Calligraphy and hand Lettering Guide and workbook for young Adult Beginners

By Pochael Bruce

Learn to draw beautiful shapes and letters by hand in just7 easy steps!

Are you looking for a fun way to destress and add some art into your routine?

Do you want to start a creative hobby that gives structure to your thoughts and feelings?

Do you want to master a creative skill without blowin

• Language: English
• Publisher: Suaho Print
• Release date: Aug 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781915666017

Book preview

Chapter 1: Calligraphy in the Digital Age

In today's society, where we have access to digital devices from what seems like birth, practicing writing by hand and lettering may seem like a moot point. Nowadays, it looks like there is no need to sit down and write by hand because we have our phones, laptops, and tablets to do this for us. There are even hundreds of fonts and apps you can use to help design numerous things. As technology advances, the validity and art of writing seems to have disappeared, but this is a false presumption. Writing by hand is still an essential tool for humans to express emotions and preserve and communicate throughout time and space. Remember that before the invention of technology, cellphones, and wifi, writing was the only way humans shared and preserved information. Without writing, we wouldn't have the information about the past that we have now.

Although you might be drawn to apps that digital artists use when it comes to learning calligraphy and different hand lettering styles, you have to remember that the skills you need to use these apps, first and foremost, come from your ability to write. Before we start learning the art of hand lettering and calligraphy, let's dive into the history of writing and then the multiple reasons you should consider learning calligraphy.

The Evolution of Writing

We have numerous fonts already preloaded on our phones and laptops alone without us even needing to do anything. Thousands of other fonts are ready to be downloaded, and even more are being created every year. But fonts and the writing we use today did not just come out of nothing. They came from somewhere, and we will explore that in this chapter.

The 26 letters that make up the English alphabet have a much longer history than you might think. Within the 26 letters we use in our daily lives, there are thousands of years worth of history and evolution behind them. As humans evolved, so did language. Hieroglyphs were some of the first forms of writing nearly 3000 years ago. Writing has grown and changed as things were added, and other practices were forgotten entirely. An example of this would be the abbreviations we use today, including TTYL, LOL, and ROFL. This is a recent evolution in the English language and is only one example of the many that have occurred during thousands of years.

Calligraphy is actually a very broad term as it does not only apply to the Western alphabet. Various cultures use calligraphy, including Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Arabic, Tibetan, and numerous other cultures. Depending on the culture, there are different methods used. However, this book will focus on western calligraphy applying to the Latin and English alphabets. This style of calligraphy was developed around 2000 years ago. When it comes to the history of calligraphy, five eras, excluding the modern area, were vital for developing the calligraphy that we know today. These five eras include the Roman Empire era, the Post-Roman era, the middle ages, the renaissance, and the baroque era.

The Roman Empire Era

Roman capitals were a fundamental basis for the Latin alphabet’s historical development, and essentially the way we communicate in writing today (Lettering Daily, 2019). During the Roman Empire era, the invention of the Roman capitals was vital to the evolution of calligraphy and is the most influential historical script of all the scripts invented by the Romans. The Roman capitals mimicked the finesse, precision, and geometry of the architecture at the time. Think about having your caps lock on and typing in Times New Roman font, and you are essentially writing with Roman capitals.

Roman capitals were not used regularly and were more reserved for legislation or other important documents. These letters would also be used on statues if they had inscriptions. The script that was used commonly was known as rustic capitals. These letters were much more simple to write. Letters written between family members or keeping track of stock are typical examples of how rustic capitals were used.

Post-Roman Era

Several hundred years after the Roman Empire Era, another very influential script was created during the second or third century AD. This script became known as uncial. The uncial script was a relatively simple and speedy script to write and is one of the first scripts used in early Christian texts. The ease and the speed at which people could write this text made it a go-to for copying manuscripts of the Bible.

This script was created to copy manuscripts and make the writing legible for the lower classes that might not be able to read highly fancy letters. This script allows the manuscript copiers to write fast and create as many copies as possible, as there were no photocopiers or printers. This script was created using fewer strokes than Roman capitals, making writing easier and faster.

