hey guys I'm Torryn thanks for stopping
by my art channel today's video is
learning the basics of modern
calligraphy so we're going to start with
some practice brush strokes and then
I'll show you how to do the alphabet and
then a decorative alphabet and then how
you can put it together and then even
how to simulate it in case you don't
have a brush pen at hand so let's get
our supplies I'll tell you what they are
in a minute
and I hope you enjoy and learn some tips
to help you with your writing so let's
get started okay so first up the
supplies we're going to need are a pencil to
get you started and to practice with
choose the softest pencil that you have
I'm using a 4b pencil then you need a
ruler, a brush pen I'm using a Tombow fudenosuke
don't know if I'm saying
that right hopefully I am. a fineliner
which is just a uni pen 0.2 nib and then
some smooth paper I'm using my
sketchbook and it's very nice and smooth
so it's not going to destroy any of the
bristles on my newly bought brush pen
and now we can get started first let's
practice the basic strokes that form
each letter of the alphabet
so the first stroke that you see me
doing here is the upstroke you want to
use a diagonal motion and your hand
needs to be kept very soft so that you
get a thin upstroke this is found on
pretty much all letters so it's
definitely worth practicing it's all
about the pressure that you're applying
and now on the down strokes you want to
do a much harder pressure not too hard
don't break the pencil but just a very
strong pressure that causes a thicker
line and that's what gives you that
variation in the calligraphy now this
stroke is called the overturn so you're
going to use that soft pressure as you
go up in your stroke and then transition
over and down into your heavier down
stroke if you keep doing these over and
over that's when you get really used to
the motions and that's when your
calligraphy starts to really get
mastered so just do these as often as
you can and now I'm on to the under turn
which is just doing the same thing but
in Reverse so you're starting on your
down stroke much heavier and then
transitioning up into your soft upstroke
now we're moving on to the compound
curve that's when you're blending those
two motions together so starting soft
going up turning over and bringing a
harder stroke down and then turning over
again and transitioning into a soft
upstroke now we're on to the ovals now
these you want to start on the
right-hand side of your oval but only a
little bit down so it's not right at the
top of your oval and then you want to
bring your heavy stroke as you're moving
down so whenever you're moving your
pencil downwards it's going to be
applying more pressure whenever you're
going upwards in a stroke it's going to
be less pressure
so now I'm just going to show you how
I'm doing it with the brush pen so going
up in soft motions down in harder
motions
now once you've done all these strokes
you just keep practicing and practicing
until your hand feels warmed up and
ready to go confidently into moving on
to the letters onto the basic alphabet
so now we're just going to practice each
and every letter of the alphabet using
the strokes that we've just been
practicing what you'll see here is I'm
actually using my sketchbook
but I've lined up my paper in basically
four lines that are equal distance apart
giving you three spaces so you've got
the X height which is your letter range
in the middle and you've got the
ascending and the descending heights at
the both top and bottom lines so this is
just a guide for you to get used to how
far each letter comes up and drops down
below those X height lines so as you can
see here whenever I'm doing an upstroke
I'm using very light pressure and
whenever I roll into the down stroke I'm
increasing the pressure on the brush I'm
also holding my brush at like a 45
degree angle to the page that just helps
you get more control and it allows your
hand to evenly apply the pressure so
that you're not getting lumps and bumps
throughout your letters if you wanted to
practice this on a grid paper or pre
lined paper that would definitely be a
good idea but I actually wanted to do
this in my sketchbook just for filming
purposes but yeah if you're at home and
you've got lined paper or a grid paper
that would be the best option I think
when you're practicing so that you don't
need to spend the time lining up your
paper first now that I've done this
basic alphabet I'm going to show you how
it looks when you add a little bit more
flair to it on each individual letter so
here on the B I'm doing some extra
curves and rotations just making each
letter look a little bit fancier and
this is where you can really explore
your own personal tastes so I like
things looking a little bit more curly
and so you'll see me here doing that on
just about every letter
please don't forget that if you're
enjoying this video give it a thumbs up
down below and if you want to check out
how I use this calligraphy in my bullet
journal for February I'll link that down
in the description box below and then
hit that subscribe button so you can
stay up to date with all the videos that
I've release so once you've worked out
the entire alphabet and you found what
letters work for you in what styles
how many curls you've got how much
thickness you like then you can really
start playing around with actual words
you can try and link all these
techniques together to form words here
I'm showing you an example of little
phrase that I've created for these
purposes simple beautiful lettering so
this is something you can do at home
just choose something that has some
letters that you love to draw I don't
know if I'm the only one that likes
particular letters more than other
letters but this had a lot of my
favorites in it like s's and bees
now on to bounce lettering so we kept
the baseline of all our letters on the
same plane before following the same
line to get that very whimsical kind of
look happening in if you're going to do
a card or a poster you actually want to
bounce the lettering up from different
baseline heights so as you can see here
what I'm doing is continuing to write
the same way I was before but instead of
starting each letter at the same point
I'm just moving it up or down each time
to give it that kind of bouncing motion
you see this used a lot through
Instagram posters or if you were on
Pinterest looking at quotes in
calligraphy you'll see this a lot it
just gives it more of a effortless kind
of look to it so yeah I love to bounce
hence what I chose to write
and then I felt that I couldn't see it
enough so I just wanted to show you what
it would be like on a long word
so I've done a very decorative C here
and then I'm showing you the calligraphy
all on one level and then it's dropping
down for a few of the letters keeping
lots of curly lines making it feel very
decorative and you really get a sense of
that whimsical feeling I think anyway so
here I'm just pointing out how this is
almost done on a wavy base line instead
of keeping that straight line you see
how each of my letters kind of jumps up
from the original X height so you're
kind of compiling it in a way that looks
beautiful. (Simulate it/ Faux Calligraphy) Now it's time to simulate
calligraphy if you don't have a brush
pen or you're just not feeling confident
in it this is a really easy way to get
your text to look like calligraphy when
you're just using a fine liner so start
out writing your word as you would in a
calligraphy or cursive script using
those same letter formations that we did
in the beginning rounds and then you're
basically just on every down stroke
thickening it up so adding a second
stroke on every down stroke and then
filling that in with your fine liner so
as you can see here it's already
starting to look like real calligraphy
even though I started with one simple
line and I'm just thickening it up as I go
to be honest on most of my Bullet
Journals this is how I've done my text
for months because I never had a proper
brush pen and then I finally got my
tombow fudenosuke I hope I'm saying
that right I finally got that pen and it
just changed my life it made it so
much quicker like this simple word here
'Simple' took
a few minutes whereas the previous
one using the brush pen took a few
seconds so if you're willing to give up
that time and you don't want to have to
buy a brush pen then go for this it has
a great effect but otherwise using the
brush pen just saves you time and it
just feels nice it feels like you're
doing something real let me know which
kind of lettering is your favorite in
the comments below whether you like the
bounce or do you prefer to keep it more
basic so I hope you picked up some tips
today and figured out how you can get
your cursive or calligraphy hand
lettering to work for you if you did
find these tips helpful let me know in
the comments or if you have anything to
add
for other viewers then please let me
know and hopefully this is the first of
many in this series and I will see you
all again in my next video thanks for
watching bye
