing it has in its favour…it is FUN!

By simply touching the screen, you can instantly vary nib thickness, stroke texture, pen angle and “ink” colour. You can also choose a pointed nib for adding hairlines. You can use an “eraser” to rub out small mistakes, undo your previous stroke, or wipe the screen clean with a single click. You can also choose from a variety of backgrounds, including vellum and parchment, then email your calligraphic masterpiece to yourself or anyone you might want to impress.

When working with a normal calligraphy pen on paper, I tend to manipulate the nib angle constantly… flattening and steepening the nib to get a desired effect, and tipping it onto its corner to produce spontaneous hairlines. Frustratingly, but understandably, the app’s nib angle is rigid… so if you start with a 45 degree angle, you’re pretty much stuck with it till the end. But not everyone will regard this shortcoming to be a hinderance.

Although I created passable letters using my fingertip (producing calligraphic letters by this method offers the same precision as threading a needle while wearing boxing gloves), I expect a stylus would produce better results. Before you purchase the app, however, keep in mind that it is unlikely to improve your calligraphy skills, since working with pen on paper is the absolutely only way to learn the craft. But as a simple fun tool for creating “fancy writing” on the go, it’s definitely worth the £1.79 asking price.

So, in conclusion, as a guide to learning calligraphy the app really can’t be taken too seriously. But there’s no denying that it’s a fantastic achievement despite its shortcomings. And during those idle moments when a calligraphy pen and paper aren’t available, it’s a much more therapeutic use of the iPad than a game of “Angry Birds.”

If you own an iPad, and enjoy creating calligraphy, you should treat yourself to this app now. As long as you don’t expect to be transformed into a master scribe overnight, I’m confident you won’t be disappointed in what it has to offer.

Find out more about the Calligraphy Art app, including videos of the app in action, at the official Calligraphy Art blog.

Comments welcome.

Calligraphy with watercolour painting

My daughter, Lorraine, spent some time working in the Italian Dolomites a number of years ago. An accomplished artist, she created many watercolours of the scenery and plant-life surrounding the towns of Pedraces and Arraba. Speaking as someone who can’t paint to save himself, I’m delighted to have access to this source of original artwork that can act as backgrounds – and as inspiration – for my calligraphic compositions.

In the example above, I found an appropriate mountain-related quotation online at Brainy Quote, and wrote it in Italics using black ink. I then scanned the lettering and imported it into Adobe Photoshop, where I split it into four separate lines. I placed each line on its own transparent layer above the painted layer and moved them into position. I sampled the off-white border colour and applied an identical colour to the top two lines of lettering, which allowed the focal point “the mountain ahead” to merge seamlessly into the border along the bottom edge of the painting. I added a horizontal gradient to the third line of lettering to echo the brown-to-green colouring of the painted foreground directly above.

The result is a combined family effort that I’m really proud of, and I look forward to applying my hand-lettering to more of Lorraine’s fantastic watercolours in the future.

For those interested in the geographical detail, the painting features Marmolada, a mountain in northeastern Italy, and the highest mountain of the Dolomites (a section of the Alps).

A magical event

Last September I posted a piece of calligraphy that I created to celebrate Autumn. At the time I wrote, “now that I’ve covered Autumn, I feel committed to creating a further three pieces of artwork to complete the seasonal set. Watch out for Winter, Spring and Summer appearing sometime within the next 12 months.”

Famous last words!

The original photograph, before being cropped and texturised. Note the metal fence on the left side, that I removed using the clone tool in Photoshop.

I did take photographs during the heavy snowfall in November, with a view to using them as a background for my calligraphy, but somehow never got around to creating the “Winter” piece that I promised. Now that the crocus and daffodils are making their presence known, I have made a rather belated effort to get back on track. Especially since I have to start thinking about a “Spring” piece soon.

I took the original photograph of a row of trees in a local park, just after a particularly heavy snowfall, and imported it into Adobe Photoshop. I wrote out the quotation in Italics (using black ink), then scanned it, and incorporated it into the artwork. I coloured the lettering white and applied a subtle drop-shadow to it. I overlaid the photograph with a number of different textures that I tinkered with in layer blending mode. A few of the textures that I used are available from Kim Klassen Cafe, an excellent website to visit if, like me, you enjoy texturising your photographs.

Now I’m hoping that some inspiration for my “Spring” piece will come my way. Hopefully it won’t take till August to arrive.

EDIT, 9th March… woke up to find an unexpected dusting of snow outside this morning, so maybe I’m not so late with this post after all!

Calligraffiti

 

This morning, while browsing graphicdesignblog, I discovered a fascinating feature on Niels Shoe Meulman and his Calligraffiti website.

Calligraffiti, as you might expect, is a combination of calligraphy and graffiti. According to Meulman, it is “traditional handwriting with a metropolitan attitude.”

