(Part 2) Top products from r/Calligraphy

You're gonna need to get an oblique holder as well.

For the love of god, don't get one of the plastic Speedball oblique holders. I know you can get them for like $2.00. But there's a reason for that. They're terrible. They don't fit many nibs, they don't have an adjustable flange, and they're flimsy and cheap.

I would very much suggest just going for one of these holders. Other people may have other recommendations for other inexpensive holders. The construction is better. The flange is metal, and adjustable. Which is essential.

You will need multiple nibs. They will break, but it's not super common. Pointed pen nibs (unlike broad-edge dip nibs) will wear out relatively quickly. It'll depend on how much use it gets, and the type of ink you're using (iron gall inks will corrode the nib, reducing how long it lasts). But a nib will typically last me 3-4 days before I have to replace it. Sometimes ~2 days if I'm writing all day. This also kinda depends on the script. Lightly shaded scripts will be better on your nib, while bold shades will wear it out.

IAMPETH will be your best resource for everything pointed pen. Here are some lessons in Engrosser's Script. Also, just check out anything and everything that Joe Vitolo has done. Here's some videos on the IAMPETH site. You can also just search on YouTube. He also has an ebook, Script in the Copperplate Style, which is probably the definitive contemporary work on Engrosser's Script. I'd very highly recommend it.

Of the lessons from the Old Masters, Lupfer would be a pretty good place to start. Also, if you'd like some variety, I personally love E L Brown. His Engrosser's has a slightly different flair to it. Couple unique letterforms and such.

Feel free to shoot me a reply or PM if you have further questions!

/u/albatrossd covered most of it, but I just wanted to add a few things from personal experience.

When grinding the ink, be patient. Don't use too much water or it will be unusable. Start with a few drops and move the stick of ink in circular motion. To be honest, I recomment buying bottled ink for chinese/japanese calligraphy, you can probably find some on amazon. Like this one. After you finish with a session, the ink will dry out, but the next time you use it, you can add a few drops of water and just grind it out again. That way you save a lot of ink compared to cleaning it every time.

For the first time you're using the brush, leave it in a cup of room temperature water for a few hours to a day. That will soften it up and allow you to actually write with it. The top one with yellow coloured tip is probably weasel hair and the bottom one is probably sheep. The sheep hair brush will be softer and easier to use imo so i'd start with that one.

Oh and you also need paper, i think this would work pretty well. And although not necessary, a mat like this can prevent ink from seeping onto your table.

I love chinese calligraphy, it's a great way to relax and meditate and takes your mind off everything else.

Based off of my own experience... see if you can find a physical shop instead. Ordering online is going to be somewhat iffy. Sets are almost always tourist traps with low-quality brushes and ink, made more to be seen than to be used. I would suggest buying the equipment separately and packaging them up yourself.

So! Actual stuff:

• Paper: Rice paper, full stop. Something like this would work - Japanese and Chinese calligraphy share tools, so it doesn't really matter if you use one or the other. Gridded paper would also be nice.
  
  
• Ink: Get black sumi ink, which should be available at art supply shops as well as online. I recommend the bottled stuff to begin with, because it's just so much less of a hassle than trying to get the appropriate level of thickness if you're grinding an inkstick. If you do decide to get an ink stick, be sure to get an ink stone as well. I prefer the rectangular ones, but that's personal preference. You add a little water on the deep end, then dip the end of your inkstick in the water and grind on the flat portion at the top until the ink is as thick as you want.
  
  
• Brush: I'd say a medium sized wolf or goat hair brush, like this one.
  
  
• Other nice things: something like this practice book might be nice. Look for water-based practice sheets - the idea is you write over it in water, let it dry, and then you can reuse it. From my brief look at the preview, this book looks decent and also has good reviews. I like its stroke-by-stroke breakdown with examples.
  
  One thing's for sure - if your boyfriend isn't already learning the language, it will kick his ass, because the writing system is just so different. If he's not learning the language, he will also be limited to whatever words come in the instruction book, because it's not like in alphabets where if you know all 26/52 symbols you can write what you want. Each character is unique, and though there's a standard stroke order, you have to just be able to recognise the character in order to write it.
  
