Amazing Story Club

Calligraphy

 I recently started learning calligraphy – the art of fine writing –and it is indeed very interesting! The skill and beauty with which my teacher wrote made me even more eager to learn it. It was beautiful, just as if it were a printout. Now I am learning how to write just as he does. 
       We began with simple curvy strokes with a
calligraphy pen, which has a nib that is flat-tipped
and cut at an angle. The points or nibs of the
calligraphy pens vary in size for the thickness and
thinness of the lines.  We use drawing ink, although my teacher says ordinary ink will also do to start with. There are also special inks for calligraphy and they come in different colours (some kids in my class had purple ink).  The strokes came nice and smoothly and soon I was doing it easily. I did a page full of the curvy scribbles and at the end of that stroke, I
found it easier to manage my pen and I was very
comfortable with it.  The second strokes were just short, straight, fat lines that had to be very close to each other. The important thing about the stroke is that it has to be at an oblique angle at the top and with good reason, as I found out later. The flat tip of the nib has to be fully in contact with the paper, with the pen held
almost vertically to the paper. A stroke down gives a thick line and a horizontal stroke gives a thin line. Letters and words are a combination of thin and thick lines and curves.
The third was a combination of strokes – short
vertical lines with small slanting lines at the top
and bottom. By holding the nib of the pen at different angles, I could form letters of my own.
I was eager to know more about calligraphy, so I went through a few books on it. I learnt that calligraphy started individually in both the eastern (Europe) and the western (Asia) parts of the world. The calligraphy  styles in China, Arab and India are known for their great beauty. Some western calligraphic styles are Uncial, Chancery cursive (italic) Round hand script, Formal italic, Simple roman, Half uncials, Carolmgran, Gothic black letter and Versals. I also learnt about
the different pens and nibs that can be used: there are particular types of nibs such as copperplate, speedball, and round hand nibs. Fountain pens, felt-tip pens, reed pens and rotring pens are some other writing tools. The paper you are going to work on must be smooth. There are water proof and non-waterproof inks that come in a wide range of colours.
        I also learnt that it is not easy to master
some calligraphy scripts: some styles take years to master, while some others are very easy. I also learnt that the oldest tool used for calligraphy is the quill (mostly made of goose or turkey feathers). I am very eager to know more about calligraphy as it has many, many uses in the decorative mind – You can use it to enliven any cards or school assignments or scrap books
or pictures… the list goes on and on. It is a lot of
fun learning calligraphy and I am very glad I know
more about it.

(P.S: From all the books I went through, I found out
that some styles of calligraphy are quite difficult to
understand very well because of all the curves and
twists, but they still made a lovely display.)

Source: 

 1. The New Book of Knowledge-H,Handwriting,Scholastic,
2005.
2. The Art of Calligraphy, David Harris, DK, New York,
1995.
3. The Calligraphy Book, Peter Grislis, Scholastic,
1988.
4. The Visual Dictionary, Chapter-The visual arts, DK.