Learn the art of hand lettering & calligraphy

First of all you should determine if you want to learn hand lettering or calligraphy. 

These two terms are used interchangeably all over the internet but hand lettering and calligraphy are two very different things. Check out this article that will explain the difference between the two.

If you are more interested  hand lettering, drawing and illustrating the shapes of the letters, then you should start off by reading this article.

In case you want to learn more about calligraphy and the art of beautiful writing then you can start off with this article

The best way to get you started (regardless from your choice) is to start off by learning the fundamentals and to build your knowledge and skills from there. If you are a total beginner start with basic shapes, single letters and words, avoid jumping right on creating long quotes with complicated layouts and a bunch of different effects (like shades or 3D). Focus on the basics, and as you move forward you will start to expand your skills and knowledge.

It will take exactly 23 days and 15 hours.

Just joking, you can’t really put a number on that question. Honestly it all depends on you and on your attitude, but to make it a bit more clear let me put this in perspective. If you practice every single day for at least 20-30 minutes you will see a great progress even within a few weeks.

However, if you practice 2-3 times a week even for a few hours, the progress will be much slower. Consistency is always better than intensity – ALWAYS!  

Many will say that they are too busy and that it’s hard to find even 20 minutes every day, and in some cases that could be true.

But in many cases people are great at finding excuses and the bottom line is always the same – if you want it, you will do it!

Calligraphy is a broad term and it has many different styles. Asking what is the best calligraphy pen is kinda like asking what is the best ball for sports?

First of all we need to figure out what kind of calligraphy style you want to learn. 

Lucky for you, we wrote this comprehensive guide that will guide you through the most popular calligraphy style and it will give you the best recommendation for your choice!

We have a step by step guide that will teach you everything you need to know in order to get started.

We also included free downloadable practice sheets!

We know that this is something a lot of beginners are struggling with, however there isn’t a secret formula or a tip that will help you achieve this overnight. 

Developing your own unique style takes time and lots of practice, and it’s completely normal to not have one at the very beginning. However, there are a few things you can do in order to make more progress in less time. 

 1. Determine your interests. Do you want to focus more on hand lettering or calligraphy? Do you want to learn modern or traditional calligraphy? Do you want to focus more on complex layouts or single words? etc.

 2. Stick to it! Experimenting different styles and new tools is a great way of expanding your creativity and stepping out of your comfort zone. However, if you are constantly practicing new styles with different tools, your progress will be much slower. 

Try to work out a system where you keep practicing your favorite style and technique but that will also allow you to occasionally experiment different areas.

In this step by step tutorial you will learn the fundamentals about shading + 5 different ways you can add shadows to your artwork!

You bet!

So far we have two amazing step by step tutorials that will teach you everything you need to get started, and on top of that you can download the free practice sheets and start practicing right away!

1. Textura Quadrata tutorial
2. Fraktur calligraphy tutorial

Frayed brush pens, ink bleeds, these are just some of the issues you could face in case you are using the wrong type of paper.We covered this topic in depth and you can read more about it here