The Middle Ages

The Roman Empire spread out across Europe, and along with their forces, they brought their language and the Roman alphabet, which influenced the alphabet that we use today. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Western Europe fell into the Dark Ages, but a new script was created: the Beneventan script as they reemerged.

The Beneventan script was first developed in southern Italy was heavily influenced by the Uncial script but incorporated connecting strokes or ligatures. This script was one of the longest used scripts in the history of our alphabet.

During the middle ages, several scripts were created and used. The Carolingian minuscule was one of the most essential scripts during this time period. Charlemagne was a ruler during the middle ages and assigned the Monk of York, Alcuin, to copy manuscripts and religious texts. Alcuin copied literature and science that dated back to the Greek and Roman eras. He was also his teacher and librarian.

Along with other scholars, Alcuin developed the Carolingian minuscule script that helped to streamline writing. The insular script was also created during the middle ages in Ireland and was influenced by roman scripts. The Book of Kells is one of the most well-known uses of insular scripts.

Europe being so large allowed for numerous influential scripts to be created. We have discussed three of them so far. There is one more popular script developed in Northern Europe during the 12th century called Gothic script. Gothic and gothic style scripts are some of the most common calligraphy styles still used today. Gothic scripts are thick, angular, and straight, while the Carolingian script is more rounded. Common fonts influenced by gothic scripts include textura presciscus, textura quadrata, batarde, rotunda, and fraktur.

The Renaissance Period

The Gothic text was formed in Northern Europe, but it eventually made its way to Italy, where it was criticized for being impractical. The criticism that the Gothic text led to the creation of the Humanist minuscule, which was also influenced by the Carolingian script. The Humanist minuscule is one of the most prominent scripts that defined Western scripts. When comparing the humanist minuscule script to the fonts we use today, it looks the most like Times New Roman, with a few minor changes.

During the Renaissance period, what we know as italics or the cancellaresca script, was also created. This italic script was created to increase the writing speed as it allowed someone to write in a few strokes and allowed for some letters to be connected. The cancellaresca script is the basis of what we know as cursive as it started to connect letters to speed up how quickly we can write.

The Baroque Era

After the renaissance period, the creation of the script English Roundhand was created and started to spread across the world, and the British Mercantile Trade started to expand. Many merchant documents would use this script, and the names of companies on boxes or engravings would use this script. Copperplates refer to the engravings on copper that were written in English Roundhand. These copper plates would then be used for printing samples.

In 19th century America, the Spencerian script was created by Platt Rogers Spencer. This script gained popularity because of its functionality and beauty. The Spencerian script was used for nearly 100 years until the invention of the typewriter.

Fun fact: Did you know that one of the most iconic logotypes of the world, Coca-Cola, was inspired by Spencerian script?!

Scripts in the Modern Era

The modern era started in the 20th century, and there have been numerous changes and re-emergences of different scripts. Modern calligraphy was pioneered by Edward Johnston and Rudolf Koch.

Foundational hand or script is one of the closest adaptations of Carolingian script. When you think about the iconic letters we have today, they use the foundational hand.

The Neuland capitals are another creation of Rudolf Koch and are still used today for many logos because they are bold and very easy to read on a large-scale level.

Fun fact: The Jurassic Park logo used Neuland capitals.

Calligraphy during the modern-day is really a reworking of numerous styles used throughout human history. Depending on the type of tool you use, whether this is a brush pen, pointed nib, a broad nib, or narrow nib, is going to affect the style you are using, and you can develop your own style based on any of the ones we mentioned or other fonts you have encountered.

Why You Should Learn Calligraphy

To start picking up a pen or pencil and learning calligraphy, you do not need to have an extensive reason. The only reason you need to start learning is that you want to. You don't need to have a logical explanation of how you will use your calligraphy skills in your life or how they will make your life better. You just need to want to learn, and that is enough. As you learn and start to explore hand lettering