  Learning Chinese calligraphy from written sources is going to be hard. If at all possible, see if your local area offers Chinese calligraphy classes for beginners. It really, really helps to have a teacher who can correct your brushwork. A lot of the expressiveness and beauty of Chinese calligraphy IMO comes from understanding what it is that you're writing, and how it should look proportionally, and these things are hard to understand just by reading.

Under $15:

• Calligraphy Marker - Good for people VERY new to calligraphy, easy to use, won't make amazing compositions.
  
  
• Pilot Parallel Pens - Good balance of looking/acting like an expensive pen and easy to use. If you get one of these, I would recommend the 3.8mm because the large size helps in learning the forms of each hand.
  
  Under $30:
  
  
• Speedball Dip Nibs/holders - This package has a diverse collection of nibs, which means many different sizes for about the price of a single parallel pen. Downsides include more maintaining/cleaning of each nib, unlike the almost maintenance-free parallel pen. Also, you will need to buy ink separately. Some good ink I've just gotten is parker.

I think I know what you mean. For broad edge, I'd suggest Michelle Brown's A Guide To Western Historical Manuscripts. I'm not sure what the answer is for pointed pen.

Brown's book is meant for paleographers (historians who read old manuscripts) not calligraphers, so it won't have anything like a ductus or comments on how to do the scripts inside. What it does have is a crap ton of scripts, laid out in high-quality full-page photos from the original manuscripts in a nice large format.

If you want instructions for how to do said scripts, I'd recommend The Historical Source Book for Scribes, by Brown (again) and Patricia Lovett, an accomplished calligrapher. This won't have quite the breadth you're after (it only has 14 scripts vs. 55 in Guide to Western historical manuscripts), but I think it's a valuable starting point to learning scripts from just a manuscript, as I talk about at length here (that comment also has some links to online libraries with extensive digitization projects; it takes some work to get what you want out of them, but once you do the selection and image quality is miles better than any book).

If you can't find an affordable copy of "historical source book" (the price seems to fluctuate wildly), Drogin's Medieval Calligraphy is not as good, but still a good starting point. And it's super cheap.

Also, I wouldn't recommend Harris' The Calligrapher's Bible. It's overdone in some areas and underdone in others, as I talk about here.

Sorry to link to my own replies so much, but I have a lot to say on this topic and I only have so much time to type :)

Sounds very frustrating, I have to admit. I must admit that mine have worked ok, but having read some reviews on Amazon, they can be a bit hit or miss.

The Pilot Parallel pens look like so much fun, and they are definitely on my (extensive!) wishlist. I think they are pretty pricey ($24.00) in comparison to a simple ink cartridge converter though (couple of dollars). But then you'd also have to buy a bottle of ink to fill it.

For years I have used Shaeffer pens for Calligraphy. These are a bit cheaper than Pilot, and always have excellent reviews. The only downside is that Shaeffer have their own cartridge system, so you're stuck buying their cartridges instead of the standard ones. (Although again, you could invest in a converter to use bottled ink, but these seem expensive).

Hope this helps. I'm not in the US, so I've used Amazon for general pricing.

I copy and paste this comment everytime someone asks this question but I think it's useful. Anyways, I went through a lot of trial and error in the process almost ruining my 1.5mm parallel pen. But I finally learned and I've had great success with J. Herbin ink and Winsor & Newton Calligraphy Ink. What I do is save the old cartridges that come with the parallels, including the little ball that rolls around and I refill them using these syringes. This was done using the J. Herbin ink linked above. Good paper is also key, so they don't bleed.

Nice, a cool uncle!

I would recommend either Zig calligraphy markers or a Pilot Parallel Pen. Both are cheap enough to mess around with while still being legitimate tools. I would definitely recommend broad edge over pointed pen because PP takes a lot of time and effort for good results and I know when I was 13 I would've just wanted fun things to mess around with.

The only thing is I would not recommend highlighters to practice with due to their angled chiseled tip. Most calligraphy markers have straight chiseled tips, like most real calligraphy tools I'm aware of.

Happy shopping!