Although Meulman has been a graffiti artist since the eighties, he only began his Calligraffiti movement in 2007, and is currently working on exhibitions all around the world.

Very few calligraphers get the opportunity to practice their lettering on a brand new mercedes, but that’s exactly what Meulman does in the video below, where you can see his calligraffiti skills in action.

Working at a similar scale to calligrapher Denis Brown, Meulman applies calligraffiti to a wall in the following video.

In the following fascinating video, Meulman creates calligraphy in a more conventional manner, then throws in some calligraffiti for good measure.

Find out more about Meulman at his fantastic website Calligraffiti.

Left-handed calligraphy

In my role as calligraphy tutor, I frequently teach left-handed students. I am presently teaching two classes, and out of twenty-six students three are left-handed (normal ratio of left-handers to right-handers is around 10%, so 3 out of 26 is about right).

Having learned calligraphy the hard way, being almost completely self-taught, I would recommend that anyone (right and left-handers) who wants to learn the craft should attend an evening class. Books can tell you what to do, but there is no substitute for having a competent tutor demonstrate the numerous pen-strokes, and who can elaborate on calligraphic techniques and the characteristics of various alphabets.

I’m right-handed, so not being ambidextrous, it’s more difficult for me to teach calligraphy to a left-hander. Because of this I have found the book Left-handed Calligraphy by Vance Studley to be very useful… both to me and to my left-handed students… and I would definitely recommend it as an essential resource.

While reading online reviews of the book, I was dismayed to discover that one reviewer had awarded the book a single star out of a possible five, and had commented…

“What I wanted was a book that would have script styles suitable for a left-hander. Right-handed styles come out all wrong if they are done by a leftie as the broad and narrow strokes are all reversed. Money wasted.”

I totally disagree with this review. Contrary to the reviewer’s comments, there is no such thing as a dedicated “left-handed script style,” just as there are no dedicated right-handed script styles. That’s why the reviewer couldn’t find any such scripts in this book.

ALL calligraphic alphabets can be learned by both right and left-handers. It’s just a bit more difficult for a left-hander to achieve success. Although it’s no substitute for formal tuition, a book such as Left-handed Calligraphy will explain essential information such as how a left-hander should write with an oblique nib, and with their paper sloping. Calligraphy takes time to learn, and demands determination, patience and a lot of practice whether by a left or a right-hander. Success is not achieved overnight.

My single reservation about the book is that it is a wee bit old-fashioned in its presentation (the newest edition was published almost 20 years ago) but in a world dominated by right-handers, left-handed calligraphy books are thin on the ground. Therefore I would definitely recommend that left-handed incipient scribes grab a copy of this book while they can.

Buy a new copy of Left-handed Calligraphy on Amazon from just 83 pence + £2.75 p&p. Or read the first eleven pages on Google Books here before you buy.

For a list of left-handed calligraphy books and pens, visit Anythingleft-handed.co.uk.

Read the musings of a left-handed calligraphy student here.

Discover the many ways to write left-handed here.

Watch an interesting YouTube video called Writing Left-handed here.

And finally, anyone who thinks that calligraphy can’t be mastered by a left-hander should look at Gaynor Goffe’s work here. Simply amazing!

Free (and legal) calligraphy books download (3)

Within minutes of completing my previous post, I stumbled upon a link to Bill Hildebrandt’s book Calligraphic Flourishing: A New Approach to an Ancient Art.

For years I have been trying to find an affordable copy of this book. Currently, a used copy costs £125.72 on Amazon.co.uk, and $110.91 on Amazon.com. Not cheap for a used book, and way out of my price range.

So, imagine my delight when I found the first 32 pages of the book freely available to view here on Google Books. Okay, so it’s not strictly a “download”, and there are 85 pages that I can’t access, but at the current going rate, having free online access to over a third of the book will suit me just fine (viewed as a proportion of the inflated Amazon price, that’s around £40 worth of freebie!).

If there’s anyone out there who has an unwanted copy of Calligraphic Flourishing and would like to donate it to a good home, yours truly would be absolutely delighted to take it off their hands.

Pretty please!

You can access excerpts from many other calligraphy books on Google Books here, including:

An elegant hand: the golden age of American penmanship and calligraphy by WE Henning, P Melzer

Handwriting: the way to teach it by Rosemary Sassoon

Calligraphy A to Z by Stuart David

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Calligraphy by Jane Eldershaw

Calligraphy by Don Marsh

Artist and Alphabet: Twentieth Century Calligraphy and Letter Art in America by J Kelly and A Koeth

St John’s Bible: Psalms by Donald Jackson

Italic Letters: Calligraphy and Handwriting by I Dubay, B Getty

Being allowed access to the first twenty or thirty pages of these books is helpful in deciding what calligraphy book to buy next.

Just as long as it’s not in the same price bracket as a used copy of Calligraphic Flourishing!