I am penpals with someone who frequents this sub and asked him this very question in my last letter. He recommended the Pilot Parallel Pen with the 2.4mm ($8.61) or 3.8mm ($9.65) nib as a good place to start if I didn't want to go the dip pen and ink route. For the dip pen and ink route, he suggested the Speedball Calligraphy No. 5 Artist Set ($9.16) and some Noodler's Ink (as low as $12.50 on Amazon).

Best of luck! What a great gift!

Oh, isn't that wonderful! I have yet to do a study of that myself. To be honest I am a little afraid of spending too long in the Gothic hands as I fear I would have very little company in my local society—I've already made my wife a calligraphy widow, don't want to make my friends gothic widows/widowers to boot. :P

Pity about the Koch book; I'll keep my eyes peeled and let you know if I come across anything worth looking for. In the meanwhile I have lots to keep me busy between researching Romans and some books I received as late birthday presents—most notably The Book of Kells by Bernard Meehan and The Lindisfarne Gospels - A Masterpiece of Book Painting by Janet Backhouse (not to be confused with the larger _The Lindisfarne Gospels ... also by Janet Backhouse ... sigh) as well as Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Illuminated Manuscripts ... and I also got a (used) copy of Ann Camps "Pen Lettering" which is somewhat more of a beginner's book, but is still interesting and methodical.

I have a giant stack of books to read and never enough time to read them. :P

The nice thing about producing works of the same size with the intent of binding later is that you don't have to worry about the binding just yet. It's obviously going to be something relatively simple since you are not making folios or octavos or anything—you just need to find a bookbinding guild and meet someone that is willing to do it for you, or learn how to do it yourself. ;)

The book is called "Written Letters" by Jacqueline Svaren. My mom used to practice calligraphy back in the day, and her friend (who I think was a professional calligrapher) gave her that book. When she saw that I was learning calligraphy, she got excited and sent me a copy :)

It's a nice reference to have, with 33 different alphabets in it (though many are variations on the same alphabet, e.g, majuscule and minuscules are separate), covering ancient and modern (up through the '70s mostly) hands... plus some good tips and commentary. Worth picking up -- especially if you can get a deal on it.

After your suggestions my current amazon cart for her is:

Calligraphy: A Beginner's Guide to Pointed Pen and Brush Pen Lettering

Hand Lettering for Relaxation: An Inspirational Workbook for Creating Beautiful Lettered Art

Strathmore 300 Series Drawing Pad, Medium Surface, 9"x12" Glue Bound, 50 Sheets

Rhodia No.16 A5 6 x 8 1/4 80 Sheet, Dot Pad.

Tombow 56191 Advanced Lettering Set.

Pilot Parallel Pen 2-Color Calligraphy Pen Set, with Black and Red Ink Cartridges in 2.4mm Nib size and 3.8mm Nib size with extra 12 assorted colors cartridges and 12 black cartridges. I assume the cartridges are not dependent on nib size as that would be infuriatingly stupid. Only dependent on the brands pen circumference? Correct me if I am wrong on that.

Hopefully that's pretty comprehensive but as far as speedball goes these are the texts I've found:

Speedball Textbook 24th Edition for $8.67.

Speedball Textbook: For Pen and Brush Lettering, 20th Edition for $113.35.

The Speedball Textbook, a comprehensive Guide to Pen and Brush Lettering, 23rd, Twenth-Third Edition for $51.01 new.

Did you have a specific edition in mind? A lot of the ones I'm seeing on amazon vary greatly as shown above.

For me, books. There are a lot of paleographers and calligraphers who have devoted a lot of time analyzing historical manuscripts and tracing the lineage.

Some good ones:

Historical Scripts by Stan Knight

Medieval Calligraphy by Marc Drogin

The Historical Source Book for Scribes by Michelle P. Brown and Patricia Lovett

Those are just a few. There are plenty more good ones! Also, getting into script analysis yourself can be very helpful. Start looking through the manuscript section of the sidebar and making your own observations. It can be quite illuminating.

/u/GardenOfWelcomeLies recommended the Leonardt Round Hand Manuscript set and I have been very happy with it. I have never tried using FP ink with broad nibs so I can't be of much help there - I use gouache.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the book "Left-Handed Calligraphy." Being right-handed, I have never used it, but it has good reviews on Amazon. Perhaps it could prove useful to you.

Last week, I bought a Pilot Parallel 1.5mm (10$), refills of black ink (4$), and some non-related book to get the total to over 25$ for free shipping on amazon.ca. (I live in Quebec).

The Pilot Parallel is suggested for beginners in the wiki. I've been using it for two evenings, and I love it so far :).

I love Leonardt Roundhand nibs. I'd recommend the set if you must buy from Amazon.

I was recently told of Tomoe River Paper by another redditor and it is absolutely fantastic for absorbing ink! It’s very thin and smooth and I have yet to see ink feather or bleed through it. I would highly recommend!

Is it this one?
http://www.amazon.com/Bienfang-Inches-Calligraphic-Practice-R400145/dp/B001KZH2C8#immersive-view_1464159129178.

I think, from looking at the tiny square, that the line with the greatest height is the main part of the letter, with the ascenders and descenders in the shorter height lines.
The ascenders may be two short lines high, depends on the paper.

The angled lines are for the slant of your letters.

There are some printable examples and even a few programs that will allow you to create and print your own versions to customise slant and line width. (Get a printer that can use a bulk ink system...)

Lalalalaa

Changing from speedball C nibs to some manuscript round hand nib did wonders. I've still got many small mistakes and too little word spacing on line two, but it feels like I'm getting back into the game :)

Nib is 2.05mm and ink is Diamine Orange. Script is German Text.

Universal Penman - Here's a book that I'd recommend for some inspiration. It won't provide you with much in the way of instruction, but will definitely show you what can be done with the style you've shown.

Is that the Rhodia paper with the 5mm dots?

Edit: Like this? It's been on my wish list, considering buying some.

I use this paper, and I love it!

I was in your position a week ago and ordered this pen from amazon. I have really enjoyed it so far and its my first pen. You get 4 ink tubes, 3 nibs, and the pen for $10.

I started out with just a 2 mm Sharpie chisel tip pen that was only around $1.50 from a local craft store. I printed out a random calligraphy alphabet that I found online and tried to mimic that when I got bored in class. (You can see this alphabet, Chaucery Italic, influences my Gothic letters unfortunately, such as my 'i', which is supposed to have one minim, as /u/SMTRodent pointed out, but I make it with two as is done in Chaucery.)

I then picked up the Manuscript 5 nib set at the same craft store, and started this excerpt in my spare time about a week ago. I also browse this subreddit, and plan to actually practice now that summer is here! Hope this helped!

I think the 3.8mm is a good midground here. 6mm is bigger than you think.

There's a book by Vance Studley that does just that, called Left Handed Calligraphy. I personally didn't find it very helpful, as by the time I checked out the book I'd already read a lot about how to handle calligraphy left handed, but maybe something in it will speak to you.

> Is it a problem with something I'm doing, or just the paper?

Beginner here myself (like 2 months in) with a broad nib setup. I am using these nibs/holder and this ink. (I don't recommend the nibs but the ink works fine for practicing.) When I have the problem you described it is usually due to either too much ink on the nib or I forgot to clean the nib after last using it.

It is from Jackie Svaren's Written Letters.

Several inks by J Herbin do this.

All of this is my opinion as a complete beginner with my experience limited to the products I'm reviewing.

Daler Rowney India ink. I bought it since cheap, and at Wal-Mart. Just way too frustrating. I had the same problem as you. Gets crusty, too wet, and blobby. I bought their Watercolors though, I'm liking those.

This pen set They're...not good. A couple of the larger nibs just simply won't write at all. The smaller ones I have to press hard to get anything going. Or I have a very light touch naturally, I dunno. I'll be shopping around for some new nibs soon.

tomoe river loose sheets


Is this what you use?

No worries. I don't always trust wikipedia anyway:-)

According to Janet Backhouse's Lindisfarne Gospels four men are named in the colophon as contibutors: Eadfridth of Lindisfarne wrote it, one bound it, one provided gold ornaments, and Aldred provided the gloss.

I can recommend the previously quoted book as well as Michelle P. Brown's Painted Labyrinth.

I got these book at a ridiculously cheap price from amazon. I noticed the last book is still available at bottom price...